A factory can’t build a watch from an image. The founders who write to us often have a clear idea, a few sketches, sometimes very polished AI visuals, and they soon ask whether they can send all of it to the factory. Not yet: the tech pack is missing.
The tech pack is the technical document that explains your watch to the people who will make it: the views, the parts, the dimensions, the materials and the finishes. The factory uses it to quote the watch, plan the parts and make a first prototype close to the final product.
The design behind it still has to be sound. If the proportions and the construction already take manufacturing into account, the factory follows the drawings; if not, it corrects them its own way. So the tech pack comes at the end of the design work, once the volumes have been validated.
What goes inside
The content changes from one project to the next. A complete tech pack usually includes:
- Overall views, front, side and back, with the main dimensions.
- A drawing for each part: case, bezel, case back, crown, dial, hands, strap and buckle.
- The material of each part.
- The finishes (brushed, polished, sandblasted or coated) and exactly where each one goes.
- The dial and hands in detail: colours, printing, applied indexes, lume areas.
- Each version, if the watch comes in several colours or materials.
- Packaging and accessories, when they are part of the order.
Why a prototype comes back wrong
When a first prototype doesn’t match the design, the cause is rarely dramatic. Often it is one detail left unclear, a missing dimension or an imprecise finish. Faced with a gap, the factory makes a choice, often the simplest option for itself, and it isn’t always what you had in mind. The more precise the tech pack, the less room it has to interpret, and the fewer samples you need.
The questions that follow
Once the tech pack is sent, a good supplier comes back with questions: a dimension to confirm, a finish, a material. I answer each one and update the drawings if something changes.
I do this by email, on purpose. Teams are often in several countries and don’t always share a language; in writing, everyone takes the time to check before answering, and decisions stay on record. It is also the moment to ask the factory your own questions, much easier now than on the sample.
Choosing the factory, and meeting it
Some factories never ask questions. They fill the gaps as they see fit and move on, and the client discovers the result on the prototype. We prefer to work with suppliers we know, who take the time to ask.
When I can, I also go and see them. Depending on the project, that has meant a strap maker in France, or a trip to Hong Kong to meet production partners. You don’t work the same way with someone you have met.
Before you send your design
Going from images to a product remains one of my favourite moments in this job.
At ACTE.5, we prepare the tech pack as part of the design, after a full-scale resin print has validated the volumes on the wrist, and we follow the exchanges with the factory until the prototype. If you already have a design and wonder whether it is ready for production, send it to us: we will tell you what is missing.
