Micro Manufacturer: Do We Need An Additional Term?

Great post! Coming from the brand side, I've always had questions about this classification of brands. I'll just ask some..

Why does there need to be a classification at all?

What determines the classification?

Is it the amount of watches they sell a year?

Is it how many people employ?

Is it How many watches they have in their catalog?

The answer to some of these questions are unknown to a customer. I find it interesting as it appears as though it sways buying behavior for some. I also see it as a way some vote in the #microtournament . For some who haven't handled either of the two brands up against eachother, will deduct points from a "microbrand" and use that against them, which doesn't feel right to me. I genuinely find this psychology interesting and hope this spurs a good discussion.

For me personally, I see the big European watch groups and the brands under them as "Legacy brands". Brands that are older than most of us have been alive. There is a story there where an identity has been established, icons have been made that has influenced the industry. There are more attributes I can name, but I'm keeping it short.

On the flip side, I think one of the proudest things for a "micro" brand owner is the fact that they are independently run and operated. We don't have the luxuries and resources like marketing, supply chain, and distribution. That all has to be built from the bottom up for us. So in many ways, the efforts and work that's put into launching a single product are greater for us than the "legacy brands".

The word "micro" "mini" "big" are descriptors for scale or size and I don't believe that it's an accurate way of classifying a brand. Brands are different from one another and have different objectives.

All that said, I think a more appropriate naming convention for "microbrands" is "boutique brand". It implies that it's an independent small business that specializes in a craft. If someone asked me, what kind of watch brand are you, I would never describe it as how much volume we did or how long we have been in business. Instead, I would proudly say we are an independently owned company with a focus on in-house product design, while establishing ourselves as a Texas legacy brand through watches that are designed to last a lifetime.

Would love to hear thoughts on my take.

It's certainly very grey.

While they started out as microbrands, I hardly think Christopher Ward and Spinnaker are "micro" anymore.

There are microbrands like Erebus which maybe came up with the design, but clearly jobbed out all the manufacturing and assembly.

Then there are small shops like Formex (20 years later probably not so small) and Jack Mason doing some sort of combo on the design, manufacture, regulation, assembly side.

You have tiny one man only brands such as Dufrane, where Steve literally hand assembles each watch, but from purchased parts and movements.

And true independents like RGM which both create their own parts and movements and cases in some models and also use Swiss sourced parts for others. One of the true great American watchmakers out there today.

Kickstarter used to be the incubation site for a lot of these microbrands, but as MWC just demonstrated you can launch a watch simply via a collaboration.

The head spins.....

It's certainly very grey.

While they started out as microbrands, I hardly think Christopher Ward and Spinnaker are "micro" anymore.

There are microbrands like Erebus which maybe came up with the design, but clearly jobbed out all the manufacturing and assembly.

Then there are small shops like Formex (20 years later probably not so small) and Jack Mason doing some sort of combo on the design, manufacture, regulation, assembly side.

You have tiny one man only brands such as Dufrane, where Steve literally hand assembles each watch, but from purchased parts and movements.

And true independents like RGM which both create their own parts and movements and cases in some models and also use Swiss sourced parts for others. One of the true great American watchmakers out there today.

Kickstarter used to be the incubation site for a lot of these microbrands, but as MWC just demonstrated you can launch a watch simply via a collaboration.

The head spins.....

Great post! Coming from the brand side, I've always had questions about this classification of brands. I'll just ask some..

Why does there need to be a classification at all?

What determines the classification?

Is it the amount of watches they sell a year?

Is it how many people employ?

Is it How many watches they have in their catalog?

The answer to some of these questions are unknown to a customer. I find it interesting as it appears as though it sways buying behavior for some. I also see it as a way some vote in the #microtournament . For some who haven't handled either of the two brands up against eachother, will deduct points from a "microbrand" and use that against them, which doesn't feel right to me. I genuinely find this psychology interesting and hope this spurs a good discussion.

