Rotate Watches Launches Build-Your-Own Movement Kit for Mechanical Watchmaking Beginners

Rotate Watches, a Los Angeles-based company founded in 2017, has launched a new Build-Your-Own Watch Movement Kit designed to introduce beginners to the fundamentals of mechanical watchmaking. Priced at an accessible $150 USD through Huckberry, the kit allows hobbyists to disassemble and reassemble a fully functional hand-wound movement, gaining hands-on insight into how traditional timepieces operate.

The kit arrives with a complete, pre-assembled Seagull ST3600 movement featuring 17 jewels, already properly lubricated and ready for teardown. Inside the box, builders will find more than 40 individual components along with a movement holder, screwdriver, tweezers, pliers, magnetizer, finger cots, and a leather storage case. A detailed, beginner-oriented guide walks users through every stage of the process, explaining the purpose of each mechanical part. According to Rotate, a first-time build typically takes four to six hours or more to complete.

Rotate Watches was born out of an entrepreneurship class at the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. Founder Jennifer Zhang spent five months assembling her first mechanical watch, with most of that time consumed by research and sourcing parts from over a dozen global suppliers. Recognizing that a single-box solution could cut assembly down to hours rather than months, she built the watch-in-a-box concept and launched Rotate on Kickstarter in 2019. The campaign, initially targeting $15,000 USD, surpassed its goal within 48 hours and ultimately raised $91,840 USD.

The company’s earliest kits—Galileo, Edison, and Wright—each paired a 17-jewel hand-wound Seagull movement based on the Swiss ETA 6497 with a 44 mm steel case. The first batch was produced in December 2019, and the kits reached Fry’s Electronics shelves in March 2020. Today, Rotate offers two primary kit categories: watch kits, which supply an assembled movement for builders to fit into a case with dial, hands, and strap, and movement kits, which provide a working movement to strip down and rebuild. The Cabot, a 43 mm steel sports watch with an automatic Seiko NH36 movement, is priced at $255 USD.

The new Build-Your-Own Watch Movement Kit falls into the movement kit category, serving as both an educational entry point into traditional mechanical watchmaking and a practical project for enthusiasts curious about what goes on inside a mechanical movement. Rotate Watches backs the kit with 24/7 customer support for troubleshooting and replacement parts, and it is now available through Huckberry with free US shipping and returns.