Oracle Recommends: Microbrand Watches for May 2025

Blackout Concept XP1 Allan Saint-Maximin

Affordable tourbillons are becoming ever more common, but a watch that not only incorporates the gravity-defying complication but does so in a way you’d more often associate with the likes of Richard Mille is well worth taking notice of. Blackout Concept’s tonneau-shaped XP1 is made from forged carbon and to call it aesthetically intense is an understatement bordering on insult.

It makes sense. As the name suggests, the watch is a collaborative edition with French footballer Allan Saint-Maximin, so impact is the order of the day. And, with a price tag well under £3,000 for a flying tourbillon, the price-to-impact ratio is off the charts.

Available at Blackout.

Straum Jan Mayen Alpine Glow

The Norwegian, microbrand equivalent of Grand Seiko, Straum’s all about their nature-inspired dials, riffing off the rugged, Scandinavian wilderness. Yet even by their lofty (if accessible) standards, the new Arctic models are stunning. Of the quartet of models, with their nice but standard blues and greens, it’s the Alpine Glow that I find most fascinating.

It’s designed to emulate the sun dipping below the horizon and the combination of soft pink and sky blue is as gorgeous as it is unusual, complete with a linear wave texture that’s to die for.

Available at Straum.

AISION Design CMYK Watch Version B

I like colour. That shouldn’t really be a surprise by now. But I’m not sure even I’m as obsessed with it as AISION Design and their incredibly fun CMYK watch. Quick primer: CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black) and represents the framework for every printing colour.

The dial here has a gradient sector of each colour, so they overlap in various ways. The result isn’t a cool colour; it’s all the colours, with different angles showing up different hues. It’s fantastic and worryingly accessible, even with an automatic movement. Impulse buy for summer?

Available at Aision.

Grandeur Strange Tiger’s Eye

Stone dial? Check. Weird, asymmetrical case? Check. Price tag to make an auctioneer hot under the collar? Not so much. While Grandeur’s Dali-inspired melting watch has all the makings of a pricey habit you can’t quit, the Stateside brand’s £1,000 price tag is almost unbelievable.

It’s not just the striking, brown-striated stone or the funky titanium (yes, titanium) case, but the fact that it’s a wandering hours watch. Eight does not, in fact, come before one on most dials. Sure, it’s quartz, but given there’s no second hand, who’d even know?

Available at Grandeur.

Beaubleu Ecce Vesperal

Who needs hands when you have circles? Beaubleu’s whimsical approach to watchmaking is as off-kilter Parisian as anything from Hermès and possibly more eye-catching on the wrist. In the Ecce Vesperal, the time is told with a trio of bubble-like ‘hands’ rotating around the centre.

The large blue circle is for seconds, with minutes and hours getting smaller. Paired with the brushed silver dial, it’s a gorgeously minimal, appealingly unique twist on timekeeping that’s accessible enough to be a quintessential impulse buy. You’re unlikely to see another watch like it any time soon.

Available at Beaubleu.

​Oracle Time 

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