An Emu Heights resident is hoping to make a splash with a range of new watches.
Hartley Dhyon is the proud founder of D’HYON Watches, a project he began during the original COVID-19 lockdown of 2020.
“I wanted to create something that would be able to interact with someone and connect with someone in a way that I could get great joy out of, but could also tailor to another person,” Mr Dhyon said.
“One of the ironies of watches is that they’re timeless.
“Even with the advent of digital watches and smart watches, people usually still wear classic designed watches, usually as a fashion piece.”
After deciding watches were the avenue he wished to pursue, Mr Dhyon worked with German watchmaker David Bana, who brought his years of experience to the project.
After months of work and collaboration to bring together the dream, the result was five original watch cases, described as ‘minimalist but classic’ in their design.
Mr Dhyon has just finished his first degree, a Bachelor of Economics and began his Juris Doctor in law.
“It’s nice to have that counterbalance in that sort of more creative element that comes from designing something,” he said.
“Law makes you think in different ways … and sometimes in very creative ways, it helped in that sense of looking outside the box and looking at things from different angles.”
The next step for Mr Dhyon is to crowdfund for the project, with a campaign beginning on Thursday, May 13.
“The idea is to get the initial capital funding to kickstart the production of the watch, so it’s to really get the ball off the ground,” he said.
While he has finished the prototypes and completed assessments for quality control, Mr Dhyon sees this upcoming crowdfunding as the period that will hopefully take the project from a hobby to a side-hustle, and perhaps even more in the years to come.
“If they pledge $200, and if it’s successful, they’ll eventually get one of the very first watches made. It’s a pre-order sort of thing,” he explained.
“There’s no liability if it doesn’t succeed, it works both ways. In a good sense, that’s why I wanted to reach out – Penrith is a fantastic community, we all come together and support people.”
See www.dhyonwatches.com.
Erin Christie is the Weekender’s entertainment and community news journalist. She has worked with Are Media, Good Reading Magazine and a host of other publications.
