Fahren Concepts Time Capsule review

Up till now I’ve mainly only reviewed watches, however I have been wanting to review some accessories as well. So when the Fahren Concepts Time Capsule unexpectedly dropped on me, I had to start there. I received it as a gift for my birthday so this is not a sponsored review.

A little bit of background, Fahren Concepts is an accessory line created by the founder of Feynman Timekeepers, the Singapore based micro brand. To my knowledge the Time Capsule is currently the only product they offer but I wouldn’t be surprised to see them come up with more along the way. 

The Time Capsule comes in the founder’s favourite colour, green, and a choice of five interior colours. At the time of writing this review, only blue, green and purple are still in stock. The brand logo is embossed onto the leather and filled with gold print on top of the main cover flap.

This design may seem familiar as you will admittedly find similarly constructed pouches on a number of online marketplaces, some even with pretty decent build quality and materials for a lower price. Having handled some of these in person myself though, I will say that the Fahren Concepts version does take things to the next level.

The Time Capsule is a 100% fully handcrafted three watch pouch made in Singapore by renowned local craftsman, Gene Khoo. It is a button down construction with three snap buttons securing the top and bottom flaps together around the body of the “Capsule”. The exterior is made of selected high grade Vegan leather mainly used in the automotive industry.

Opening it up reveals three watch pillows separated from each other by padded walls. The pillows and walls are all lined with a material called “ultraSuede”. This is honestly my first time hearing of ultraSuede but on researching it, it is apparently a premium type of synthetic suede that is more durable, attracts less dust, and looks more premium than regular suede. It is actually very similar to Alcantara which is another material typically used in premium car interiors.

The pillows are filled with soft high density foam of German origin and held in place by two snap buttons on each side. While this does hold it very securely in place, I found that it does take a bit of effort to remove as well. When I first got it, the pillows did seem a bit too large for the sizing of my bracelets meant for my 6.25” wrist. I quickly realised though that it consisted of a removable outer sleeve with a smaller sized inner pillow that turned out to be a perfect fit for my bracelet size. With that I can confidently say it should suit practically any wrist sizing out there.

As part of writing this review, I decided to see how it fares as a travel pouch by bringing it on a short 4 day trip to Thailand. Measuring 21.5cm x 9.5cm x 8cm, it fit very easily into the corner of my carry-on suitcase. The extremely stiff outer construction of the pouch was very reassuring and I had no worries about it deforming while on the move. 

While I’m typically not in the habit of carrying three watches to walk around town with, if you ever had to it would quite easily fit into any normal sized backpack, similar to a medium sized water bottle. Ask me how I know. Now I’m not adventurous enough to do that all the time so the Time Capsule stayed mostly on the dresser of my hotel room. All the while on the dresser, it really looked like it was a part of the decor. 

The only real gripe I had with it was that it isn’t the most effortless to remove and replace watches on it. While the snap button design does keep it very securely in place when fastened, it does start to get rather flimsy the moment you begin separating the pillows from the walls. Perhaps it’s just clumsy old me but I felt much safer handling it atop a solid base as opposed to fiddling with it in midair. I personally would have preferred a slotted design where the pillow sits into a slot rather than a button system. Not a dealbreaker but it’d probably be a bit easier to operate.

Apart from that relatively minor gripe though, everything about the Time Capsule is very well executed and suited for its intended use. Given the solid construction and durable premium materials, I have utmost confidence using it for future travels. Not to mention it just looks incredible. 

For S$199, I won’t deny that this probably isn’t for everybody. However given the quality of the materials used and the craftsmanship for it, I do think it is pretty reasonably priced considering how a premium leather watch strap handcrafted by a reputable craftsperson could easily cost as much or more than one of these.

If you’d like to pick some up for yourself, you can order them directly from Feynman Timekeepers.