A little while back my brother-in-law went to a watch shop in London owned by a British microbrand. I will not name names, or locations, out of politeness…
Their website has less than 10 models for “gentlemen” ranging from just under £200 for a basic quartz, up to sub-£800 for an automatic diver/adventure watch. Each model has a typically “British” model name, be it after a place, a person (and cynical choices there), and are modelled as built to order of the highest quality materials.
I have… concerns.
One model looks very close to what you can pick up cheap as a quartz chronograph in the darkest corners of t‘net. There are just styles and models that scream mass-produced in a factory. You don’t need to spend over £200 to get one.
One of the nearly £600 watches looks very similar to a North Edge automatic watch that you can buy off AliExpress. It also houses the same Miyota 8215. Yes… the 8215. For just shy of £600. The North Edge is also 12-15% of the price. I know what I might buy given the choice.
Their premium outdoors watch houses the same 8215…
Look, I don’t mind an 8215, but I find it galling to stick one in anything over £200. I’m also looking at you, Scandinavian microbrand that cannot take constructive criticism. Don’t care if it’s got fashionable hands and an unreadable dial, you can’t charge nearly £500 for the privilege.
I don’t know if he picked one up; I will refrain from judging because beauty and value is in the eye of the beholder, but this is disappointing. I’m sure there might be some tweaking, but it’s all very Watch-by-numbers. There are others too… this one was placed on my radar by accident. I could have easily gone through life without ever seeing this; I just thought it was funny that perhaps some of us are so long in the tooth that we can spot the up-cycling process from a mile off. Everything looks the same.
The micro market is saturated, as my Instagram feed will attest to. The arse has not yet fallen out of the market, but it will do soon. It has to. Given the downturn in the sales of luxury Swiss last year, the day of reckoning will come. I don’t think cynical up-cycling of watch-by-numbers with basic movements is going to cut it.
The Apathetic Crisis… do you want a new mechanical watch? God no, I already have 617 to choose from, but I seem to just use my phone. Anyway, what good is time in the nuclear winter, we go by Sieverts and exposure now. Look sharp, Raiders at 2 o’clock, and we need to jimmy this cash point from the wall for parts in order to jury-rig the wind farm controls. Neck your iodine pill and pull.
The Escapement Room 
A few watch friends and I have been discussing the proliferation of “microbrands” that are no more than Ali factory watches with custom dials, catalog parts, with BS backstories and premium pricing. DW started the trend, most recently.
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At the risk of being incredibly pessimistic, I think the majority of microbrands are the same shit served seven-ways. In all fairness, there is little we can add to the template. I also believe that many of the smart watches are no different to the more expensive brands, save for the app that controls them.
Where I start to baulk, is the price of sale some of these brands think it is acceptable to sell these at. I appreciate that there might be some effort that goes into some of these watches, but you can buy an NH35A watch from £40 – £750, a Miyota 8215 from £30 – £600, and Miyota 9xxx series automatics from £75 – £1000. Now, the movement is not everything, but as the heart of the machine it accounts for quite a lot. I still struggle to understand why Sellita and ETA powerhouses can be £400 -£4000, but I am guilty of buying things (albeit secondhand) that would be nearer to top-end of that bracket. Then we have the Ressence watches, where it is everything but the movement you pay for, but I digress.
They say history repeats itself; the glut of brands out there are just a slight buying downturn away of losing it all. If, as has been demonstrated in 2024, global appetite for the mechanical watch is dwindling, why we need new brands every five seconds is unsustainable, and needs addressing. Then again, too much is prescribed to a watch. I guess many still want to roleplay Bond. Jackson Lamb wears a shitty Casio, and he seems to be a better “spy”.
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The most recent example of this is what happened to Brick Watches. When you upsell white label watches by 1000% you will get called out on your b.s. There is one collector that we all know, or know of, who must have at least 100 white label watches of many different “micro” brands. It is like he is missing the filter that would have revealed their sameness.
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… and would turn up on WC and wonder why no one is as impressed as he.
It is odd. The one that gets me are the Dartmouth Brands. The fact that no one can see that Spinnaker, Ballast, AVI-8, Cadola, Nubeo, RGMT, Duxot, etc… all look the same doesn’t seem to register. That’s a large chunk of similar looking micros, so when is a micro not a micro?
There are clearly micros who do a good job, and seem to try and make a more unique product, but they seem few and far between. Then again, watches are pretty samey across the board, so what does it matter.
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Great article Chris. Fully agree and am baffled by the endless number of microbrands that are Ali Express hommages. I pretty much ignore the proliferation $100 to $1500 brands that pump out watches from same factory in Shenzhen. My fave micros are mostly watchmakers: Habring, Kudoke, Horage, Holrinths etc.. And if they are a designer they should be creating something unique and unmistakable for other designs (Isotope, Ming, Maghnam..)
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I admire Ming, and brands like them. Isotope I have small issues with, but not so much about design. I did speak with Orion a lot over DM via WC, and they are very open about how they operate. Vero have never gotten back to me… There is clearly a number of microbrands that actually bother to try and make you something of note. I applaud them. This is when some people start talking about “true” micros… not the right word, but there are micros, and then there are micros…
Manufacture is simple – you either cast parts yourself or you get someone to do that. If there is a well-established factory (factories) that makes cases to spec, or can provide you with tried and tested sizes and shapes then it would make sense to use them. Similarly, if they tool for you, expect your cases to end up somewhere else. Movements are usually one of a handful of options, and you pick based upon your proposed market and price point. It’s just far too busy out there… why would you bother diving into such a market, in an industry that has clearly started to downturn? Do you play safe? Do you take a gamble? The public gets what the public wants, but the public also don’t know what they want either: I am convinced that people don’t know a good watch when they see one.
Anyway – call this apathy and ennui, or whatever, but watches are a mugs game right about now.
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I tried to hunt around and find the unnamed brand you rightly called out. Then I saw a list of British microbrands…OMG. https://www.microbranduk.co.uk/list-links/ Nope, a Sisyphean task.
It’s a bummer that we settled on ‘microbrand’ as a catch all term to rule them all. A smaller operation? It’s a microbrand! It has the net effect of lumping Scurfa and Garrick into the same group.
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