Nimmanhaemin Road · Since 2011

A Workshop That Respects the Age of Each Piece

We opened Lanna Atelier because antique timepieces deserved more than a hurried service. Fourteen years on, that remains the shape of what we do.

← Return Home

Who We Are

Our Story

Lanna Atelier began in 2011 in a single ground-floor room on Nimmanhaemin Road, with a bench, a set of inherited tools, and the straightforward idea that old watches deserved the same care and attention given to other antique objects. Chiang Mai had long attracted those with an eye for the crafted and the enduring, and it seemed a fitting place to set down roots.

In the early years, the work was almost entirely pocket watches — pieces that arrived in varying states, some barely touched in decades, others previously worked on with results that required as much undoing as doing. Each taught us something. The patience required to work on a movement that had not been opened since the 1930s is not a quality that can be hurried into; it accumulates with experience and a certain disposition toward the work itself.

Over time we added dial restoration and movement conversion, drawn into both by the requests of owners who wanted their watches to remain in use without losing the case or face they valued. We remain a small workshop. We are selective about what we take on, and we think that is appropriate to what we do.

How We Work

Our Approach

We hold to a few practices that shape every piece of work at Lanna Atelier. The first is that we discuss options before acting on them. Whether the question is conservation or refinishing, matched replacement or period alternative, we bring the owner into that conversation — not as a courtesy, but because the choice belongs to them.

The second is that we keep a written record. Every component replaced, every decision made, every departure from the original state of the watch is noted and shared. This matters for provenance, and it matters for honesty.

The third is that we are willing to recommend doing nothing. There are watches that are better left alone — where a dial's patina or a movement's original regulation carry more value than any intervention we might offer. We are comfortable saying so, and we do not find it contrary to the spirit of the work.

The Workshop

Who You Will Meet

Pairoj Thirawong

Principal Watchmaker

Trained in Switzerland and returned to northern Thailand in 2008. Pairoj leads all movement work and oversees the workshop's approach to each commission.

Natthacha Arporn

Dial Restoration Specialist

Natthacha brings a background in fine art conservation to her work on dials — a perspective that shapes her preference for conservation over refinishing wherever the original surface allows.

Witsanu Khamchai

Workshop Assistant

Witsanu manages first assessments, parts sourcing, and liaison with owners throughout the work — keeping the process transparent from receipt to collection.

How We Work

Workshop Standards

Period-Appropriate Parts

Where original parts require replacement, we source matched alternatives appropriate to the period of the movement — not simply the nearest convenient fit.

Full Written Record

Every commission is documented from receipt to return. All work undertaken, parts replaced, and decisions made are recorded and shared with the owner.

Secure Custody

Watches in our care are stored in a climate-controlled, locked workshop space. They do not leave the premises without the owner's explicit instruction.

Open Communication

We contact owners if the scope of work changes during a commission. No additional work is undertaken without discussion and agreement.

Conservation First

Across all services, we attempt the least interventive approach first — cleaning before refinishing, regulation before replacement, stabilisation before restoration.

Ongoing Training

Workshop members attend horological study events and consult technical literature regularly. The field rewards continued learning, and we take that seriously.

Our Values

What Guides the Work

At Lanna Atelier, the guiding idea has remained constant since we opened: that a watch which has been well made and well kept deserves work of the same quality. Northern Thailand has a long tradition of careful craft — in lacquerwork, silversmithing, woodworking — and we think of horology as belonging to that same tradition of patient, informed attention.

We do not seek to be the largest workshop, or the fastest, or the one with the widest range of services. We seek to be the workshop you trust with a watch that matters to you — whether it has monetary, historical, or personal significance. Those are different things, and we hold them equally.

Next Step

Bring Us Your Watch

We are happy to look at any timepiece and speak honestly about what, if anything, might be done — and whether we are the right people to do it.

Send an Enquiry