The Star Wars-themed “Tarkin Timepiece” Seiko mod, pictured. (Image source: u/MasterMcCloud via r/SeikoMods)
A custom Seiko mod called the “Tarkin Timepiece” features a handmade Star Wars dial, two-tone lume, lightsaber hands and an exposed NH38 balance jewel. Photos show the layered wafer-style design and the builder’s careful movement work.
A custom Seiko modder has built a Star Wars–themed wristwatch with a lithographic wafer dial, custom lightsaber hands, and Seiko movement. They are framing this piece as a one-off “Tarkin Timepiece,” custom designed for a family friend.
The watch runs a decorated NH38 inside a 40mm case with a sapphire crystal up top, but the dial is what grabs attention immediately. It’s a wafer-style design layered with Star Wars graphics – the Death Star, a pair of ships locked in a chase, and small text reading “Mr. Fisher,” a neat reference to Carrie Fisher who played Princess Leia in the original Star Wars films. The grid-like background and the slightly reflective surface indicate that the builder used a real silicon wafer piece as the base, though they later clarified that only the dial work is handmade. The actual lithographic chip isn’t used because fabricating those require industrial tools that cost far beyond hobbyist reach.
Image source: (u/MasterMcCloud via r/SeikoMods)
Once the lights go off, the whole thing changes character. The lume shots show a full two-tone effect that separates the elements cleanly. The Death Star glows in green, the background lines pop in blue, and the markers tie the whole layout together nicely. Even the custom lightsaber-shaped hands, which look orange during the day, look way more impressive under lume.
One design choice the modder debated was the strap. The photos show the watch on a white leather strap, but he mentioned that a black strap would probably fit the dial better – and that seems fair, because the bright white shifts attention away from the dial’s deeper colors. There’s also a small cutout exposing the balance staff jewel, something you don’t often see on NH38 mods. Combined with the regulation of +6 seconds across six positions, it’s evident that the builder spending time on both the movement and the dial rather than treating it as a pure art piece.
The finished build lands somewhere between fan art and essential watchmaking, and the photos do a good job of showing how much work went into the layers, lume, and handmade dial.
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Anubhav Sharma – Tech Writer – 1166 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2024
Fueled by a childhood spent taking apart video game consoles to see how they worked, I turned my passion for tech into writing. I have a double Bachelor’s in Computer Science Engineering (2018) and English (2024). I’ve been writing on a variety of tech topics since 2016, with a particular interest in gaming. When I’m not hunting down the latest tech news, you’ll find me producing music, gaming, or hiking.