The Best Microbrand Watches to Buy in November 2024

Aera C-1 Cloud Chronograph

After a year of relative quiet, cult British tool watch brand Aera is back – and in serious style. For their first complication they’re picking the ever-practical chronograph and, in keeping with their minimalist utilitarian aesthetic, they’re sleek and sharp. On the one hand you have the blacked-out Shadow, with some red flashes across the chronograph hands; on the other the stunning Cloud, with a calming, blue-tinged neutral look. With only the bare minimum of numerals and indexes, these are a world away from the usual, overly technical chronos and I personally love them.

More details at Aera.

Gaga Laboratorio Labormatic Cinquanta

What do you get when you pair a legendary tattooist with an Italian singer songwriter with a healthy obsession with all things retro? Gaga Laboratorio. Mo Coppoletta and Alessandro Ristori’s shiny new Italian watch brand dives deep on jazz age cool, with discs for both hours – visible through a date-like window at 12 o’clock – and the central minutes, a genuinely unique dial and a case with some of the most sculptural lugs this side of £5,000. It’s a little crazy, sure, but this is a pair of flamboyant Italian collectors living la bella vita; what else would you expect?

More details at Gaga Laboratorio.

Awake Sơn Mài

Let’s not beat around the bush here, Awake’s gorgeous new collection is all about the dials, and for good reason. While they might look like enamel or guilloche, or a mix of the two, they’re actually made using the traditional Vietnamese art of Sơn Mài (hence the name, obviously) which involves applying fine layers of lacquer over silver leaf. The result is a depth of colour and texture that’s hard to find in a watch – and especially one this accessible. That’s the kicker: despite a dial akin to something one of the grand old maisons of watchmaking would dabble in, this automatic, La Joux-Perret-equipped beauty will set you back just over £1,500.

More details at Awake Watches.

Brew Metric Star Chrono

New York based, coffee-laced, and painfully cool, Brew have been going from strength to strength, especially since the streamlined Metric came into play. So, seeing them graduate to a chronograph was genuinely exciting before we saw the watch and is even more so now. It has all that lovely 1970s flavour, with a lightly roasted golden dial and bright, zesty red notes across hands and peripheral minute track. It’s like a modern Pogue, which given Seiko’s recent ‘reissue’ is probably the best thing we’re getting. It’s also as affordable as ever, with a Meca-quartz movement for that perfect blend of accuracy and reliability.

More details at Brew.

Paulin Modul D Automatic

I absolutely love the shape and style of Paulin’s painfully retro Modul collection, from their cushion cases to their Bauhaus-adjacent dials. The colours though have been perhaps a bit much. Now though, the Glaswegian brand is embracing wearability with black and white editions dubbed the Module D & E. They’re not boring by any stretch, with plenty of coloured indexes – orange and blue for the white edition, light blue and yellow for the black. It’s also worth noting that these are Paulin’s first lumed dials, with a host of differently glowing colours on each. It’s one of those cases where the release itself isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it is something that needs to exist. And it’s about time it does.

More details at Paulin.

​Oracle Time 

Read More