By Alex I., Founder of Tektora
Editor's note
This is the first installment of “How to Start Your Own Microbrand” – an ongoing documentary series where we follow real founders building watch brands from scratch. Season 1 follows Alex I., founder of Tektora, from first sketch to finished prototype across six episodes. No sponsorship, no sales pitches – just the raw process, the real costs, and the lessons learned. MBWW has no financial relationship with Tektora or its founder. All editorial decisions are made independently by MBWW. Have questions for Alex? Drop them in the comments – the best ones will be addressed in the final episode. Are you a founder with a story to tell? Reach out to us for future seasons.
The Question That Started It All
I wanted to put a fragment of an ancient asteroid on a wrist – so I built a watch around it.
That’s the simple version. The longer version starts with a question I kept asking myself: Why doesn’t the watch I have in mind already exist?
Not meteorite watches in general – those are out there. But the specific combination I was looking for? That didn’t exist.
I’ve been collecting watches for years. I’ve worn 42mm divers that felt like hockey pucks on my wrist, dress watches that felt too formal, and sports watches that never quite sat right. I’ve seen the same formulas repeated across hundreds of brands. I wanted to deviate from that and introduce my own design philosophy – one that tests whether the rulebook exists for a reason.
I wanted a timepiece with a genuine meteorite dial – but I also wanted it in a compact, unisex case size that fits most wrists. I wanted a visible mechanical heart – but one executed with restraint and precision. I wanted materials that are genuinely rare and high-quality, at a price that reflects the craft without inflating it beyond reach.
The combination I was searching for simply didn’t exist. So I decided to build it myself.
The Market Research
Before I drew a single line, I spent months researching what was already out there. I looked at what microbrands were doing. I looked at what established brands were doing. I looked at what the community was asking for.
What I found was a gap.
The combination of a meteorite dial and a well-executed open heart is genuinely rare – and almost non-existent in a compact case size at an honest price.
Natural stone dials are brittle – slicing meteorite to a thin wafer and then cutting an open heart into it without shattering is a real engineering challenge. Most brands choose one or the other. I wanted to see if these two elements – a meteorite dial and a visible mechanical heart – could coexist without competing.
The Engine
Choosing the right movement was one of the most important decisions I made. It had to be more than just functional – it had to be visible, and it had to be worthy of being seen.
I knew I wanted an open heart, but I was determined to avoid the cheap gimmick trap.
Too many open-heart watches use low-beat movements that tick sluggishly and look industrial rather than beautiful. The movement had to be smooth, attractive, and designed to be seen – not just a hole punched in the dial.
The Miyota 90S5 stood out for three reasons: it’s a true high-beat caliber (28,800 bph), it’s remarkably thin at 3.90mm, and it’s specifically engineered for open-heart watches with gilt decoration that catches the light beautifully.
And the view doesn’t stop at the dial – there is a display case back, reinforcing the mechanical transparency that defines the watch.
Choosing the right movement is one thing – integrating it properly is another. The real challenge was making the dial cutout look intentional, cleanly framed, and balanced with the rest of the design. That meant carefully positioning the open heart at 6 o’clock and ensuring the surrounding dial elements framed it properly.
I’ll dive deeper into the movement selection and technical specifications in Episode 2.
The Sketches
I started with pencil sketches. Then I moved to CAD. Then I iterated endlessly.
The dial was designed in three distinct layers: a meteorite center, a guilloche chapter ring, and a matte black outer ring and rehaut.
The meteorite dial is natural, chaotic, and eons-old. The guilloche is precise, ordered, and time-honored. The rehaut is matte black, reducing the visual step-down between crystal and dial so the meteorite and guilloche sit cleanly framed without a distracting canyon.
The hands are mid-century syringe style – polished silver with a crisp white fill, chosen for legibility and a nod to vintage pilot watches. The numerals are applied black Breguet numerals, catching the light and creating a sense of depth that printed numbers simply cannot match. Together, they anchor the design – classical elements framed within a modern stage.
Fitting three distinct textures into a 38mm case requires tight tolerances and expensive packaging. Many complex dials balloon to 42mm+. I wanted something different.
The Design Philosophy
This timepiece is built on contrasts.
Mechanical tension against surface harmony. Warm gold against cool steel. Organic chaos against geometric precision. Classical elegance against modern engineering.
The meteorite center is primal and unpredictable – each slice revealing a unique Widmanstatten pattern formed over millions of years in zero gravity. No two dials are the same. It is a fragment of deep space, unrefined and untamed.
The guilloche chapter ring is disciplined and deliberate. It provides a foil to the natural chaos of the meteorite. Geometric against organic. Precise against chaotic. Formal against wild.
The open heart radiates warm gold against the meteorite’s pale tones. A golden pulse locked within a monochrome world. A deliberate counterweight to the dial’s cool palette.
Most watches settle for one texture. This one has three – balancing untamed nature against deliberate design. The unpredictable against the meticulously formed.
The Journey Begins
It took months of prototyping iterations, a bad sample that forced me back to the drawing board, and endless design revisions. The first sample was disappointing – the dial proportions were wrong, the open heart placement was off, and the quality wasn’t there. I rejected it and got back to work.
The latest prototype (and hopefully the final one before production) arrives in September.
Follow up for the next episode!
New to microbrand building?
Start with the fundamentals: How to Start a Watch Brand: Challenges, Pitfalls, and the Need for a Customer-Oriented Approach and Scouting the Real World: Why Meeting People and Visiting Places Is Crucial.
Read the full series: Start Your Own Microbrand
Frequently Asked Quetsions
Start with market research to find a gap. Identify a combination of materials, design elements, or price points that doesn’t exist yet. Choose your movement based on the watch’s visual and functional goals, then develop sketches and CAD renders before approaching a manufacturer.
Starting a microbrand requires self-funding or crowdfunding. Minimum order quantities for a 100-piece run are challenging since most manufacturers prefer 500+. Exotic materials like meteorite dials significantly increase per-unit costs. A detailed cost breakdown is covered in Episode 3 of this series.
Movement choice depends on case thickness, beat rate, visual appeal, and budget. Common options include the Seiko NH35 (affordable, thick), Sellita SW200 (Swiss, expensive), and Miyota 90S5 (thin, high-beat, gilt-decorated). The right choice depends on whether the movement will be visible and what price point you’re targeting.
Meteorite is brittle and difficult to machine. Slicing it into thin dial discs requires diamond-tipped wire saws, and the defect rate during cutting is around 20%. Adding an open-heart aperture increases breakage further. Founders often need to order 30% more dials than needed to account for losses.