IndependentWatchmaking.com — New Additions

IndependentWatchmaking.com — New Additions https://independentwatchmaking.com/ Independent watchmakers recently added to the IndependentWatchmaking.com catalogue. en Sun, 25 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000 Favre-Bulle Geneve (Collonge-Bellerive (Geneva), Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/favre-bulle/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/favre-bulle/Sun, 25 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://oracleoftime.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Favre-Bulle-Ice-Blue-3.jpg" alt="Favre-Bulle Geneve" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Favre-Bulle Geneve</strong> — Collonge-Bellerive (Geneva), Switzerland</p><p>Alexandre Favre-Bulle was born in Geneva in 1994 and developed a passion for watchmaking as a young teenager. He graduated from the Ecole d'Horlogerie de Genève as a watchmaker in 2014 (the brand's timeline gives 2016), completing further studies in microtechniques in 2016, and spent his free time in those years sketching new watch modules and display concepts that remained, for the time being, only on paper. In 2019 he joined what his story names as Rolex's dial manufacturing operation in Geneva (a timeline on the same page says only 'a prestigious Geneva manufacture'), an experience that lasted roughly three years; by 2023 the pull to create something of his own had returned, and the first Favre-Bulle sketch was born. The company, FAVRE-BULLE, was formally registered in the Geneva Trade Register that August. It is based in Collonge-Bellerive, on the shore of Lake Geneva, and describes its watches as Swiss made and designed in Geneva.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/favre-bulle/">View the full listing</a></p> AW Labs (Fairfax, Virginia, USA)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/aw-labs/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/aw-labs/Sun, 25 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://awlabs.co/cdn/shop/files/DSC06608.jpg?v=1792709619&width=800" alt="AW Labs" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>AW Labs</strong> — Fairfax, Virginia, USA</p><p>AW Labs is a one-man watchmaking studio in Fairfax, Virginia, run by Mike Armstrong, who designs, machines, finishes and assembles every watch himself. It calls itself 'Independent American Watchmaking' and describes its watches as 'brutalist watches, engineered and built by one man, one reference at a time.' Armstrong machines the cases, dials and primary architecture in house, on a mill he built himself, and buys in only the movement, a Swiss Sellita calibre. The studio was founded in 2025 and its first watch, the Origin, reached its first owner at the end of July 2026.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/aw-labs/">View the full listing</a></p> Atelier Mephalie (Shanghai, China)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/atelier-mephalie/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/atelier-mephalie/Sun, 25 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://monochrome-watches.com/app/uploads/2026/10/Chinese-Brand-Atelier-Mephalie-Minute-Repeater-Collection-Accessible-3.jpg" alt="Atelier Mephalie" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Atelier Mephalie</strong> — Shanghai, China</p><p>Atelier Mephalie is a Shanghai watchmaker reviving a Chinese name with roots in the nineteenth century, and in October 2026 it launched a collection of three in-house minute repeaters priced far below their European counterparts. The collection was announced on 23 October 2026, the 150th anniversary of the name, and Monochrome's headline describes it as priced at a tenth of what Europe asks for the complication. The atelier says its production capacity is more than 200 movements a year, and the inaugural series of 218 watches uses that capacity for the year.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/atelier-mephalie/">View the full listing</a></p> Roger Dubuis (Meyrin (Geneva), Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/roger-dubuis/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/roger-dubuis/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://monochrome-watches.com/app/uploads/2025/11/Roger_Dubuis_Sympathie_Chronograph_S34_56_5_Rose_Gold_A_Collected_Man_London_WRG_R1529_09_2160x.jpg" alt="Roger Dubuis" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Roger Dubuis</strong> — Meyrin (Geneva), Switzerland</p><p>Roger Dubuis was a legendary master watchmaker, widely considered among the founding fathers of independent watchmaking, whose Geneva craftsmanship and double-retrograde perpetual calendar made his name. In 1995 he founded the eponymous brand, making him one of the first watchmakers of the modern era to build a house under his own name. The brand that bears his name is a Geneva watch manufacture, established with the entrepreneur Carlos Dias, and it is no longer independent. Richemont took a controlling stake of about 60% in 2008, buying it from Dias, and acquired the remaining 40% in 2016 (reportedly from the investor Akram Aljord), a year before Dubuis died; today it is a wholly owned Richemont subsidiary, based in Meyrin, with David Chaumet as chief executive since 2024. It is catalogued here for the man rather than the group. Roger Dubuis spent more than two decades in the workshops of Longines and Patek Philippe, built his reputation on one of the great modern complications, and gave Geneva one of the defining independent houses of the 1990s.