I want to make watches too, so I’ve been looking for a precision watchmaker’s lathe. For CNC, I’ve reserved the ToolDance X1.
That made me wonder: which parts, exactly, can’t be made on a CNC or a 3D printer? And how are they made?
I used lathes at technical college. But I don’t know how watch parts are made on one. There are many kinds of desktop lathes, and I’m not really sure how they differ. If I buy one, I want it to be under JPY 100,000 (about USD 670). But I’d also like to know what a more expensive lathe gets you. It would probably go on the desk in my room.
So I looked into a watchmaker’s notes, the makers’ official pages and closed auction results.
I don’t own a lathe yet. This is research based on published sources and the makers’ official pages; prices were checked on 8 October 2026.
The short answer
- What’s hard to make on a CNC mill or 3D printer is a “thin, round, hard axle” like the balance staff. That’s a job for the lathe, which spins the material while cutting.
- New desktop lathes didn’t come in under JPY 100,000. The cheapest of the standard models in Japan is JPY 145,200. Under JPY 100,000, the closest thing for watch axles is a used watchmaker’s lathe (auction sales from JPY 66,000).
- What pricier lathes add is guaranteed precision, thread cutting and power feed, weight, and automation.
- What fits on a desk in my room is a watchmaker’s lathe or a benchtop lathe in the 10 kg range.
Which parts are hard to make on a CNC or 3D printer?
The clearest example is the balance staff. It’s the axle of the balance, the heart of a watch, and it turns on its thin tips, the pivots.
Tips 0.06 mm across. An axle thinner than a hair, held to within 0.005 mm. And it’s hardened steel.
Sorting watch parts by shape and tool looks like this.
| Part | Shape | Main tool |
|---|---|---|
| Balance staff (axle of the balance) | About 2 mm long, pivots about 0.06 mm in diameter. Hardened steel | Cut on a lathe, then polish the pivots |
| Winding stem (axle of the crown) | A thin axle. Looser tolerance and hardness than the balance staff | Lathe |
| Wheel arbors, pins | Thin rods | Lathe |
| Mainplate and bridges (plates that hold the parts) | Plates with holes and steps | Milling machine; hole positions on the lathe |
| Levers, springs, hands | Thin plates | Cut out with a fretsaw, finished with files |
Thin round axles like balance staffs, winding stems and pins go on the lathe; plate parts go on the milling machine or under the fretsaw. That’s also how independent watchmaker Masahiro Kikuno splits the work.
What about a 3D printer?
Resin SLA printers, which cure resin with light, can make some of the finest detail among 3D printers. Even so, this is the pixel size.
A pivot 0.06 mm across is only a few pixels wide. And what comes out is a resin part, not hardened steel. 3D printers are good for models to check a part’s shape and size, and for jigs that help with the work.
What about a CNC mill?
A mill and a lathe rotate opposite things.
A CNC mill like the X1 spins the cutter and cuts plates and blocks. Round axles suit the lathe, which spins the material. Where the X1 shines is plate parts like the mainplate, bridges and dial.
How are watch axles made?
So axles go on the lathe. But how do you actually cut a pivot thinner than a hair? For a balance staff, the steps go like this (from the Isozaki Watch Shop notes).
- Harden the steel again and temper it to bring it to Vickers 600
- Cut it on the lathe. The cutter isn’t carbide but a steel graver you make and harden yourself (carbide leaves a rough finish)
- Polish the pivots, the most important part. After a rough polish, finish them with artificial sapphire
- Measure with a micrometer
That’s at least two hours per staff. For polishing, a grooved drum for burnishing axles (a Jacot drum) can be fitted to the lathe (from Kikuno’s lecture).
The winding stem, on the other hand, was described as having “looser tolerances and less demanding hardness”. The easier first challenge is a winding stem or a pin rather than a balance staff.
