The watchmaker is Germany-based David Bana who crafted the final design using Swiss and Japanese dial movements; the watch parts including high-quality leather, nylon and stainless-steel mesh straps with quick-release feature sourced from Hongkong; and the first 500 batch of fully-assembled watches mass-produced in China.
At D’Hyon’s home office, every watch arriving from China will be subjected to quality control scrutiny, pre-orders from its online store are processed, then orders are packed and mailed to customers who pre-purchased at $199 each.
The young entrepreneur said he was baffled by lack of available local watchmaking talents and supplier for parts.
“It has been a daunting prospect and you are identifying different problems you have to overcome and think of the different steps involved,” said Hartley.
“It’s an Australian product because it’s entirely designed here and my dream is to see it from start to finish produced in Australia down the track come to fruition but starting a small business from scratch meant there is a lot of steps in it,” said Hartley.
To raise the seed capital as D’Hyon watch was launched online on May 13, Hartley sought crowdfunding through Kickstarter and was overwhelmed by the public response.
“Kickstarter is just one of the ways we’re hoping to raise the necessary funds. We have received a great amount of support and we are hoping to continue to build support in the community for our watches,” said Hartley.
During the coronavirus lockdown, Hartley, who works part-time as an administrative staff in the Penrith office of Lindsay MP Melissa McIntosh, brought his design to watchmakers, including Bana.
Hartley said Ms McIntosh, who formed the Advancing Manufacturing Taskforce for Western Sydney, has been a supportive mentor being a small business owner herself before she ran for parliament.
“Melissa is an inspiring person and someone you can look up to. My work experience at her office taught me day-to-day organizational skills, team management and it helped me in planning and running my own small business,” said Hartley.
Mentored through Business Connect
Hartley, currently studying law, is now among nearly 200,000 people working in small business and manufacturing sector across Western Sydney. At least $40B annually is earned by this sector in the region.
Being new entrant, Hartley said he has been mentored through the NSW government’s Business Connect, an advisory body that helps small business owners grow from scratch.
“I have been blessed with the opportunity to be able to do this and have a product I can be proud of irrespective of what the future holds. I had this idea, and I took a chance and gave it a go.”
Other watchmakers tried to convince him to change the CAD drawing of his design, but Hartley stuck with his original design and Bana put it into reality.
“I’ve spent months trying to find a watchmaker to create the first prototype, with a specific case, quartz movements, extended battery life, water resistance, sapphire crystal inset, anti-scratch and reflective coating because these are the features, I want in every watch I would create,” Hartley said.
“I have contacted manufacturers and it did take time until I chose the final one.”
Taking inspiration from research on horology and his fondness for classic Swiss and Japanese timepieces, the young entrepreneur designed D’Hyon watch “to be meaningful to each person who wears it.”
Hartley said his five types of watch cases were designed to be both “versatile and dynamic” as well as “minimalist and classic” with 50 combinations to choose from.
A dozen of Australian made stylish wristwatches is sold in the vast online marketplace such as Adina, 8 Haigh & Hastings and 4 Erroyl and having D’Hyon from Western Sydney can be a good thing.
“It’s not a run of the mill product. Anyone who wants a piece of D’Hyon has a role in making it to accommodate their lifestyle,” said Hartley.
Visit https://www.dhyonwatches.com/ for more details and
https://www.business.nsw.gov.au/support-for-business/businessconnect/find-an-advisor for more information on how to start a small business.