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/roger-dubuis/">View the full listing</a></p> Gérald Genta (Geneva, Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/gerald-genta/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/gerald-genta/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://www.fratellowatches.com/cdn-cgi/image/anim=false/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/ggwatches.jpg" alt="Gérald Genta" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Gérald Genta</strong> — Geneva, Switzerland</p><p>Gérald Genta was the legendary master designer and watchmaker widely considered the godfather of the modern luxury sports watch and among the founding fathers of independent watchmaking. The hand behind the Polerouter, the Golden Ellipse, the Royal Oak, the Nautilus, the Ingenieur, and the Pasha, he founded the eponymous Gérald Genta house in 1969, making him one of the first watchmakers of the modern era to build a brand under his own name, and that house is no longer independent. It belongs to LVMH, which took control of Bulgari, then owner of the Genta name, in 2011. After two decades of near silence the name was relaunched in 2023 as a stand-alone house, with its watches made at La Fabrique du Temps, the Louis Vuitton manufacture, under Jean Arnault, a son of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault. Genta's widow, Evelyne, supports the revival and has given its team access to his archives of sketches, including hundreds of unrealised designs. It is catalogued here for the man: Genta designed some of the most important watches of the twentieth century and, from 1969, ran his own house making small numbered series of highly complicated watches, an early model of the independent brand.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/gerald-genta/">View the full listing</a></p> Daniel Roth (Geneva, Switzerland (founded in Le Sentier))https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/daniel-roth/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/daniel-roth/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0606/5325/files/Collectors-Guide-Early-Daniel-Roth-A-Collected-Man-London-205.jpeg?v=1614339291" alt="Daniel Roth" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Daniel Roth</strong> — Geneva, Switzerland (founded in Le Sentier)</p><p>Daniel Roth is the legendary master watchmaker widely considered among the founding fathers of independent watchmaking. In 1988 he founded the eponymous brand, making him one of the first watchmakers of the modern era to build a house under his own name. The brand that bears his name is a Swiss house he left in 2000, and it is no longer independent. It belongs to LVMH, which inherited it when it took control of Bulgari in 2011. Bulgari retired the name in 2015, and in 2023 LVMH relaunched it as a stand-alone house whose watches are made at La Fabrique du Temps, the manufacture behind Louis Vuitton's watches, with Jean Arnault, a son of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, as its sponsor. It is catalogued here because the Daniel Roth of the late 1980s and 1990s was one of the key names of the modern independent movement, alongside Franck Muller, Roger Dubuis and F.P. Journe, and because the man himself, now working under another name, remains one of its quiet masters.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/daniel-roth/">View the full listing</a></p> Towson Watch Company (Towson, Maryland, USA)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/towson-watch-company/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/towson-watch-company/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/604b04aaa5e7df5f8aa4dc8d/67f04b899d0accd058664cd6_Choptank%20special%20guill.%20dial.jpg" alt="Towson Watch Company" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Towson Watch Company</strong> — Towson, Maryland, USA</p><p>Towson Watch Company is a Maryland brand that describes itself as an independent American watchmaker and says it has made mechanical watches by hand since 1998. Its own account is that two Europeans founded it after meeting in an Annapolis pub: Hartwig Balke, an engineer from Pforzheim, Germany, who moved to the United States in 1989 for the oil industry, and George Thomas, a master watchmaker the company says was born in Prague in 1930 and trained in Prague, Vienna and Zurich. Balke leads design and technical direction and Thomas regulates and assembles. The company says its first wrist chronograph, built around 1999 to 2000, flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-99 and launched the Mission collection; these claims come from the brand and are not independently verified, and its own pages describe the founding variously as 1998 or "the beginning of the new millennium". Workshops are in Timonium and at Balke's home in Towson. In 2016 Sagamore Ventures, led by Under Armour founder Kevin Plank, invested in or acquired the company (the site uses both terms). In 2021 Spencer Shattuck, then 23, took full ownership and moved the brand to direct-to-collector sales. A 2026 partnership with nearby Baltimore Watch Company, led by Allan Tsao, handles servicing, and Antonio Vestpoint, who trained at Towson's bench under Balke and Thomas, is a lead watchmaker there.