Creator Spotlight: Yu Ando (andoandoando.com)

For the first entry in our new community-focused series, the "Creator Spotlight", we talk to Yu Ando (andoandoando.com), a Finnish-Japanese who released his "A1-Auto Watch" that instantly charmed the Seiko modding community with its French architecture-inspired, unorthodox, and eye-catching look. Since then, he has gone on to design more parts for the modding scene which you'll find to be anything but ordinary. 

 

Glen: To those who don’t know you, please introduce yourself!

Yu: Hello! First of all, thank you for inviting me to the podcast! Oh wait, it's not a podcast interview, but a written interview! Phew! That’s good, I have been writing professionally for over a decade (in Japanese, so please forgive my bad English grammar).

My name is Yu Ando, the founder and designer of AndoAndoAndo. I’m originally from Tottori, Japan and now living here in Helsinki, Finland, designing watches and watch parts! Let’s go watch modders! <3 <3 <3

Glen: What watch in your collection is taking up the most wrist time these days?

Yu: As a owner of a single-person doing-everything company, I also function as an advertisement of my own company :D So you can find me almost always wearing an AndoAndoAndo watch on my left wrist. Often on my right wrist is a modded watch. Sometimes I wear my cheap Casio collections.

 

 

Glen: Can you share the story of your first (memorable) watch early on, and how it sparked your interest in horology?

Yu: I remember when I started going to my junior high school, my parents bought me an ana-digi Casio. Something very similar to CASIO AW-48H-1BVEF if I remember correctly. I was surprised that something so small, cool looking, gadget could be worn as if it’s a part of your body. And that excited me so much.

Glen: What inspired you to start designing custom parts for watches? Did you have a background in design?

Yu: One of the reasons I started designing custom watch parts was @self_winder, who noticed that my A-1 Auto’s dial size is 28.5mm, so many of the available watch dials could be used to modify it. That was my gateway to the watch modding world, and I am so grateful to Self Winder!

I have a Bachelor’s degree in “Environmental Design” whatever that is. So I guess I can assume that I might have some degree of design study background, but I am not confident in how true this is :D (half joking).

But after I got that degree, in 2009, I was thinking of pursuing visual arts, instead of designing things. Because designing something, means that you are designing something, not for yourself, but for other people in mind. How a person you don’t know would use it, feel it, evaluate it, as something that was made to fill a purpose. And I was not ready for that, I was not ready to take responsibility to design something like that.

But about 10 years later, I started designing watches. Because I thought “there are a lot of new microbrands, but many of them are just making the same old shapes, that’s so boring”. And also, this is not something I was thinking back then, but now looking back at it, I think that watches could be considered as something between a functional tool, and an accessory or a fashion item.

As a functional tool, a design of a watch has to be facing criticism from perspectives of its wearability, comfortability, practicality, visibility, accuracy, etc. But I think we can all agree that if we pursue the goal of all these, it would be something like a cheap Casio, or a super expensive but super accurate automatic or high accuracy quartz watch.

But at the same time, if you look at the watch world, it’s not all about these. Different shapes, different colours, etc. So I felt that in the world of watches, it’s not all that function-centred. There is this need for expression of the wearer’s aesthetics and values. And so I believe a watch can be a mixture of a tool and an art. That is probably the reason I feel comfortable designing a watch, rather than a Large Hadron Collider.

 

(and so I hand paint watch dials as well.)

Glen: You seem to enjoy the aesthetic of vinyl record dials, and turntables/record players. What’s the story behind that?

Yu: It was actually an idea of my modder friend in Finland. He used to DJ as a hobby! And he suggested that it would be cool to make a dial that looks like a vinyl record, and named it “Chillmatic”!

 

Glen: Could you shed light on your process of creating something new — how does it go from an idea in your head, to an actual, functional product? 

Yu: I have many random thoughts in mind. And I’m sure most of the people too. When you are doing nothing, waiting, listening to people speaking, watching TV, etc., and your mind wanders off… And when some of the thoughts that come to my mind are fun, funny, interesting, or crazy enough, I take a note. I always carry some paper and a pen (Hobonich Weekly and Kaweco Liliput at the moment!) because I tend to forget good ideas and important things :D

 

(The Hobonichi Weeks and the Parker fountain pen)

And then I start sketching, at first on a paper, with a rough dimension and shape in mind. And then I use Fusion 360 and make it in a digital form. I can use Fusion 360 also to make it 3D, render, and then export the file to make a 3D printed version (Prusa Mini+).

