First Hand Workshop: Building Watches, Building Stories

The first time you install a balance bridge and your movement starts running on its own, you’ll feel something.

Watchmakers call it “bringing the movement to life,” and I think you’ll remember the moment. Taking a tray of tiny parts and turning it into a working Swiss movement in less than two hours is something worth remembering.

It’s for that moment and that feeling that we designed First Hand.

You may not need another watch. But you could probably use another memory. And the experience of building a Swiss mechanical watch with your own hands is something very, very few people have done. Even if you own a hundred watches, this one will feel different.

First Hand is currently sold out through summer. Join Priority Access to be first to hear when new dates drop, plus last-minute openings.

Quick Details

Location: Hampden HQ, Chicago
Duration: ~6 hours (includes lunch)
Class size: 6 seats
You’ll do: build a Swiss mechanical movement, case it, regulate it, water test it
You’ll leave with: the watch you built, on your wrist

Where this started

Back in the middle of Covid, my son and I began talking seriously about relaunching the Hampden brand to consumers. We have been assembling watches continuously in Chicago since 1922, but for the last two decades we have produced mostly private-label watches.

I knew I wanted our watches to be engravable, because I’ve seen firsthand how an engraving transforms a watch into something precious. Most watch brands are about the brand. I wanted Hampden watches to be about the wearer.

About a year ago we asked a different question: what if the watch wasn’t just engraved with your story, but became part of your story? What if you built it?

So we designed the class. Then we began workshopping the class. We changed the curriculum a half dozen times. We chose binocular microscopes over watchmaking loupes. We chose factory equipment over hobbyist tools. Our goal was to make the experience as easy as possible. And as you know, making something easy is quite hard.

There are brands in the US that show you how to disassemble and assemble a movement (often only half the movement). But none that we know of that gives you the full experience of taking that same movement and turning it into a watch you wear home.

You may own a dozen watches. You may own a hundred watches. But you probably don’t own a watch that you put together from scratch with your own hands.

The movement (and the problem it created)

For our first class, we chose the Unitas/ETA 6497/6498 family of movements. This is the movement that everyone learns on, because it’s big, simple, and manual wind. It is also the best movement to learn theory on, since there are no extra functions and no extra parts. It’s a workhorse and has been around since about 1950. At one point or another, just about every watch company has used it.

But it’s big. Most watches that use this movement are 44mm or larger. That’s a big watch. I don’t have a big wrist, and I’m not interested in building a workshop experience where half the room is thinking, I love this, but I’ll never wear it.

So we worked hard to fit the movement into a 42mm Model 1-style case.

The classroom (and why loupes are not a beginner-friendly tool)

Initially, we planned the class around traditional teaching. We bought watchmaking benches and watchmakers’ loupes. Early on, though, we realized the loupe was a problem. If you’re not already comfortable with an eye loupe, it becomes a struggle and a distraction.

Our goal was not to show you how hard this is, but how doable it is. Frustration level low, fun level high.

So we switched to microscopes. That sounds like an easy improvement until you learn the hard part: most microscopes don’t give you enough working distance to use watchmaking tools.

So we modified the optics with lenses that allowed us increased working distance. Then we outfitted the workshop with the tools a production shop would use. The goal was never to make it fancy. The goal was to make it possible for beginners to succeed.

The cohort

People sign up because they want to build a watch. But what they talk about afterward is often the group.

We keep classes small: six people at benches, working through the same steps, hitting the same snags, learning the same techniques. It turns out that’s a pretty good recipe for camaraderie.

Someone figures out a step and quietly shows the person next to them. Someone lends a tool. Someone says, “Don’t do what I just did,” which is honestly one of the more generous phrases in the English language.

By the time we serve lunch, it’s normal for the room to feel like it’s been together longer than a few hours. People compare backgrounds, why they signed up, what got them curious about watches in the first place. It’s what happens when you put people in a room and give them something difficult and satisfying to do together.

