I’m going to go out on a limb and say that these days, there are three distinct realms of watchmaking. You have your mainstream, group-owned brands, the type that like to keep the status quo and rarely try anything too new. After all, they have supply lines and five-year plans to stick to, it wouldn’t do to rock the boat. At the top end you have the independents that cater to collectors that are likely to buy a superyacht the same weekend; discerning yes, but in a very different realm from us mere mortals. Then you have innovative microbrands.
A scant few years ago, microbrands were pretty much written off as cheap homages and Chinese-made crap. Sometimes for good reason. Steadily though, the term’s taken on new meaning. It’s no longer small-time, but small scale, and those two things are not the same. As Isotope’s Jose Miranda puts it, “microbrand feels a bit outdated these days. For many of us who operate independently, the term doesn’t quite reflect the quality and creativity we bring to the table. It’s less about size and more about staying true to our craft.”
It’s a level of autonomy and agility that’s led to many microbrand watchmakers redefining the watch industry, one sold-out release at a time. Brands like Baltic, Studio Underd0g and Kurono Tokyo have stirred the kind of hype any mainstream brand would kill for. Perhaps more importantly however are the microbrands that aren’t just building and selling great, immediately appealing watches, but are pushing the boundaries of what an accessible watch can even be.
We’re talking new production techniques, new approaches to movements and complications, essentially coming at traditional watchmaking from entirely new and unexpected angles. Innovation is a word that’s used far too often in horology, often to mean a slightly different case material or a single altered component. Here, we’re talking about advances that genuinely matter.
Kollokium Projekt 1
Kollokium position themselves as more of a project-based collective than a brand, which, if they weren’t so confident in what they were doing would send up some red flags. Instead, we have a founding trio of Manuel Emsch, previously of Louis Erard, Barth Nussbaumer, who has designed pieces for Jacquet Droz and Chaumet, and Amr Sindi of watch blog, the Horophile. That’s a lot of experience for one brand, and sets them up perfectly to be one of the most innovative microbrands around.
Decentralised branding aside, it’s their influences that are perhaps the most interesting aspect of Kollokium. They describe themselves as “post-war brutalist via Kraftwerk synth-pop with a Phillip K. Dick retrofuturistic backdrop.” Think neon-drenched industrialism – which perfectly describes the Projekt 01.
There are no indexes here or even what you’d usually call a dial. Instead, the display is made of 468 pins of varying widths and heights, all with a bright dot of lume on top. The result is a sculptural effect that looks like some kind of sound wave that lights up in the dark. The fact that each of those pins is hand-set and hand-lumed suggests that the Project 01 is either a labour of love or one of madness. Perhaps both.
The Projekt 01 has been an instant sellout success for the brand, enough that it was shortlisted for the GPHG 2024 Challenge Prize for watches under CHF 3,000. How they’re going to follow this up with Projekt 02, only time (and another sellout run) will tell.
More details at Kollokium.
Xeric Timeline Double Retrograde
Over the past few years, Xeric has made complications accessible that were once the purview of the prestige and the haute horological elite. If that isn’t microbrand innovation, I don’t know what is.
In founder Mitch Greenblatt’s own words, “we cater to a collector with a couple of years under their belt, long enough for them to stare at their collection and see it’s missing something unique and fun. These folks are, like us, essentially bored by tradition and lookalikes. We have a passion for unusual vintage ’60s and ’70s timepieces and it shows.”
It shows particularly well in the amazing new Timeline Double Retrograde. Watches with two retrograde displays are already few and far-between, it takes delving into niche vintage to find one with two retrograde hands on the same scale. The thing is, there’s a reason a Double Retrograde like this is hard. Both hands need to ping back to exactly 12 o’clock and when hitting noon or midnight, have to line up exactly. There’s no room for error there.
“The biggest challenge was our patience. We’ve wanted a double retrograde for so long that iterating through all the component revisions after the long CAD design phase was trying. When you’re so close and you hit a setback like the tension in the spring is too low and the hand only flies back to three. You make adjustments and keep going. Once we saw both hands fly back to exactly 12, we were beyond excited.”
Set in a turquoise TV-shaped case that’s pure nostalgic joy, this is an insane watch for just $1,200 (approx. £950).
More details at Xeric.
Mecexp MS1001
Jason Zhang comes across as some kind of engineering mad scientist. Unlike most watch designers, Jason also has a background in OEM, or Original Equipment Manufacture. Essentially, he knows how to build entirely new approaches to machinery, not just build on already established methods. So, when he saw a 3D printer at an exhibition, it gave him an idea.
The printer in question was dedicated to leadscrew items, a type of screwdriven power transmission that converts rotation into linear movement. You’ll know what I’m talking about as soon as you see it working. And so, the MS1001 Flyback was born.
The concept is surprisingly simple: you have two leadscrew-driven displays, one for hours and one for minutes. When each reaches the end of the track, it pings back to the beginning like a space-age retrograde. That means it’s easy to read, but also has the kind of intensely machined aesthetic you’d normally find on Urwerk contenders. Except that the MS1001 is also powered by an electric CNC motor, meaning it’ll set you back far less than £500.
