Seiko-Zucca Watch Adapter

I fell in love with the Seiko Cabane De Zucca Dashboard watch the moment I saw it. It’s not a watch for everyone, in fact a lot of people hate it. Which might be why it’s so difficult to find any sort of parts for the watch.

After finally picking up the white / orange variant, the watch band that came with the watch was too small for my wrist. I couldn’t just not wear this though - I wanted it to be my daily driver! So off to CAD I went. While I love the link-watch band style, it felt wrong to put a watch band on this piece that wasn’t orange or some color true to the original design. Luckily, I was able to find a watch band that was the same shade of orange as the accent pieces of the watch face.

I was honestly shocked that the 3D printed adapter I made worked so well. I was very worried that the layer-lines of the prints were going to introduce significant weaknesses when various forces were applied to them when wearing it. As well - could my 3D printers handle the accuracy needed to hold the pins that were no more than a millimeter in diameter?

Surprise! Parts are strong enough for daily wearing and, after a little adjustment, the accuracy of my printers are tuned enough to hold 0.25mm.

I apologize in advance - this timelapse above might make people a little motion sick.

But here’s the process from start to finish of completing the prototype of the watch adapter! Pretty straight forward concept:

  • View the model from the perspectives that show the features you need to replicate

  • Ensure your dimensions are correct (at least, for the most part. Adjustments will always be made after the first print)

  • Understand the goal - create the piece that’ll fit & hold both the watch and the watch band

After that, everything else just comes naturally! Start designing.