For me personally, I see the big European watch groups and the brands under them as "Legacy brands". Brands that are older than most of us have been alive. There is a story there where an identity has been established, icons have been made that has influenced the industry. There are more attributes I can name, but I'm keeping it short.

On the flip side, I think one of the proudest things for a "micro" brand owner is the fact that they are independently run and operated. We don't have the luxuries and resources like marketing, supply chain, and distribution. That all has to be built from the bottom up for us. So in many ways, the efforts and work that's put into launching a single product are greater for us than the "legacy brands".

The word "micro" "mini" "big" are descriptors for scale or size and I don't believe that it's an accurate way of classifying a brand. Brands are different from one another and have different objectives.

All that said, I think a more appropriate naming convention for "microbrands" is "boutique brand". It implies that it's an independent small business that specializes in a craft. If someone asked me, what kind of watch brand are you, I would never describe it as how much volume we did or how long we have been in business. Instead, I would proudly say we are an independently owned company with a focus on in-house product design, while establishing ourselves as a Texas legacy brand through watches that are designed to last a lifetime.

Would love to hear thoughts on my take.

The most interesting thing to me about Jack Mason is that they were in Dillard's department stores, and others, here in the USA a few years ago then they got dropped. How "micro" is that? I have an unworn one from then, $250 +/- list; I got this one on big discount when dropped from department store chains.

Didn't mean to not wear it, it just has sort of happened.

Great post.

I'm with you 100% about labels but people seem to be more at ease classifying everything and I suppose it is so with watch companies.

I have just discovered so called micro brands and most produce watches easily the equal of major manufacturers and isn't the final product most important?

Thanks for putting this together. Even as the organizer I am on record that I really do not like the term, but continue to use it for the tournament because March Micro Madness just makes sense alliteration wise. :-)

Like @Max said, small brands is a nice encapsulation, but even that is really just a play on micro. For me, categorization is tough. For example in the tournament we have the some of the following types of brands:

• Independent makers - These are brands manufacturing their own movements/dials, cases from the ground up, building watches in house, etc. Yes, they may rely on some parts manufacturers; be it movement case, or dial, but they are great at the part they build. IE Anordain for dials, Habring/Horage for movements.

• Brands part of a collective: There may be small manufacturing companies that purchased legacy brands or maybe even launched their own upstart. That upstart may now manufacture for many other small brands.

• Private label built: IE individual/company raises money and has a private label manufacturer be it in Switzerland, Germany, China, etc help design, build, source parts. They may even handle distribution

• Independently sourced/built: A brand may have industry knowledge and resources to source their own parts, suppliers, etc. They may have someone build for them, they may build it themselves.

That is just some examples, but it is not always that easy to even classify like that. In each case, most of these are acting like small businesses. One is not necessarily better than the other and depending on perspective we can debate the virtues of all. All come with pros and cons. The beauty of this is we can appreciate all of them.

The categories are endless. I understand it certainly helps with a discussion at times as we all see too often watches that are compared to Rolex that have no business being compared to it.

It's interesting because 10 years ago without the proliferation of crowd funding and direct access to manufacturers via the internet, these categories were not possible. So I agree with you, whatever it is, it's great to be able to appreciate all of them.

I'm just glad I'm not the one putting on the awesome tournament that you did! 🤣 That's an impossible task, but based on the engagement and participation I think you've succeeded in contributing something unique to the community. I very much appreciate your core purpose in bringing more awareness to brands that are less talked about because ultimately it's about a single individual who you might have caused to think differently or consider a brand they never would have before.

We were in many department stores as that's how the brand started. Back in 2015, Nordstrom was our first account and our timing was impeccable as they decided to put us in over 100 locations nationwide. Soon after that, we go into Bloomingdales, SAKS, etc, and even international distribution! Definitely not "micro" haha.

In 2020, we made a company decision to remove ourselves in retail stores and go direct to consumer on our own site. This is why you no longer see us in any retail stores. It was more important to have better brand control and carry out our vision on our own terms with higher quality watches.