As Mladen of Instagram account Microbrand Watch Spotter puts it, “this is something never seen in the world of microbrand watches and I must say that I’m astonished. In short, they’ve developed their CNC-machined movement which is powered by one small Li-Ion battery. The way those pointers move on those spirals is something amazing!” Honestly, it’s hard to pick just one way the MS1001 flyback, or the microbrand themselves are innovative.
More details at Mecexp.
SpaceOne Tellurium
On the one hand you have independent haute horologist Theo Auffret; on the other, visual artist Olivier Gamiette, who’s tackled concept cars and watches aplenty. Where they meet you have the SpaceOne Tellurium, one of the most visually arresting timepieces from one of the most innovative microbrands this side of the cosmos – and this side of £3,000.
A tellurium, for those less versed in cosmological complications, is a mini planetarium, showing the relative positions of the Earth, Moon and Sun. It’s not a new idea by any means, but it is one that’s usually reserved for museums or timepieces with price tags to make the eyes water. Space One’s success is that they’ve made it accessible.
They did so not by cheapening the watchmaking, but by taking a different approach to the complication. The base movement is a reliable SOPROD PO24, nothing spectacular there. But Auffret built a brand-new tellurium module, built on an additional plate, to attach to it. As the date wheel moves, it drives two additional wheels, one for the month, one for the tellurium, meaning the entire show-stopping complication is powered by a single 12-toothed wheel. Auffret is a genius.
While the tellurium itself is the star of the show however, it wouldn’t be the same without the design, one that is a visual lovechild of De Bethune, MB&F, and Star Trek. The complication would be a stand-out in any more traditional timepiece, but here we have the perfect combination.
More details at SpaceOne.
Apiar Invenire Erb
Titanium is the space age material of the moment in watchmaking, a high performance, ultra-lightweight metal whose dark grey colouring is becoming an ever more common sight in the higher-end space. Well, British brand Apiar has been taking things one step further by essentially 3D printing the metal into ever more complex case shapes.
Dubbed ‘Additive Manufacturing’, Apiar uses laser powder bed infusion to create a near-perfect version of a case with complexities that traditional machining just wouldn’t be able to achieve. Their casebands are proof of that, with sculptural ‘lattice windows’ that allow you to see the layer upon 0.06mm layer of titanium each case is made from. It’s like looking into the future. From there, each case is finished in a five-axis CNC machine, ensuring sharp, striking transitions between various surfaces.
It’s not just the shapes that make this kind of process superior to classic machining. It also increases the strength to weight ratio, making the watch more rugged and offers insane customisation possibilities – including around those lattice windows.
It’s not all futuristic lasers though. The movements are classic, Swiss La Joux Perret numbers, the cases are finished by hand and, in their latest version in collaboration with The Dial Artist, that watch face is a hand-made stunner – though granted, it is still inspired by the sci-fi Einstein-Rosen Bridge.
We’ve seen 3D printing create some extraordinary things across tech and design, but the watch industry’s lagging behind substantially. Brands like Apiar are changing that. And the Invenire ERB being priced at £2,500, shows they’re futureproofing it with accessibility, too.
More details at Apiar.
Furlan Marri Perpetual One
When they launched their first vintage-inspired quartz numbers, collectors went crazy for Furlan Marri. Then they released their confident sophomore automatic pieces. Then they decided to launch a secular calendar, one of the rarest and highest complications a watchmaker could tackle. So nice, measured steps. That last one was for Only Watch, but even then, it was a bolt from the blue – especially with IWC bringing out their version a year later in the Eternal.
Well now, Furlan Marri are proving that their Only Watch secular calendar wasn’t just a one-off, at least not entirely with the release of the Perpetual One, built specifically for the GPHG. Sure, it’ll go out of sync on occasional centennial years, but that’s your next-in-line’s problem to worry about. What’s more impressive though is how Furlan Marri went about it.
Furlan Marri ‘Secular Perpetual Calendar’ for Only Watch 2024
The minds behind the approach are Dominique Renaud, co-founder of Renaud & Papi, and Julien Tixier, a renowned prototype watchmaker, and their philosophy in approaching the module was ‘less is more’. Most perpetual calendars have hundreds of parts; the Furlan Marri module has just 21. The main thing is that this makes the complication accessible (or more so at least), with the Perpetual One priced at CHF 9,200 (approx. £8,225), but it also has knock-on effects.
The smaller number of parts makes the module much more reliable, while the base La Joux-Perret G100 movement is easy to service and repair. The simplicity of the complication makes it easier to use compared to other calendars and makes it less likely to get damaged, while the thoughtful layout of the movement has led to a wonderfully legible dial side.
This is a watch that isn’t just offering a grand complication at a fraction of the price; it shows that despite centuries of watchmaking history, there are still entirely new ways to approach the craft. Which is honestly something that can be said of every brand here.
To bring it back to the beginning, as Jose puts it, “the future’s bright for smaller watchmakers who focus on creativity and smart, technical solutions. There are so many passionate customers out there who really value brands that do things differently. In the end, if you want to focus on quality and originality, people will find you.” I hope we’re doing our part to help that happen.” That above all is the aim of microbrand innovation.
More details at Furlan Marri.
Oracle Time