Ever owned a watch that would be perfect but for one small niggling design element? It might be a date display that brings disharmony to the dial, a bezel that lacks pop, or a set of hands whose lume has faded faster than your bank balance after a trip to Watches of Switzerland.

Or maybe you’re just not pleased at having bought a model you now see on so many other wrists, and you want to make it your own it with some new parts – the horological equivalent of a Pimp My Ride soup-up.

Then allow us to introduce you to the practice of watch modding. A burgeoning subculture within a subculture, watch modding has countless online forums dedicated to it, and there are a growing number of companies offering an array of modification options, from the aesthetic to the functional.

Perhaps the best-known – and priciest – among them is Mayfair-based Bamford Watch Department, launched in 2003 by JCB heir, George Bamford. When Bamford, who had been given a steel black dial Rolex Daytona by his parents, found himself turning up to dinner parties with several of his fellow guests wearing the same model, he turned to the designing and engineering department at his family’s company for help in setting himself apart.

“We found a process used by the mining industry, which was a DLC process (Diamond-like Carbon), an anti-friction lubrication system for drill parts,” explains Bamford. “I tested it on a vintage Rolex GMT Master and a Submariner.”

Bamford gave one of these newly lacquered watches to his father one summer and they both wore them for the duration of the season. “That [same] summer I received 25 orders, realised that [watch modding] was serious and I had to take it further.”

Bamford Watches

The most popular request at Bamford Watch Department, he says, is for initialled dials. “This adds a beautifully subtle but ultimately personal touch to a watch. I’ve also had clients who want to match [their watch] to the exact colour of their car.”