Singaporean ex-biomedical research officer who makes watches at home

SINGAPORE independent watch brand LOTH was established at Tristan Ho’s parents’ house in Loyang. The 29-year-old spends his days at a workbench on the second-storey landing refinishing components, applying concentric snailing patterns to movement wheels and assembling each watch himself.

Until recently, Ho devoted his evenings and weekends to watchmaking alongside his job as a biomedical research officer at A*Star (Agency for Science, Technology and Research). After five years in the role, he left in June to pursue his passion full-time. 

Ho’s interest in watches began four years ago with fakes. Seeing counterfeit watches for sale while on a holiday prompted him to research what he could buy as his first proper mechanical watch.

That led him to discover that some watches costing several thousand dollars used stock movements worth only a few hundred. Unable to justify the expense, he began modifying Seiko watches and wondered whether he could make something closer to the high-end independent watches he admired.

Without formal horological training, Ho turned to YouTube and Instagram videos posted by other independent watchmakers, teaching himself anglage, snailing and mosaic finishing through trial and error.

Snailing, a traditional decorative finishing technique to create fine spirals that resemble the shell of a snail, was the hardest to reverse-engineer.

“There was almost nothing online about the technique, except for a short excerpt from an obscure 20-year-old video in which an elderly Swiss watchmaker demonstrated it and explained what he was doing in French,” Ho says.

It took him more than a year to develop his own snailing technique and achieve the distinctive spiral pattern, refining everything from the material of the grinding head to the pressure, speed and consistency of the process.

His approach to problem-solving was honed from his previous career. “In biomedical research, you spend a lot of time trying to understand why something isn’t working, changing one variable at a time and being very methodical about the process. That mindset has translated quite naturally to watchmaking.”

Being self-taught has also encouraged Ho to be bolder in experimentation. “I’m not thinking about whether something is done ‘the right way’ according to established conventions; I’m more concerned with whether I can make it work and if the result is something I’ll like.”

Taking part in GPHG

His first creation for LOTH – short for “Lab Of Tristan Ho” – was Watch 1, a 40.5 mm manually-wound timepiece with a German-silver dial and hand-finished movement bridges. Offered online through loth.sg at S$6,498 each before tax and delivery charges, the 12-piece series sold out, with about half going to Singapore collectors and the remainder to buyers overseas.

According to Ho, demand for the watch has exceeded the available supply by more than 1,000 per cent. He has also received hundreds of serious expressions of interest for his next piece, with some collectors offering deposits despite not knowing what the watch will look like or when it will be available.

Earlier in 2026, he submitted Watch 1 to the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve (GPHG), widely regarded as watchmaking’s most prestigious awards. Ho entered it in the Challenge category for watches modestly priced at CHF4,500 (about S$7,054) or below. One unexpected requirement was submitting the written information on the timepiece in French. Ho sought help through an Instagram story and within 15 minutes, three people volunteered to translate it.

Watch 1 did not make the shortlist of six nominees unfortunately. “I think Watch 1’s biggest strengths are probably its story and the amount of hand-finishing involved,” he says. “Where it might have fallen short is probably the case design. The makers of the other nominated watches have more experience and produced more refined designs than I did.”

Despite the outcome, Ho describes the experience as “absolutely worthwhile”, as it gave Watch 1 greater exposure and the opportunity to be judged alongside timepieces from far larger companies. He intends to compete again with his next watch.

He uses local suppliers where possible

Singapore’s microbrand watch scene has grown considerably, with several home-grown labels selling internationally. Many focus on design and assembly while relying on overseas manufacturers for production. By contrast, Ho handles the movement finishing and assembly, with each piece requiring roughly 150 hours of hand-finishing alone. “The amount of labour involved in hand-finishing a movement makes it a very difficult business model to make work from a commercial standpoint,” he adds.

That personal involvement, Ho believes, makes LOTH more accurately described as an independent watchmaker than a microbrand. “The ‘TH’ in LOTH is me. When you contact the brand through social media, you’re speaking to the person who made the watch.”

Watch 1 is not produced entirely in Ho’s home. Its case is the only major off-the-rack component, while precision CNC machining for the bridges and dial is carried out overseas because he lacks the physical space and necessary equipment. The mainplate was finished by Ondrej Berkus, a self-taught watchmaker based in the Czech Republic.

Ho uses local suppliers where possible: some screws are made by Turntech Precision, the hands are heat-blued by his friend Timothy Agus and custom-made leather straps come from local artisan Cattlehide. He refinishes the old-stock Swiss 6498 movement and assembles the watch at home.

Making watches in Singapore, however, can leave Ho feeling “like a fish out of water”. There is no established network of specialists to advise him on the limits of a process. Components and services readily available in Switzerland can take much longer to source here, allowing a single part to hold up an entire prototype.

To date, Ho has invested about S$30,000 of his own money in LOTH, covering tools, materials and considerable trial and error. “From a purely economic perspective, you’d have to be absolutely crazy, hate yourself and probably hate money a little to do what I do. But I genuinely enjoy doing it.”

He is already prototyping what he hopes will become Singapore’s first in-house watch movement. “What I really want is to sit at the bench, make watches and sell them,” he says. “I’m happy as long as I can keep doing the work I enjoy and sustain myself.”

Ho also hopes LOTH can help establish watchmaking in Singapore. Since Watch 1 was launched, he has seen several budding watchmakers emerge locally, while people overseas have told him that his journey encouraged them to begin learning the craft themselves.

“That’s probably one of the most meaningful things that has come out of LOTH so far,” he says.