3D Printed Watches and Jewellery by 3LOBIT

3LOBIT is a Czech company which aims to show its customers how to use 3D printing in their daily lives. They focus on creating original jewellery, design products, prototypes, and production of broken machinery parts. Using the state-of-the-art Ultimaker with FDM method, 3LOBIT also welcomes customised orders.

Hey! We’ve been following you on Instagram, and we’re excited that you’ve decided to use our product to make a new collection of watches! What other products, except for watches, do you sell?
Greetings to Fillamentum! We’re glad you’ve noticed our products with which we use the materials from your company Fillamentum. The decision to use your products came after a recommendation from the seller of Ultimaker printers (3Dwiser.com). They told us they’re hassle-free and have practically the same level of quality as the genuine materials for the printer. We got to making fashion accessories rather by chance when we made the first brooch with a motif of deer. It sold like hot cakes, so we’ve decided to extend the range of animal brooches to other animals. Over time, we’ve added earrings, necklaces, and recently, the watches. Apart from that, we of course focus on making models and promotional items.

How did you come up with the idea to make watches?
We wanted to extend our range with something appealing to new customers. Watches seemed like a perfect fit because we couldn’t find any other producer on the market. The boom of watches made of wood also inspired us, and we wanted to come up with something new. Initial designs were rather classical with the option to use 3D printing with elastic materials such as TPU. This way wasn’t ideal. Over time we switched to more pure design and an elegant combo with polypropylene band.

Are you working on some new designs?
In the next few months, we’d like to get down to development and production of home lighting products where we’d also like to use 3D printing. Either as support for production or for printing individual parts. One of our most exciting projects, where we used strings from Fillamentum, was the design lamp FLOLA.

Have you met with any challenges selling products using 3D printing?
Practically every job is a challenge because we’re trying to make the products look the best.

Do you have any funny stories from designing for 3D printing?
We don’t have many funny experiences with 3D printing as such, but we often take the printer with us and show it to people in our sales stand. Some visitors respond in a funny way when they see the printer in action.

What do you mean by saying that visitors responded funnily to seeing 3D printing? What comments do they make?
People aren’t familiar with how an FDM 3D printer works: some even asked us to give them some chilled beverages or to tap them an ice-cream. When we explained to them that what they actually see in front of them is a printer and not a fridge, they immediately changed their minds and wanted to print money.

What do you appreciate most about Fillamentum?
We like the wide range of colours suitable when combining two and more colours. Also, as we’ve said at the beginning, printing with the Fillamentum materials works perfectly with our Ultimaker printer. There are many producers with cheaper products, but we prefer going for better quality and trouble-free printing.

What’s your favourite combination of colours?
Our fave combination is probably PLA Vertigo Gray with White or PLA Silver with Magenta. They are stylish, and all materials with silver glitter perfectly mask FDM printing imperfections.

What advice would you give to a person starting a business using 3D printing technology?
It’s important to first consider for what they’ll use the printer. 3D printing with the FDM method isn’t omnipotent – it’s got some limits. Printing complex mechanical parts and with materials like Nylon, PC, or TPU is quite demanding, and you need to design them in the way that makes their production possible. Printing from the PLA material isn’t complicated, but it also isn’t entirely suitable for printing heat-resistant stuff or parts.

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