New York City, New York Nov 30, 2020 (Issuewire.com) - In the last decades, microbrands have evolved from obscure watchmaking subculture to a more mainstream phenomenon driven by an explosion in the number of new brands. It has broken its image as a fringe interest and the microbrand-enthusiast community is today particularly diverse and vibrant.
But with its rise in popularity, the watch microbrand landscape has become very crowded with all brands vying for limited space and attention. It has thus become challenging to find microbrands that offer something genuinely new. In this article, we have hand-picked seven microbrand watches with prices ranging from $300 to $900. In our opinion, these are amongst the very best microbrand watches that a serious collector with an interest in the category should look into.
$300: Undone Basecamp
Undone is a creation of techies, creatives, and watch industry veterans with a passion for storytelling. From Snoopy, Woody, R2D2, or even Buddhist philosophies, they classify their work as “unfinished” as they encourage their customers to customize their watches and bring their stories to life.
Pros: We love the Californian dial for its vintage feel, smooth texture, and tasteful color options (especially their Cali Green). They also have decent and reliable movement (Seiko NH35).
Cons: They have no sapphire crystal option, and their lume is weak. The watches also have a basic case finish and automatic movement.
$400: Nodus Sector Field
Created by a duo of watch aficionados, Nodus offers simple, good quality watches with a very utilitarian look and feel - they’ll get the job done!
Pros: They have a great selection of cool dial fumé color options. We also like how thick their 3D printed superluminova X1 lume is, with the date wheel color matching one of the dials. They also assemble their timepieces in LA.
Cons: The watches have a relatively basic automatic movement (Seiko NH35). Their uniform bead-blasted case and bracelet finish also lack refinement.
$500: Venturo Skindiver
A label of Gruppo Gamma, Venturo Skindiver focuses on slimmer, lighter, and dressier divers. They take design cues from skin divers of times past and turn them into modern, versatile, and refined timepieces.
Pros: Their skin divers have an excellent sandwich dial, highly domed sapphire crystal, slim profile, and decent movement (Miyota 9015). They have a great fit and finish all around.
Cons: The watches do not have a particularly original design. Their two colors of lime on the dial could be somehow disturbing to some users.
$600: Baltic Aquascaphe Steel
A homage to the founder’s father and a tribute to his origins in northern Poland (along the Baltic sea), the vintage-inspired watches carry this watch collector’s tale for the generations to come. Today, the brand seeks to create and offer timeless, quality pieces at fair prices.
Pros: Their collection features watches in a pleasing 39mm diameter with great texture, sandwich dial, vintage aesthetics and quick-release metal straps. They also assemble their pieces in France.
Cons: The watches have a rather basic case back, with their bezel lacking lime. They also sell their bracelet separately, so the combination of watch and bracelet can end up being somewhat pricey.
$700: Atelier Wen Hao
Meaning “workshop of culture,” the cross-cultural brand is a collaboration of French and Chinese designers with a deep understanding of China’s pivotal role in today's global watchmaking industry and a desire to showcase it proudly. Their pieces are a cool and chic take on modern Chinese watchmaking.
Pros: They specialize in porcelain dials which offer unique designs. The watches also have a great case back with heat blued hands. With a price point under $1000, they make for quite compelling pieces.
Cons: Their runs are all limited, so their stocks run out fast (only a few pieces left of their first series last time we checked). Their crowns can also be a little hard to use.
$800: Formex Essence
This brand is an independent and family-owned high-end watch manufacturer in Biel/Bienne. They pride themselves in developing and producing quality watches together with unique and patented engineering features to make them more functional and comfortable.
Pros: Their watches are of excellent quality with a great hand-finish - quite a refreshing take on the ubiquitous steel sport-chic genre. They also have a unique Case Suspension System and superb adjustment clasp.
Cons: The watches have a rather dull dial, and the version with the textured dial is disproportionately more expensive. They also have a somewhat uninteresting movement (ETA 2824). Also, we don’t like to be too subjective, but we have a bit of trouble with the name...
$900: Stowa Marine Classic
Beautiful. Good. And true. The brand’s watches blend the past and future - inventive, high quality, and aesthetic. Their craft’s competence reveals itself in its manufacture, home to watchmakers and goldsmiths with their penchant for individuality as seen by their engravings.
Pros: We love the watches for their iconic designs, excellent heat blued hands, and white enamel dials.
Cons: They use a basic movement (ETA 2824) and waiting lists can be quite long.
In Conclusion
There are plenty of quality and affordable microbrands watches out in the market today to suit a variety of preferences and those that we outlined above certainly cover a large array of styles and price points. So which one is “the best”? As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder so we’ll leave it up to you to decide!
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