There are hundreds of small watch companies started in the last 20 years that we can call Microbrands. They are usually founder led, and driven by a passion for a particular style of watch. This week we dig in to some of the main categories to help you explore the many options out there.

Dive Watches

It may seem that watches for diving are a particularly niche category of watches, however this is not the case. Since the invention of Scuba diving in the late 1950s, and the creation of mechanical watches that are safe to use underwater, their popularity has remained high. We looked at why Dive watches are so popular here. They are a type of robust and practical watch known as tool watches. As well as telling the time, they usually have other functions. In the case of dive watches, this is enhanced legibility, possibly including luminous material, for easy reading underwater. They often include a Bezel, or outer ring, that can be moved and set as a reminder of when a dive started. 

Certain dive watches, such as the Rolex Submariner, the Omega Seamaster, and the Seiko Prospex, have become legendary. Unfortunately, these iconic watches are often expensive and hard to get hold of. They have proven great inspiration for others to create dive watches with similar features.

One brand that has proven very popular is Halios, and you can see the strong waterproof rating, colourful rotating bezel, and large hour markers, or indices, marking this out as a dive watch: 

Halios Fairwind

A British brand that started with one watch and now has a whole series of models is Christopher Ward. Their C60 range of dive watches is extremely popular, and continued success has led to more features being added. This has made the range more interesting and varied. All of these watches are now rated to 600m water depth, and there is a range of features and design styles:

Christopher Ward C60 Trident

Military Watches

Watches have been commissioned for military use since World War I. In fact, it was the adoption of wristwatches by soldiers in the trenches that led directly to men’s wristwatches becoming an item.

Before that, men used pocketwatches, and wristwatches were a tiny part of the women’s jewellery market. Since that time, official military watches have been produced by many watch companies, and still are today.

Microbrands often create military-inspired watches that are directly influenced by trends in certain eras of military watch, such as those made for World War 2 or the military diving watches made in the 1950s and 1960s. 

CWC have made watches for the British armed forces for over 50 years, and still make one that is issued to the British Special Forces unit called the Special Boat Service. All CWC models have similar dark dials, robust construction, and are designed to be very reliable.

A CWC Watch issued to the Special Boat Service in the United Kingdom

In contrast, Unimatic are a design-led company inspired by military watches. They have a great reputation for interesting designs of high quality. They produce them in small batches and the brand has acquired a cult following.

Unimatic U4-A

Homage Watches

It is hard to define exactly what a Homage watch is. The word itself refers to something made “in honour” of something, and many microbrands create watches to specifically reference a watch made by another company many years ago. This is understandable as so many watches are thought of as design classics.

Unsurprisingly given the popularity of certain Rolexes that are often very expensive, some companies have sprung up to create very close recreations of these watches. They aim for reasonable quality and very affordable prices. Some people may say that these are copycat pieces, and a poor substitute for the real thing. 

Since not everyone can afford or acquire expensive timepieces, it seems unfair to criticise those who wish to acquire something popular for a much more affordable price. In other areas of fashion and design it is common for lower-cost reproductions of famous or trendy items to become widely available. This is seen as normal, especially in clothing and shoes.

In the watch world these so called “copy watches” face much more criticism.

We at The Watch Collectors’ Club do not worry about these distinctions. For us, the love of a style of watch is as valid when the watch costs $100 or $100,000.

We like to explore the different influences we can see across time and different brands. 

Here are some examples: 

Hoffman Watches is based in New York, and produces a racing watch inspired by the Rolex Daytona Cosmograph. They are priced 20 times less than the Rolex models, but have a very similar style. See for yourself between these two pics: 

Gruppo Gamma was founded in Singapore by  Naoki Tsukomo. He felt that the watches he liked most, made by Panerai and based on timepieces created for Italian Navy divers in the Second World War, were actually not authentic enough. The company decided to create a “more authentic” homage to the watches than the company that sells them under the original name. This may sound a little crazy, but it shows the variety of inspiration we find with watch microbrands.

Groupo Gamma PG-00