When you hear collectors talk about independent watchmakers, it’s usually about the superstars, the Philippe Dufours or Roger Smiths, guys with waiting lists stretching into decades. But there are other, much more accessible independent makers and I would like to talk about some of them today.
Armin Strom
Armin Strom was one of the great master engravers of the late 20th century, his pieces were incredible, but in 2011 he retired and passed the business on to his partners. They introduced tourbillons and automatic movements, but the game changer was the mirrored force resonance watch introduced in 2016. They then focused on resonance watches making the world’s first GMT resonance watch with two completely independent movements, showing different times, yet completely in resonance.
Ming – Style and substance
Considering how often we look at the face of our watches, it’s interesting that most manufacturers talk about their movements, not their design. Ming is the only brand I know who started with a focus on design and aesthetics, but also made some technically amazing watches. For the last few years big brands have battled over the title of the thinnest watch in the world, but few people noticed Ming making the lightest watch in the world, which I thought was one of the highlights of Dubai Watch Week in 2023
Nivada – How to exploit a back catalogue
In the 60s and 70s, Nivada was one of the largest of the mid-level manufacturers with models such as the Depthomatic and the Aviator Sky Diver proving strong competitors to the contemporary Submariners and Speedmasters. But like almost all the firms of similar size, they collapsed in the 1980s. Their watches had really interesting designs and many unusual features, and vintage models were eagerly sought by collectors. So in 2018 Guillaume Laidet bought the rights to the name and began to remanufacture many of the original models. His bright idea was to change nothing, he kept the original designs, even the original typefaces and released the watches in quite small limited editions.
Byrne – Something really new in watch displays
Do you ever look at your watch and think “I wish it had a different face?”, if so you should look at Byrne watches. The four quarter hour indexes are printed on the faces of four cubes, and at midnight (or on demand) they all rotate to show a different face of the cube. The watch has formal Roman numerals, sporty Arabics, discreet shadow numerals and bold Luminova ones, it’s almost like having four watches instead of one.
Toledano & Chan – Something really new in watch design
Watch designs have been inspired by everything from aircraft cockpits to pebbles, but – as far as I know – no watch has ever been inspired by the 1960/70s architecture style known as ‘Brutalism’. Until Phil Toledano and Alfred Chan met on the internet during the COVID-19 lockdown. They came up with a watch like no other, angular, asymmetric and architectural their B1 is like no other watch on the market, from its lapis dial to its box made from concrete it is genuinely unique.