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/towson-watch-company/">View the full listing</a></p> Temporal Works (New York / Hong Kong (via The Armoury; base not published))https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/temporal-works/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/temporal-works/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://the-armoury-shopify.imgix.net/1/1583/4911/files/rcbwlmejwsj2arabmywp_d2f8fc1f-baa9-45c3-bf93-faf8efe35e19.jpg?v=1792168685&w=1440&q=75&auto=format,compress" alt="Temporal Works" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Temporal Works</strong> — New York / Hong Kong (via The Armoury; base not published)</p><p>Temporal Works is a watch brand co-founded by Mark Cho and Elliot Hammer, the pair behind the watch collaborations of The Armoury, the menswear retailer Cho founded with Alan See in 2010, which operates in New York and Hong Kong. Cho's earlier watch collaborations include H. Moser & Cie., Unimatic and Paulin. Temporal Works launched its first watch, the Series A, on 4 December 2025, selling only through The Armoury's website and shops; Cho has described the aim as making the "navy blazer" of watches, something easy, versatile and wearable. The brand's own pages describe its design as international and say each watch starts from a blank slate, with an emphasis on form, finish, colour and comfort. They do not say where the company is based, so the New York and Hong Kong link comes only from its retailer.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/temporal-works/">View the full listing</a></p> Huasuo (Dongguan, Guangdong, China (per a dealer review))https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/huasuo/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/huasuo/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://www.huasuowatch.com/cdn/shop/files/DSC01749.jpg?v=1758272397&width=1646" alt="Huasuo" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Huasuo</strong> — Dongguan, Guangdong, China (per a dealer review)</p><p>Huasuo (华梭) is a Chinese watch brand that sells directly to collectors through its Shopify store, huasuowatch.com, with prices in US dollars, free shipping and a 24-month warranty. Its website and journal give no founder, founding year or workshop address, and the store lists no social media accounts, so none of these is stated here. A review published by the dealer Bob's Watch Store reports that the watch it examined was made in Dongguan, Guangdong province, and that the brand accepts custom dial designs; the retailer Horology Planet carries Huasuo among its independent and Chinese heritage brands, and a Chinese retailer lists its movements as made in China. The brand's own copy is general, speaking of combining traditional craftsmanship with modern design and mentioning a history of "several decades" without detail. The range is built around unusual dial materials (handmade lacquer, natural gemstones, aventurine, mother-of-pearl) plus a few bronze-cased pilot watches, in cases of 36 to 42 mm.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/huasuo/">View the full listing</a></p> Lehmann (Hardt (Black Forest), Germany)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/lehmann/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/lehmann/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://www.lehmann-uhren.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/gangreserve-fensterdatum-rotgold-638x1024.png" alt="Lehmann" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Lehmann</strong> — Hardt (Black Forest), Germany</p><p>Lehmann is a small German watch manufacture in the Black Forest, founded in 2011 by Markus Lehmann in Schramberg. Lehmann spent some 20 years in the watch industry, much of it in precision engineering, and runs the family precision-machinery company Lehmann Präzision, which he took over from its founder Rolf Lehmann in 1998 and which builds turning and milling machines for the watch and optics industries. The watch manufacture is a division of that privately owned company. In early 2019 it moved from its first home at Gut Berneck in Schramberg to new premises in Hardt, at the Lehmann Präzision headquarters. Handelsblatt reported roughly 200 watches made in 2017, with a plan to reach about 500 a year from 2019 and around 18 people working in the manufacture; Lehmann does not publish current output.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/lehmann/">View the full listing</a></p> Lang 1943 (Germany (watches assembled in Switzerland))https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/lang-1943/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/lang-1943/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://watchesbysjx.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/lang-1943-field-watch-edition-one-1-1536x1024.jpg" alt="Lang 1943" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Lang 1943</strong> — Germany (watches assembled in Switzerland)</p><p>Lang 1943 is a watch brand named for Gerd-Rüdiger Lang, born in 1943 in Braunschweig, Germany, the watchmaker who founded Chronoswiss. Lang joined Heuer in 1964 in stopwatch production, moved to its Frankfurt branch in 1968 and to Munich in 1974, where he directed the technical department of Heuer Time GmbH. After Heuer closed the Munich subsidiary in 1980 he opened his own restoration and service atelier, and in 1983 he registered Chronoswiss, which he led until selling it in 2012. The new brand was conceived with German entrepreneur Georg Bartkowiak, a former CEO of Grieb & Benzinger, and was announced in the summer of 2022, with Lang acting as figurehead and adviser on design and technology. WatchTime and A Blog to Watch report that Lang died in 2023, and Bartkowiak now leads the brand. The articles used for this listing do not give a headquarters; Europa Star says the watches are assembled in Switzerland, and the official website, lang1943.com, was not yet working when this listing was written.