2023 WatchCrunch Micro Tournament Recap - Congratulations To Formex
16 days. 64 Brands. One winner. Congratulations to Formex (forme + extreme).
Since we first started the Micro Tournament, I stated that the goal of the tournament is not necessarily who wins, but exposing the community to dozens of brands they may not have been paying attention to, and based on the comments and votes, I think we succeeded. Many folks commented on how the polls introduced them to brands to the point they supported them with their wallet. Thank you all for supporting this and the brands. Apologies to my vintage friends, I know the four posts a day could be a lot for many. Back to the regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.
Formex had a strong march to victory beating some of the best brands along the way (NTH, Squale, Monta, Studio Underd0g, Baltic, and finally AnOrdain). The Formex fans came from far and wide to join WatchCrunch to support their favorite along the way. I look forward to the contributions of all the new members.
Shout out to AnOrdain. What a great tournament coming out of a division that included some of the best independent watchmakers on the planet. It is worth repeating, anyone making it to the final four should be celebrated. Each of those divisions were tough battles with like market competition.
Organizer observations:
The tournament was not kind to avant-garde brands. None proved popular, all losing in the first round. Ditto for whimsy, folks seem to like them, but opted for the more traditional styles each time (except Studio Underd0g).
Artisan dials – Lundis Bleus, Sartory Billiard, Atelier Wen, etc, all lost early on. AnOrdain is the only one who made a dent, but it is not surprising given their popularity comparatively (more on that later).
People value availability. Similar to last year, being able to go on the brand’s site and order today weighed heavily for some voters. As much as we can do to explain why batch or time release models are necessarily, for some it does not matter, which is fair.
Seeding – If we do a tournament in 2024, I think I will get away from random seeding per division. The randomization, while fair, did create some big matchups early on. I believe a more fair way would have been to use WC popularity. Again, more on that later.
American-based brands, while strongly represented, only had Lorier making the final 8.
I stated this in the final poll; this tournament was tough if one owned several brands. Even if you did not own them, there were some tough matchups. Despite the final results, we can all agree we can (and should) like more than one thing at once. Here are 16.
Facts that may only interest me:
The tournament generated 29,450 votes (many more votes came after I closed the polls that didn't count).
The average votes per matchup increased every single round demonstrating the momentum of the tournament. Here is the breakdown per round:
We had 16 different countries represented. Surprisingly the United States leads with 17 brands, followed closely by Switzerland with 15. Note, this is where they are based, not where the watches are produced.
I was very interested in the popularity of the brands with the WC community as it relates to tournament success. The following data shows the brands with the most posts as of March 29th on WC:
And this is the breakdown of the brands with the most votes: Only four of the top ten brands by posts made it to the Elite 8 stage.
So which brands under and overperformed? Eliminating brands with less than five total WC posts, these are the top ten brands using a total votes-to-posts ratio:
Conversely, here are the bottom five. Note, these popular brands could have simply faced a tough first-round opponent, limiting their votes, but still an interesting data point.
Those are my thoughts. What did you think? Was 64 brands too much? Did you have fun? What did you like? What didn't you like? What would you do differently next time? Thank you to all of you for participating and thank you to the brands that participated and reached out. And with that...
Watch enthusiast who insists on the next watch being the last.
It was fun! Appreciate the time and effort you put into this wonderful event.
Thank you and Cheers!
Whoops did I accidentally slip a photo of my Zelos Spearfish Burnt Orange Dial La Joux Perret G100 Soinge movement. Me bad lol
Take care my watch friend 🍻
It was fun! Appreciate the time and effort you put into this wonderful event.
Thank you and Cheers!
Whoops did I accidentally slip a photo of my Zelos Spearfish Burnt Orange Dial La Joux Perret G100 Soinge movement. Me bad lol
Take care my watch friend 🍻
Thank you. One thing I learned from this is I should have a Zelos in the collection.
Thank you. One thing I learned from this is I should have a Zelos in the collection.
And I need a Formex. I'll have one in 2024! One watch a year now lol
🍻
Thank you so much again for yet another fun and informative tournament! Before the tournament, I don't think I even knew about the Formex brand. I mean, maybe I'd heard the name, but it had never made any impression upon me at all. But, will definitely be on the lookout for it now!
Excellent work! Thank you! Very intriguing!
Thank you so much again for yet another fun and informative tournament! Before the tournament, I don't think I even knew about the Formex brand. I mean, maybe I'd heard the name, but it had never made any impression upon me at all. But, will definitely be on the lookout for it now!
You know me, I love my big brands as much as the rest, but there is something cool when a brand can produce a great product in that $1000-$2000 range. Formex has a few tricks up its sleeve when it comes to materials, but after picking one up I can understand why they have their fanbase.
Excellent work! Thank you! Very intriguing!
