Below is a list of suppliers that I believe to be useful. It is not a complete list of every supplier I’ve every met, but rather a subset where each supplier meets two requirements:
- I have either personally engaged with them, had them highly recommended, or know a quality product they’ve built.
- I believe at least one of their services to be of sufficient quality to be useful.
I don’t intend this to be an exhaustive review.
Services (mostly intellectual output)
Engineering & Design
| Supplier | UR | ID | ME | EE | FW |
|---|
| Continuum | | X | X | X | X |
| Farm | | X | X | | |
| Gen Suzuki | | X | | | |
| Guy in CA who was ex-fitbit | | X | | | |
| Riccardo Sartori | | X | | | |
| Evolve | | X | | | |
| Whipsaw | | X | X | X | |
| Synapse | | | X | X | X |
| Cambridge Consultants | | | X | X | X |
| Circle Research | | | | | |
| Matter | | | | | |
| Sunrise Labs | | | | | |
| MNML (did work with terrazign | | | | | |
Optical simulation
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Seattle Photonics | | | | |
| Triple Ring | | | | |
| Optikos | | | | |
Soft-good development
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| COSMO | | | | |
| Bilio | | | | |
| Sewntech | | | | |
| Ohmatex | | | | |
| Flextronics (Boston) | | | | |
| Terrazign | | | | |
| Precintl | | | | |
| Sigma | | | | |
| Beth Sullivan | | | | |
Legal
| Supplier | IP | | | |
|---|
| Cooley LLP | X | | | |
| Wilson Sonsini | X | | | |
| | | | |
Staff augmentation
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Oxford Global Resources | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Components (mostly OTS, goes into final product)
Most of the suppliers generally prefer to sell you standard components. Of course if the volumes are high enough you can get them to customize.
Snaps
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Rome Fasteners | | | | |
| Plastics One | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Electrodes
Batteries
| Supplier | Custom Shape | | | |
|---|
| Alium (Grepow) | X | | | |
| BYD | | | | |
| Imprint energy | | | | |
| UFO Battery | | | | |
| GM Battery | | | | |
| Routejade | | | | |
Magnets
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| SM Magnetics | | | | |
| K&J Magnetics | | | | |
| China-rare-earth-magnets | | | | |
| one from quanttus | | | | |
Springs
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Lee Spring | | | | |
| Century Spring | | | | |
| W.B. Jones | | | | |
| Smalley | | | | |
Thermal pads
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Panasonic | | | | |
| Parker Chomerics | | | | |
Watch Components
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| ETA | | | | |
| Soprod | | | | |
| ISA | | | | |
| Timemodule | | | | |
| MPI | | | | |
| Esslinger | | | | |
| Ofrei | | | | |
| Total Watch Repair | | | | |
| Bergeon | | | | |
| Horotec | | | | |
Optical Supplies
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Thorlabs | | | | |
| Edmund Optics | | | | |
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Misumi | | | | |
| Mcmaster-Carr | | | | |
| Carr-Lane | | | | |
| JW Winco | | | | |
Fluid Handling
| Supplier | Valves | Tubing | | |
|---|
| Qosina (D) | X | X | | |
| Cole Parmer (D) | | | | |
| Nordson Medical | X | X | | |
| | | | |
Equipment (mostly used during development)
Testing Equipment
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Testing chamber | | | | |
| Cincinatti Test | | | | |
| | | | |
Lab equipment
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Microscopes.com | | | | |
| Test Equity | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Manufacturing (mostly physical output that goes into device)
| Supplier | Location | | | |
|---|
| Asahi | Shenzhen | | | |
| In-here Technologies | Shenzhen | | | |
| Incodema | NH | | | |
| Liquidmetal | | | | |
| Northwest wire edm | | | | |
| Peridot Corp | | | | |
| Petersen Precision | | | | |
| Pro CNC | | | | |
| Visual CNC | TX | | | |
| Swiss Tech | MA | | | |
| North Easton Machining | MA | | | |
| Taeyang Did metal parts for Embrace | | | | |
| Catcher | Kenny Chien, VP at Catcher in Taipei, who told me they are the largest manufacturers making the apple watch, iPad, and “all smartphones over $690” - he’s an MIT Sloan alum and their VP of Sales & RD at http://www.catcher-group.com/ . | | | |
Contract Manufacturing
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Flextronics | | | | |
| Sanmina | | | | |
| INTOPS | | | | |
| Cogmedix | | | | |
| Coghlin Companies | | | | |
| ColumbiaTech | | | | |
| Creation Tech | | | | |
| Hi-P | | | | |
| Tegra Medical | | | | |
| Tecomet | | | | |
Injection Molding
| Supplier | Micro | | | |
|---|
| Accumold | X | | | |
| DIYPro | | | | |
| Moldtech | | | | |
| MTD | X | | | |
| Nissha | | | | |
| Vaupell | | | | |
| Teamvantage | | | | |
Packaging
| Supplier | | |
|---|
| Lumi | | |
| OIA | | |
| RR Donnelly | | |
Prototyping
| Supplier | 3DP | CNC | | Looks-like |
|---|
| Protolabs | | | | |
| InterPro | | | | |
| Scott Models | | | | X |
| Sunpe | | | | |
| Cantabrigian | | | | |
| Model Solutions | | | | X |
| Concept Reality | | | | |
| Able | | | | |
| Lemlabs | | | | |
| Solid Concepts (Stratasys) | | | | |
| Star Prototype | | | | |
| Idea Factory Store (Italy) | | | | |
| Plethora (haven’t used) | | | | |
EMS
Etching
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Fotofab | | | | |
| Thin Metal Parts | | | | |
| | | | |
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| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Bodycote | | | | |
| CIL Inc | | | | |
| Fortune Metal Finishing | | | | |
| GSP coatings | | | | |
| Northeast coating | | | | |
| Tanury | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Conversion
Glass & Sapphire
Reliability
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| DfR Solutions | | | | |
| Reliasoft | | | | |
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Displays
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Pioneer | | | | |
| LG | | | | |
| Japan Display | | | | |
| eMagin | | | | |
| Eink | | | | |
| Futaba | | | | |
| WPG | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Solar
Adhesives
Connectors
Leather
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Hirsch | | | | |
| Gabarro Straps | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Laser Direct Structuring
Sealing
Plastics
Testing Houses
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Toxikon | | | | |
| Pacific Bio,abs | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Optical coatings
Visa
Ceramics
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Prematech | | | | |
| Nolato Lovepac | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Inspection
Wire & Cable
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Rapid Wire & Cable | | | | |
| Samtec | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Laser drilling
Screen Printing
| Supplier | | | | |
|---|
| Serigraph | | | | |
| Steven Label | | | | |
| | | | |
| | | | |
Linear Motion
Soft goods