Want first access to the next dates? First Hand is sold out through summer. Join Priority Access for new date drops and last-minute openings.

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What participants are saying

(I’m including these because the pattern surprised me: people don’t just like the watch. They love the day.)

“This class was truly the highlight of our trip — we were treated first class from start to finish.”

“Technical yet achievable for all.”

“The level of thoughtfulness and attention to detail… creates an unforgettable memory.”

“Leaving with a watch that you build is a gratifying experience.”

Father-son. Husband-wife. And now, three generations.

The workshop is turning into a great shared experience. We’ve had brothers, fathers and sons, spouses.

We’ve had a family buy out a class. We’ve had work teams buy out classes. Making memories while making watches.

We expect more husband-and-wife couples once we launch our 37mm watch experience later in the year. We are currently developing a class with a modern Swiss automatic calendar movement. As far as we know, nobody teaches this. It will allow us to teach a more complicated movement, and one that can be used in a woman’s sized watch.

Trial and error

Before we launched our workshop, we tested the curriculum on friends and family for a year. Our first guinea pig class was a wonderful failure. Four students started, and only one left with a working watch.

We began understanding the little mistakes a new student can make, and that day taught us something obvious in hindsight: if you make a mistake early, you don’t always find out until later. And “later” might mean after the entire movement has been assembled and must now be disassembled to fix the error.

So we added testing checkpoints throughout the build. We catch problems when they’re small and fix them immediately.

We also learned which parts have an aviation fantasy. Some absolutely want to take flight.

There is a spring on the dial side of the movement called a yoke spring. It is small, energetic, and has no interest in staying where you put it. Early on, we lost an average of one yoke spring per student.

So we developed a technique for that step that dramatically reduces yoke spring losses. Teaching watchmaking is as much teaching technique as it is teaching components. Without technique, certain steps are a struggle. It turns out that having the right tools and the right technique is all it takes for an easy and fun experience.

The day

You should arrive at 9:30am. The gallery tour will begin at 9:40am, and we will be seated at our benches in the workshop to begin promptly at 10:00am. First order of business is hot homemade scones and biscuits.

The rough agenda is:

Gallery tour, then we get seated at the benches (scones and biscuits included)
How a mechanical movement works + tools and technique
Guided disassembly
Guided assembly (this is where the movement comes to life)
Lunch while we quality-check your work
Dialing, hand setting, casing, timing, and water testing (in pairs)
Recap, wrist shots, questions, and Scotch

Every watch has an exhibition caseback, so you can see the movement whenever you wind it. And we engrave your initials and the year on the movement, a reminder that you built this watch yourself.

Ready to do it?

First Hand is sold out through summer. Join Priority Access to get first notice when new dates drop (plus last-minute openings).

Get Priority Access →

What's next

We’re proud of what First Hand is today, and we’re already working on new classes.

Expanded designs. We’re expanding our exclusive dial assortment so students have more distinctive styles to choose from when they build with us.

New movements. The 6498 movement we are currently using is the best movement for teaching and the best movement for understanding. But the resulting watch is larger than most women and many men will want.

Later this year, we will launch a new class taught around the Sellita SW200 movement (identical to the ETA 2824). This is a modern 3-hand automatic movement with calendar. This class will appeal to students who want to learn about movement complications, as well as students who want a smaller, 37mm watch. We also expect this to bring more husband-and-wife couples into the workshop, which has already become one of our favorite ways to see people take the class.

Want first notice when the new workshop launches? Join Priority Access here →

Come build yours

All Watches Tell Time. Hampden Watches Tell Stories.™

Sometimes the story is engraved on the back.

And sometimes the story is that you spent a day at a bench in Chicago, learned how a mechanical watch works, chased a spring across the room, made a mistake or two, fixed them, and walked out wearing something you built with your own hands.

A good story is worth telling more than once.

A great story is worth winding every morning.

Get Priority Access for First Hand →