Kinds of lathe, and how they differ from CNC mills and 3D printers
Now that I know how it’s done, back to the basic question: what kinds of lathe are there? “Lathe” covers machines that hold the material and move the cutter in quite different ways.
| Machine | What rotates | Good for | Example prices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Watchmaker's lathe | The material, held in a collet | Balance staffs, winding stems, pins | Used from about JPY 66,000; new about JPY 770,000 |
| Benchtop metal lathe | The material, held in a chuck | Thicker shafts, bolts, rings | From about JPY 145,000 |
| Precision small lathe | The material, held in a chuck, or in watch collets | Small parts | From about JPY 114,000 |
| CNC lathe | The material; the cutter moves under program control | Many copies of the same round part | From about JPY 400,000 |
| CNC mill | The cutter | Plates and blocks: mainplates, bridges, dials | — |
| 3D printer | — (builds up in layers) | Checking shapes, jigs | — |
The biggest difference is how the material is held.
- A watchmaker’s lathe holds thin stock in a sleeve called a collet. Each collet only fits a narrow range of diameters, but it centres well (Sherline says each collet grips within about ±0.02 mm of its size).
- A benchtop metal lathe uses a three-jaw chuck that holds anything from thin rod to thick stock. The PD250 grips 2–27 mm in diameter, or 25–75 mm with the jaws reversed.
Collets for thin watch axles, a chuck for thicker shafts and rings. The right lathe depends on the diameter of what you want to make.
What you can buy for under JPY 100,000
To cut watch axles, you want a lathe that holds work in collets. So can you get one for under JPY 100,000?
New: standard models start at JPY 145,200
| Machine | List price (incl. tax) |
|---|---|
| Toyo Associates Compact3 | JPY 145,200 |
| Toyo Associates Compact7 | JPY 193,600 |
| Toyo Associates Compact9 | JPY 278,300 |
| PROXXON PD250 | JPY 321,200 |
Even the cheapest, the Compact3, is JPY 145,200, and the lowest I saw on Rakuten was JPY 121,000. Online shops also list desktop lathes for JPY 30,000–60,000, but I couldn’t find any precision figures for them, so I couldn’t judge whether they’d work for watch parts.
Used watchmaker’s lathes: from JPY 66,000
These are closed Yahoo! Auctions results for “watch lathe” from April to September 2026 (whole machines only).
| Sold | What it was | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 20 Sep 2026 | ARROW (Japanese make). With motor, pedal, 10 collets and stand; rotation checked | JPY 66,000 |
| 16 Aug 2026 | GEM. Working | JPY 88,000 |
| 6 Jun 2026 | Wolf Jahn. WW type, 8 mm | JPY 99,000 |
| 24 Jun 2026 | ARROW. With foot pedal, working well | JPY 112,099 |
| 1 Aug 2026 | LORCH. WW type, 8 mm, long bed | JPY 121,000 |
| Apr–Sep 2026 | G.Boley. 8 mm | JPY 182,000–203,999 |
| May–Aug 2026 | ARROW. Full sets with many collets and a motor | JPY 198,000–278,300 |
Among listings that described what was included, sales started at JPY 66,000. But even the same ARROW make ranged from JPY 66,000 to JPY 278,300. What separates the prices is whether the motor, the number of collets, and accessories like cutters come with it.
You can add collets later. In the same period, single 8 mm collets sold for JPY 2,850–3,300, and a set of ten for JPY 29,409. Every used lathe is in different condition, and you can’t judge its precision from photos. You end up choosing by the accessories and whether the rotation has been checked.
If you can stretch a little: Sherline
The American Sherline small lathe is USD 758 for the machine (about JPY 114,000, plus shipping). The adapter for 8 mm collets is USD 73 (about JPY 11,000). Spindle runout is 0.0005 in (about 0.013 mm) or less, and it runs on 100–240 V. Sherline itself says it’s a good choice for clockmakers and modelers. Among new lathes that can also take watch collets, it was the option closest to JPY 100,000.
What does a more expensive lathe get you?
Under JPY 100,000, it’s mostly used machines. So what changes if you spend more?
1. Guaranteed precision
The clearest example is the watchmaker’s lathe from Cowells in the UK.
Spindle runout is typically 0.005 mm, the same figure as the balance staff tolerance (within 0.005 mm). With a used watchmaker’s lathe you can’t know the precision of each machine; with this one, the test certificate tells you.