Thank you kind sir.
I’ve never done brackets - this was the first one I’ve ever thought thought was fun for me, even though my “team #baltic ” didn’t win lol😋. Thank you 🤙🏼
It's cool you did this. It's a great use of the poll system. Never would have guessed formex.
It's cool you did this. It's a great use of the poll system. Never would have guessed formex.
Thanks, a tournament was my first thought when they launched the polls last year. At the start, I figured for that portion of the bracket it would be the winner between Monta and Formex, but given the budget-oriented nature of this crowd, I assumed the winner of Baltic and Lorier would make it to the finals. And that is why, as they say, we play the game.
Formex are great! If they release a Reef with a smooth dive bezel it will likely find itself in my watch box
A very clever idea! I really appreciated the originality due to the March Madness inspiration. Really well done!
I’ve never done brackets - this was the first one I’ve ever thought thought was fun for me, even though my “team #baltic ” didn’t win lol😋. Thank you 🤙🏼
Just saw your pic. Very brave of you to have an Italian flag on a French watch! :-) I did, it is a nice strap pairing. I will likely grab and Aquascaphe at some point, but I want to grab a Lorier Zephyr first given I have a Baltic in the box already.
So Happy Baltic made it to the Top 4!!! Great Job to Formex!
I'm surprised with the results as some brands like Halios and Squale didn't make it to the top 8
Thanks for the insight and data presented AllTheWatches!
Hope you will have another voting match-up like this soon!
Just saw your pic. Very brave of you to have an Italian flag on a French watch! :-) I did, it is a nice strap pairing. I will likely grab and Aquascaphe at some point, but I want to grab a Lorier Zephyr first given I have a Baltic in the box already.
What can I say I’m globally minded, wearing a French watch, that has a Japanese movement , on a strap made in Spain, with an Italian flag (my heritage), living in the Pacific Nortwest 🤙🏼
🇫🇷 🇯🇵 🇪🇸 🇮🇹 🇺🇸
This was a great idea! I’m happy Formex won. I recently had hands on with their REEF GMT and I was really impressed
The only takeaway from this tournament is: we’re a bunch of toolwatch nerds 😂
Excellent tournament and analysis. I don’t know if it was just me however the parameters of the vote wasn’t possible I.e. vote for the brand. I didn’t know about a lot of the brands and didn’t have the time to research them so my vote was based on the watches selected. I went on the basis that they captured the design language.
That was definitely a tough matchup. Depending on how they would have been matched up differently, I think each could have at least won a match.
I mean, by different matchups each brand could have won at least one match.
Should we do a "lower bracket" final with baltic and anordain to determine place 2? Thing were very close between formex and baltic.
Bravo for the tournament. Formex is a tough brand to beat. Own the Essence Thirtynine and it is a phenomenal watch.
Should we do a "lower bracket" final with baltic and anordain to determine place 2? Thing were very close between formex and baltic.
That's another tough one b/c you're again pitting two very different companies together both in terms of business model, style, and brand ethos. I suspect Baltic might win that one for similar reasons that Formex beat AnOrdain . . . more people have experience with it, more people can get it, and I have a sense that there may be more leanings toward tool/utility/gada type of watches vs. dressier and artsier pieces in the community? I could be wrong on this one, but I have a hunch. That said, the fact that AnOrdain got that far speaks to how special it is.
So bizarre seeing Maen "lose" to Vaer - but it's the thing with tournaments some rounds are unluckily drawn. Also would have liked to have seen Horizon and many more Singapore brands which have been doing very interesting things instead of the usual and "safe" Submariner and datejust clones.
That said cool idea, I'd have liked to have seen it while it was running 🙂
Bravo for the tournament. Formex is a tough brand to beat. Own the Essence Thirtynine and it is a phenomenal watch.
I still have my hands on a reef gmt they loaned me to review on my YouTube channel and it’s such a cool watch. They deserve this win
Amazing tournament. I own a nivada chronomaster myself and I was happy to see it doing well (as a supporter and fan HAHAH) but also appreciate the exposure to other brands too
I started out with interest and researched some brands and voted…then ran out of gas. I did learn about some brands but lost interest pretty quickly.
Norway represent🇸🇯
This was awesome. Thanks for making it happen!🤩
Was just remembering how much fun “Warch” Madness was haha! Any plans to revive the tournament this year?
Was just remembering how much fun “Warch” Madness was haha! Any plans to revive the tournament this year?
Absolutely! In early March I will take a snap shot of our top microbrands on the crunch. This year will have logic based ranking (vs randomized) and will try to inject some new blood into the mix.
Absolutely! In early March I will take a snap shot of our top microbrands on the crunch. This year will have logic based ranking (vs randomized) and will try to inject some new blood into the mix.
Awesome! Let’s goo! 💪