University of Sheffield's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre creates potential centrepiece for luxury lifestyle brand

The jewellery has been created with help from entrepreneur and open-banking specialist Steffan van Molendorff, who has taken his passion for motorcycles, engineering and diamonds and used them to inspire his adventure lifestyle brand, 6ixt9.

The 50-year-old South African has ambitious growth plans for the brand. One of the ideas he is currently developing is a bracelet which looks like a watch. In the place of a clock face sits a raw, uncut diamond.

The idea was just a drawing on a scrap of paper when AMRC machine tool partner Starrag put Mr van Molendorff in touch with engineers at the AMRC in Rotherham, which is part of the UK’s High Value Manufacturing (HVM) Catapult network of world-leading research centres.

The machining research engineer Emma Parkin, together with design and prototyping engineer Valdis Krumins, began work on turning the rough sketch into a prototype.

The designs they created have exceeded all expectations, according to Mr van Molendorff.

“I knew from early on that one of the products I wanted to do was something aimed at a very niche, sophisticated market,” he said. “That’s how I came up with the idea of taking a rough diamond and putting it inside a watch casing.

“I came to the AMRC and met Emma and Valdis, sharing with them an idea and a simple paper drawing. About two weeks later the first CAD designs came through from Valdis and they were amazing. At that stage I knew we were on to something special and unique.

“Emma spoke so enthusiastically about the machining process and the different materials we could make the watch-case from. That’s when she told me about Zerodur, a type of glass-ceramic that can be machined and is used a lot in space applications. I loved the idea of having ‘space glass’ as the material for the watch casing.

“The designs which Valdis completed have now been registered for design protection in the UK and EU and I’m very excited to work with the AMRC team on this project.”

The project was paid for by the AMRC using funds from the High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

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