Microbrands to look at?

nomadic watches, wise, limawatch, houtman, helm, trashka, monta, lorier, brew, venezianico, farer, vaer, houtman, studio underdog, anordain, vario, etc

I suggest looking at Nodus and Vaer.

Ming if you lake a different design style, they are hard to get and you will have to wait a year but it’s worth it in my opinion. Baltic and Nivada Grenchen are a great place to start. You can also check out Brew as they do interesting watch that are reasonable from a cost perspective.

Baltic, Farer, Zelos, Formex

Soooooooo many…it’s a deep rabbit hole

I really loved Brew and Farer. Brew for the vintage dials and unique concept and farer for the poping colors.

Praesidus is my current favorite but looking at Baltic, Christopher Ward and Farer.

Obris Morgan - unfortunately not done much very recently

Zoretto, Helson and Armida

Guess I'm on a search for carrots

If you like a more traditional look with high build quality, great water resistance and a terrific bracelet, check out Monta. They are on the higher end, price-wise, but worth the cost IMO. I wear my Noble all the time. It's my second most worn watch behind my Aqua Terra even given the fact I chose the pink dial version.

My other favorites are Serica, Brew and Halios. I could see myself getting something from each of those makers in the future.

I really like Italian Brand Echo/Neutra. I’ve got their Averau 39 Big Moon Field Watch, but they’ve got a few beautiful pieces.

Borealis are a brand that got a bit of a kicking a little while ago mostly because of their marketing tactics but they make some nice pieces and I have 2 of them: the Sintra

And the Seastorm mk2

Lastly is one I’ve just ordered up is from Swedish microbrand Tusenö. I’ve just ordered up the Windseeker that’s been getting a lot of good reviews.

Hope that helps there are a lot more micros out there so good luck.

Among the others mentioned check out Atticus.

Dan Henry for some affordable vintage-inspired pieces, primarily (but not only) chronographs. I really like my DH 1963.

Baltic Aquascaphe GMT and Brew Metric have both been on my "to buy" list for a while now. Wonderful microbrands both of them! 👍

Here are some starting points.

https://www.thelimitededition.co.uk/

https://www.wristenthusiast.com/latest/microbrand-watches

Lorier, Helm, Winfield, Dryden, Sangin, and one of the OG's MKII.

Wise Time Pieces, super well finished, way beyond their price level (I have 2), Christophe Ward, some don’t consider them a micro any more but their watches are extremely good (have 1 will have more I’m sure), Spinnaker (fun lineup, good value (have 1). I’ve got a few more micros, they fill holes and slowly get replaced if I don’t feel they’re special.

Lorier and Islander

NG is really cool if you're into that kinda of vintage style, my only gripes are the bracelets (Forester). While old school, they feel a bit flimsy for the dollar, imo.

Baltic is really nice although a bit small for my wrist. I know a lot of people are jealous of some larger watch designs but I'm jealous of those who can wear a Baltic. 38 mm is the minimum for me.

Zelos is my go to, they seem to make watches that fit me personally, physically and aesthetically.

One tip for the OP, when you do start researching some of these brands, do note that an increasing number of them really have their hand on it, when it comes to pricing. In isolation you might think, "Oh, that's a little high, but it sounds fair..." but when you stop and think of what you could get from heritage brands for the same money, there's an increasing number of microbrands which I think you really, really need to love, and really, really want to keep 'forever' otherwise there's not a lot of point to buying them. Their resale will generally be lower (and with less general interest), based on their relative obscurity to the wider public.

I'll add Unimatic no one mentioned so far.

To me, it feels like Sub translated to Italian and I love it.

Check out Brew

Zelos, for sure. I just picked up my first one, and I'm totally impressed.

Kurono Tokyo for a retro vibe.

Only saw a studio underd0g mention buried in the text, so flagging that on up.

In the same vein, Mr. Jones Watches. Another "fun" watch, but more design oriented than studio underd0g.

Is Louis Erard a microbrand? They do cool collabs.

You never said "affordable" micro brands, so I'll cheekily throw in one that I'm slightly obsessed about right now, Czapek.

I have to throw some love to Vario, especially with their new 1945 WWII styled Field watch coming soon. Fantastic build quality, great designs, and also a great place to get straps.

If no one has mentioned them yet, Nodus, Vaer, and Serica

Oh the Echo/Neutra Cortina 1956 is rather nice... not heard of them before, good shout.

Marchand is on my wrist atm, a british micro, quartz but individual retro styling and very affordable. Goes to show that not all micros are high-priced compared to main brands.

They’ve also got some great divers and bronze options. They’re a strong brand.

Yes, it has been shipped earlier this week and might come tomorrow or Monday.