A workshop in Surry Hills.

Surry Hills has become Sydney's quiet capital of hands-on craft — letterpress studios, ceramic ateliers, perfumery classes, hand-tool woodwork. The Modding Bench joins that lineage: a bench where you build a working mechanical watch over the course of an afternoon, in a neighbourhood that knows how to slow down enough to do something properly.

What we do here

We're a watch assembly school. Students arrive with no experience required. Over 3.5 to 5 hours we walk you through assembling a Seiko-ecosystem automatic movement (NH35, NH36, NH38, NH05, or NH70) into a watch you choose from our parts library — dial, hands, case, crown, bracelet. You leave wearing the finished watch.

Where we are

Surry Hills, Sydney. A short walk from Central Station — about ten minutes from the Eastern Distributor side, six from Devonshire Street. The exact studio address is shared after you book. We run classes Saturday and Sunday afternoons, 12:30pm to 4:45pm.

Why Surry Hills

The neighbourhood matters. Surry Hills holds the right mix of design studios, slow-coffee places to wait for the bus afterwards, and the kind of quiet streets where a workshop can run without the city's noise leaking in. When the class finishes, you're a five-minute walk from a wine bar to celebrate your new watch.

Other things to do nearby

If you're coming in for the class, plan to make a half-day of it. Bourke Street has the cafés and bookshops. Crown Street has the antique and design stores. Wander Devonshire Street for the small-batch wine bars. We're happy to share a list of our favourite spots after you book — including the watch shops worth visiting around Castlereagh Street if you want to make it a horology day.