Hello OF community,

As I was checking my FB I realised that my sponsored ads lately have been full of watch microbrands. Helios, Farer, Spinnaker, Vaer and God knows how many more usually pull up in my news feed every time. I have not yet purchased any yet but I am really inclined to every other day. Slippery slope for me as it is well within my price range and I know I will start collecting every one I can lay my hands on.

I wanted to know what OF community thought of microbrands in general. Are there any 'favored' ones here? Every kickstarter project I see has marketing lines that say they are top notch. Kind of hard to navigate for someone new to microbrands (hey I don't even properly know how kickstarter works with pledges and all that stuff).

Would love to hear your thoughts, advice and recommendations.

Cheers

 

I love em if done well ... I love my Baltic Bi-Compax and just ordered the Aquascaphe. Oak and Oskar is another well regarded micro. Hear good things about Farer as well. On the Independent side, I own two RGM but those are big ticket items. If done poorly micro are crap.

 

Farer has an interesting value proposition. With ads on FB and other sites which direct you towards Kickstarter or Indiegogo, I'm quite careful. However there are some nice exceptions like Newmark 6BB RAF Chronograph. Otherwise if we talk about a proper Microbrand, I would think of MING watches https://ming.watch/.

 

I second Larry's sentiments exactly.

I also ordered a Baltic Aquascaphe... beautifully done retro-diver!

 

same

 

I liked them before I realized they are all the same

They have to offer me something besides a dive case and SW200 movement

 

My two favorites are Monta Triumph and Farer Lander GMT. Very well made imo and unique in their own way. Between the two, I enjoy my Monta more. It has everything I want in a watch and is a great value, especially if bought second hand.





I also own a Vapaus Veli that I really like as well.

 

I like the look of Oak & Oscar watches, but their pricing was to me is utterly ludicrous for a non-established brand. I only own one microbrand watch though - a Prometheus Jellyfish. Very limited (75 of each color) with tritium tubes, 300m WR, sapphire crystal, and a SII NE15 (6R15) movement. I bought it used off of Craigslist of all places. They were one of the early Microbrands, and well regarded on WUS at the time. They are still around, but release watches rarely, and they pretty much sell out right away.

This is an old picture - can't go take a new one right this minute:

 

Beauty of a black Jelly!

Here's my Yellow Jelly:




I especially love the tritium tubes; makes for a nice bedside clock.

I bought mine from a WUS member in 2014, I believe.

Haven't dove with it, but it's survived plenty of ocean swimming and kitesurfing. Definitely a favorite micro-brand watch of mine...

 

It's a bad picture - it's one of the blue ones. The blue is really muted on them though - not bright like some other watches. I'll try and take an updated picture tomorrow. I really should let it go, since it simply gets no wrist time these days. Nice yellow one!

 

Anyone have the Spinnaker "Fleuss LUMBER BLACK"?

It keeps popping up on my FB feed and I'm about to give in. It looks good, but don't know anything about it.

?

 

They seem great for a collector who already has at least one of everything. As a rookie collector, I’m not at all interested as that money would better go to one of the classics.

 

This could be, I fall into a slightly different category.

I started 'collecting' in 2014 with 2 entry level modern watches (Hamilaton Jazzmaster, Tissot Visodate). From 2015 to 2019 I added some mid-level modern watches from Rolex and Omega, as well as some nice vintage classics.

In 2020, I stopped travelling for work and with home isolation, I learned to occupy my time with many projects around the house. As a result of not going out and also doing manual labour, I stopped wearing any of my nicer watches and stuck to my Seiko 5. After a while, I started looking for other sub-$500 options to rotate in my post-Covid situation. I now have 3 in rotation and am considering to add this Spinnaker option.

 

For me it’s a 10 year rule I would advise anyone. If they have been around for 10 years your a good chance of spares

Here is one I would buy from. https://www.magrette.com/

But generally I’m a bit like @cicindela
No use taking money away from a vintage Omega, Longines or Zenith

 

There are sometimes diamonds in the sea of micros.

 

As usual, I'll play the role of contrarian in today's discussion. I just can't get excited about microbrands, unless they're making their own movement themselves as well, in which case the price is well out of my range. If I wanted an ébauche movement in a case, I'd rather look into DIY/build-your-own and design the dial & hands myself.

 

My first introduction to mid tier watches were from the microbrands Christopher Ward and Farer. Their designs were definitely a step up from the Seikos, Timexes and Casios!

 

Check out ultramarine. All Swiss

have come very close to the morse which is great, but unfortunately the case proportions aren’t quite right for me. Drive by the height of eterna s 39 movement I think. It is almost perfect.

 

I also have a hard time with microbrands (the "affordable" range, not the high end independents). To me most either look like copies of vintage pieces or copies of cheap modern fashion brands. For the former I would rather buy an original vintage piece, and for the latter.... i would rather not buy at all.