(I do recommend anyone to use Fusion 360, although you need a registration, they offer the software for free for hobbyists! If you find Fusion 360 too complicated, or if you can’t run it on your computer, you might want to try using Tinker CAD, which is a browser based completely free CAD, Computer-Aided Design, software.)

Then, when it’s a watch part that would be made by an artisan craftsman, I will send the file. If it will be made by my trusted Chinese manufacturer, or a more complicated thing that needs a check from an engineer (for example, if the hand is too heavy / long, the case is water tight enough, etc), then I will send the file to them. And of course pay them. And then the product will come!

 

Glen: How do you balance aesthetics and functionality in your designs? For example, in your A-2 Auto, you moved the crown to the 6 o’clock position, making it (in your words) “less accessible”.

Yu: I think often the word “design” is misunderstood by many people all over the world. It is wrong to think of “design” as something superficial, non-functional, and something that just involves the look of the product. While in reality, design is a process. A process to decide the principle of a product, to choose what to prioritise and what element to be included and excluded.

So for example, the A-2 Auto. I have been wearing mine (A-2 Auto Neo Tottori!) since the product was made, but the only time I touch the crown is, when the time is very off (might happen once a month or less), and when I have to change the date. Which is not really often. And so I believe, if a wearer is using it like myself, there is no need for the crown to be in a location accessible to a user.

Most of the watches have the crown on the 3 o’clock position, and are possibly worn on the left wrist. This doesn’t really make any sense if the watch is so accurate and there is no need to make adjustments often. So I personally believe that this is just a legacy of wristwatches from the old time, hand-winded, and often requiring the time setting.

At the same time, a user getting used to this form of the legacy-watch-design (which I would dare to say a form without a meaning), would experience lesser accessibility wearing the A-2 Auto, compared to what they are used to, no matter how rarely the user uses the crown.

However, some of my other watches, for example the upcoming UFO Watch (and I hope to make the UFO Case available for modders sometime in the future!) I chose the watch to have a more weird shape, so it will be more fun to wear, rather than it being a functional timepiece.

 

Glen: What is the most challenging part about designing, manufacturing, and selling your custom products? Also, what do you love about it?

Yu: MONEY! That’s the most challenging part. I have so many ideas, but it requires money to make all these crazy ideas into real products.

That’s the reason I have to rely on taking pre-orders, and some of the pre-order listings I have on my website are written with “the production is expected to take 2 months, from the day someone pre-orders this dial.” And so this is because I have the idea, I already talked with the manufacturer and got the design processed, but I have no money to produce it. This is all while most of the profit I make going straight back to make more prototypes. Maybe I should make more money in order to make the business sustainable though, making money is not, and should not be the priority of any company, but bringing something positive to the world.

And speaking of positivity and what I love about what I do is, to see my design coming to life, and more than that, to see people use my products to make their own fantastic builds!! <3

 

 

Glen: Do you have a favourite mod or custom build that showcases your parts? Could you share it with us?

Yu: Ohhhh there are so many to list, but the one made by @provenancewatches , the one he used the Gold Vinyl Record Dial, with the boxed crystal and gold case, hands, and bracelet. There is a beautiful unity of the colour and the shape.

Glen: What’s your personal “holy grail” watch, and what’s special about it?

Yu: I don’t think I have a single holy grail. I have many watches I am interested in though, and most of the work done by @secondeseconde is on my list. I just love his sense of humour, and I think the watch world needs more humour.

Glen: What’s next for Ando? What are you most excited about that’s on the horizon?

 

Yu: On the horizon, I see the UFO Watch! It’s going to be fantastically beautiful and weird!

This October-November will be exciting with many new dials, and the UFO Watch for sure. (Plus, I will be attending the Spring Sprang Sprung in Singapore this October 2024!)

Oh and the A-1 Mod Case (editor's note: pictured in thumbnail, shot by @watchgambit) is all sold out thanks to the modders! <3 And its updated sibling A-1b Mod Case will soon come out!

Other than that, I have some crazy dials coming, some collab models, and I might revive some of my old, previously never-seen work from its graveyard… Let’s see, but I can say the future is exciting, because the modding community is exciting!