Show and/or Tell Your Most Obscure Watch Brand

My most obscure is the Cincinnati Watch Company Cincinnatus Field watch. Born and raised in the outskirts of Cincinnati, it is assembled about 30 minutes from my front door. Came with a SW200 that is 5 positions regulated by their watchmaker to +2 sec for $450. I love the story and I love the value lol

It would have to be Mr.Jones watches for me. There are a few collectors out there but for the price and variety compared to how much people post on them I would say they are obscure

My most obscure is probably my Vilhelm Prism

I haven’t seen a lot of other posts about them. Also like what they did with the caseback.

I was just researching Cincinnati Watch Company last night. I was really obsessed with their orange dial field watch (I think it's called Tiger or something) at one point. Criminally underrated and excellent value in my eyes. I love their designs!

Probably this racing Chrono by a brand named Blacklist.

I got it from Watch Gang a few years ago & in my 1.5 years of being watch crazy, haven't seen another person share a watch from the brand on here or Reddit.

Might not quite qualify as obscure. A Kronen & Söhne chrono. Got it dirt ceap, pre-owned, from Tradera. The case is nickel plated with an acrylic crystal. The dial is pretty ok actually with applied indices. The bezel is aluminium perhaps with some kind of royaloak-imitation screw heads. It has an unbranded automatic movement with the rotor painted in yellow. A doesn't-make-sense-watch yet decent. A bit toobig for my wrist I think.

I guess for me Sam it would be my Vostok

https://www.watchcrunch.com/Mr.Santana/posts/post-your-vostok-pictures-here-40871

I'd say my most obscure watch brand came from Watch Gang. It's my Charles Hutton. I haven't seen anyone else post about them here. But there were a few box openings on YouTube with the brand. Of course, they were Watch Gang box openings.

Not a bad watch. Comes with a mecaquartz movement. Kind of field watch vibes. This was the last watch I got from them. The ones in the unboxing videos scared me. All theirs were gaudy neon green, yellow, and blue dials. I was so relieved when mine showed up and was Grey. Ended my subscription right after that.

Valimor. Components crafted in Hong Kong, assembled and packaged in Taiwan. They have a couple of trademark and design patents filed in the UK and all 27 countries of the European Union. They launched a successful Kickstarter in 2018 which exceeded their funding target. This model in particular is the limited edition (100 pieces) Caliburnus Flame Opal, consisting of a dial made from opal as the name suggests.

Have a few watches from the defunct Cardi Vostok brand like this one:

which are mundane Vostok movements housed by exclusive dial and case designs.

In transit I have a Dniepr-Vostok coming. Probably not a brand that will be revived in the forseeable future:

Carbon fibre is not as trendy as it used to be but the effect still works well on the dial of a sporty watch.

I am a fan of this semi open case back like on my Tissot Le locle

Great choice. I was enchanted by their unique Union Terminal model a while back and had to have one.

Wowza!

Farr and Swit out of Chicago

That's a great observation! Thanks for giving me a lead to chase down. Someone else speculated it could be used to count down 3-2-1 as each tine of the fork passed over a specific dial marker but I couldn't find any confirmation online. I also think TIMOR is a revived brand so it's possible that even the current owners of the brand don't know about the watches made before they spooled up again.

Sadly, Moonbiffy don't put their name on the dials. The dials are either sterile, or have some weirdo name oh it, like Shhddd. Some of Moonbiffy's watches are plain (e.g. a Nautilus homage for £7), some wacky. Besides watches, they make other stuff, such as drunken garden gnomes, bookmarks in the form of witches claws, and also sunglasses, like the ones below, probably designed with @Ichibunz as their customer base in mind...

Yes, thank you! I live outside Cincinnati about 30 minutes from Union Terminal and have been inside it many times. Oddly, I think the clock looks out of place on the building facade, but it sure makes a great watch face. No comparison to the much ballyhooed Swiss railway clock, although I do have a Mondaine homage that is a better watch than the actual Mondaine I used to have.

That's an easy dial to look at despite everything that's going on. What constitutes a "mushroom" brand? Is it the shape? If this was a Grand Seiko, they might say it was inspired by the mushrooms on the pizza the delivery guy just brought.

I'm glad you've liked it. I like the big hitters too, but the fringe names can be really interesting, as we have seen. I thought I knew a lot of brands. Wrong. I have seen Zelos and Vario on video, but I get Vario mixed up with Vaer sometimes. All three are interesting brands. I'll have to scope out Gane, never heard of them either.

That does it. If Moonbiffy is too ashamed to put their names on their watches, then how do I know if their drunken garden gnomes, witch claw bookmarks, or watermelon sunglasses are any good? Although I'm sure my daughters would buy those sunglasses.

You don't know that. The Moonbiffy watch I own cost me about £1.50, so I took the chance. The gnomes are not quite so cheap, that 4 piece set sets you back $21.54 on ebay.

Haha, not bad! Maybe some of these other watchmaking big shots should branch out into the drunken gnome area. They could use Moonbiffy as the template.

That's good stuff. Thank you for the link to get up to speed. The name makes sense now.

Lots of American content in your watch. That's a really good thing. American watchmaking is having a bit of a comeback. I usually don't care much about the caseback but I like this industrial look. It looks like it was forged in some giant foundry. On my screen the whole dial appears like it's lumed. And you can't beat a perforated strap. They look great, and you get a perfect fit because of all the holes. Thank you for showing the Filson.

That's a good look. If it was Watch Gang then it was sight unseen? Dial has a carbon fiber look on my computer screen.

That whole watch seems kinda off.

Right!? It's why I posted it.

This one I actually selected with extra points the wife bought me.

And yes, carbon fiber dial.