2. Thread cutting, power feed and weight
Benchtop metal lathes get heavier and do more as the price goes up. The Compact9 (JPY 278,300) weighs 37 kg and has power feed for the carriage and change gears for 0.4–2.0 mm threads. The Compact3 is 13.5 kg. Toyo Associates describes the Compact9 as “a stable lathe with the solid weight of high-grade cast iron”, and weight helps keep cutting steady.
3. Automatic cutting
A CNC lathe sets the cutter’s movements by program and switches between four cutters automatically. The Apanmeker DL-210 finished its Kickstarter on 12 October with USD 225,679 from 73 backers. It still takes “late pledges,” which let you back it after the campaign: USD 2,699 (about JPY 400,000) for the machine alone, with delivery estimated for December 2026 (checked 17 October). According to a review, it weighs about 103 kg. It won’t go on a desk in my room.
If you’re making watch axles one at a time by hand, precision and collets are what matter. Thread cutting and weight matter when cutting thicker stock, and automation when making many copies of the same part.
Will it fit on the desk in my room?
If I put one somewhere, it would be the desk in my room. Here are the size (width × depth × height), weight and power.
| Machine | Size (mm) | Weight | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compact3 | 433×255 ×230 | 13.5 kg | 100 V, 150 W |
| PROXXON PD250 | 575×295 ×195 | 12 kg | 100 V, 100 W |
| Sherline 4100 | 597×267 ×216 | 10.9 kg (shipped) | 100–240 V |
| Cowells 90CW | 500×300 | 22 kg | 220–240 V (110 V version too) |
| Compact9 | 700×290 ×295 | 37 kg | 100 V, 250 W |
| Apanmeker DL-210 | 830×600 ×650 | About 103 kg | — |
The Compact3 takes up about the area of an A3 sheet and weighs 13.5 kg; the PD250 is a little longer at 12 kg. Power is 100 V at 100–250 W, so there’s no need to worry about 1,500 W like with the X1’s power (Japanese). The Cowells runs on 220–240 V, so using it on Japan’s 100 V means checking with the maker.
Lathes make chips too. At technical college, I really didn’t like cleaning up chips and cutting oil. On a desk, I’d want a tray and a mat.
What I’d do
Under JPY 100,000, I’d look for a used watchmaker’s lathe, judging by whether it comes with a motor and collets. I’d start with axles like winding stems and pins. Balance staffs would come after that.
Plate parts on the X1, axles on the lathe. The “dial and other visible parts first” that I wrote about in the keycap article (Japanese) looks like a job for the X1.
References
- Isozaki Watch Shop blog, “Episode 28 (on watch lathe work)” (balance staff size, tolerance, hardness and how it’s made; in Japanese)
- Journal of the Horological Institute of Japan, Vol. 57 No. 208, “Lecture by independent watchmaker Masahiro Kikuno” (how the watchmaker’s lathe, mill and fretsaw split the work; cutting balance staffs; in Japanese)
- Kiso Power Tool, “Heavy tools” Q&A (milling machine vs metal lathe; in Japanese)
- Kiso Power Tool, “Micro Lathe PD250” (specs and price; in Japanese)
- Toyo Associates, “Lathes” (Compact3, 7 and 9 prices and specs; in Japanese)
- Cowells 90CW Lathe (price, precision, specs)
- Sherline 8″ Tabletop Lathe and WW & 8mm Collet Adapter (price, specs, collets)
- Formlabs, “SLA 3D Printing - How Pixel Size Impacts Accuracy” (pixel size of resin SLA printers)
- Apanmeker DL-210 on Kickstarter and Gizmocrowd’s review (price, weight, size)
- Yahoo! Auctions closed results for “watch lathe” (checked 8 October 2026; in Japanese)
Update history
- 17 October 2026: The DL-210 Kickstarter ended on 12 October, so this now gives the result (73 backers, USD 225,679), the late-pledge price (USD 2,699) and the December delivery estimate.
- 2026-10-11: First published.