Hey there, I'm AJ, and I've been modding Seikos since 2013 and selling mod parts out of the USA here in Chicago since 2015.
I began my journey modding Seiko watches when I felt the urge to create something a little unique for myself. Looking back, the Sinn style Pilot watch isn’t really unique among us WIS and modders, but I thought that putting a yellow second hand on it was awesome! After that, I wanted a green watch, and then a Black Bay homage, and then I realized that the modding bug had hit me. I was addicted to modding watches. Just the simple fact that I could change a second hand color whenever I wanted to, or change the entire look of an SKX007 with a bezel change put so many ideas into my head.
My first order of bulk mod parts were Sinn style dials in 2015. I ordered an array of colors (green, red, and blue), since I wasn't able to find anything similar at the time, and figured others might want them too. While I didn't have a webstore at the time, I was starting to sell dials here and there on forums and through my ajuicet eBay account.
Over the next year I came up with more and more ideas, and wanted to finally pursue my dream mod, even though I knew (after much searching) that parts didn’t really existed for it — an homage to the Rolex Milgauss. I really admired the color combination of the watch, but promised myself I would never buy something that I couldn’t really afford. There wasn’t really anything that I could do at that point except have my own dials produced, so I bit the bullet and had a line of sunburst dials made.
It was a very risky decision at the time, since I was relatively unknown in the modding world at the time, but my idea of a Seiko homage to the Milgauss proved to be popular with the folks on Reddit. After a post in January 2016, I got many requests to make my “Nilgauss” mod using my new sunburst dials. This led to a small line of watches. Since the success of the "Nilgauss" and what are now known as LDO dials, I haven't looked back and have been selling mod parts ever since!