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/lang-1943/">View the full listing</a></p> Juha Eskola (Helsinki, Finland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/juha-eskola/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/juha-eskola/Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://www.juhaeskola.com/uploads/1/2/4/1/124189333/n2-moonphase-frontpage_orig.jpg" alt="Juha Eskola" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Juha Eskola</strong> — Helsinki, Finland</p><p>Juha Eskola is a Finnish independent watchmaker, born in Ostrobothnia, who works alone in his own workshop in Finland (Monochrome places him in Helsinki). He first studied marketing at the University of Turku, then applied to the Finnish School of Watchmaking in 2015 with the aim of becoming an independent watchmaker, graduating in 2018 ("independent watchmaking, or nothing", as he told Monochrome). He started with hand tools and prototypes and debuted in 2021 with his first handmade watch, the N1. Every watch carries his name on the dial and, by his account, takes well over 100 hours to make. No founding year is stated.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/juha-eskola/">View the full listing</a></p> Hidaka Shinichi (Arakawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/hidaka-shinichi/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/hidaka-shinichi/Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://shinichi-watch.myshopify.com/cdn/shop/files/453503396_10224500193923365_6639104621047445924_n.jpg?v=1724157189" alt="Hidaka Shinichi" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Hidaka Shinichi</strong> — Arakawa-ku, Tokyo, Japan</p><p>Hidaka Shinichi (Shinichi Hidaka) is a young, self-taught Japanese watchmaker who works as essentially a one-person operation under the name shinichi watch from a studio in Arakawa-ku, Tokyo. He describes himself with a joke, as "a comedian trying to make a watch", and the brand calls itself a "no-joke" label that does not take itself too seriously. By his own account he was once more interested in video games than in work, grew interested in design, and was then introduced to mechanical watches by a friend. He collected catalogues from local watch shops, studied makers such as Philippe Dufour, Masahiro Kikuno and Hajime Asaoka, learned how movements work through online research, taught himself CAD, and took odd jobs to pay for tools before starting to produce watches under his own name. No founding year is stated.\n\nEach model is treated as its own concept and project, with unusual dial designs drawn from vintage watches and Japanese anime and art, combining sourced parts with handmade elements such as dials and hands. The Kanji Dial Senju, priced at about US$1,500, carries kanji numerals, and the Mikawashima Super Pink Salmon Kanji dial, a 37mm 316L steel watch with solid caseback, ETA 7001 and Tatami-pattern strap, is a renewed colour of what he calls his favourite kanji dial. The Izanagi (also listed as 01) is a 37mm, 8.4mm-thick steel watch on the ETA 7001 with an aventurine dial, and the Shimadzu Dial Silver is a 41mm manual-winding watch on a three-quarter-plate Unitas 6498 with hand-blued steel leaf hands. A 40.5mm sector-dial watch, Perpetual Breeze, was made in collaboration with the Taiwanese brand BardsWhisper, with a handmade case and dial and a Sellita SW200 with a special rotor.\n\nWatches are sold as small made-to-order runs through the brand's online shop, with lead times of several months, and no cancellations or refunds on made-to-order pieces; most current listings are sold out. Prices on the brand's own site run from US$1,600 to US$2,200, and Grenon's of Newport, his only US retailer, lists his watches from US$1,700 to US$2,400. No production figures are published.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/hidaka-shinichi/">View the full listing</a></p> Alexey Yakushik Watches (Russia)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/alexey-yakushik-watches/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/alexey-yakushik-watches/Thu, 15 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://optim.tildacdn.com/tild3562-6139-4937-b032-373336376334/-/format/webp/2.jpg.webp" alt="Alexey Yakushik Watches" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Alexey Yakushik Watches</strong> — Russia</p><p>Alexey Yakushik Watches is an independent Russian watch brand founded in 2025 by Alexey Sergeyevich Yakushik, a designer who describes himself as an award winner in international competitions and the author of numerous publications. After a career in design he decided in 2025 to release his first watch collection, and the brand operates as his sole proprietorship, selling direct from its website with delivery by the Russian courier CDEK and through AllTime stores. The site gives no city or workshop address. The brand's approach is to build limited, numbered series around themes from Russian and Soviet popular memory — space exploration, war-time cinema and rock music — using established Swiss, Japanese and Soviet-era movements in cases designed by Yakushik rather than developing its own calibres.\n\nThe first collection, Yuri Gagarin – First in Space, is a limited series of 130 pieces (65 in steel and 65 in black PVD) priced at 350,000 rubles, and the brand states that it holds the official right to use Gagarin's name and his "Poekhali!" phrase. It has a 45mm grade 5 titanium case and bracelet, a domed sapphire crystal, 100m of water resistance, BGW9 lume and a sapphire case back, and runs the AYW001.1, a movement based on the Miyota 8215 automatic with a custom rotor. Soyuz–Apollo marks the 50th anniversary of the 1975 docking of the two spacecraft in a series of 100 pieces, 50 in steel and 50 in black, on the Sellita SW200-1 in a 45mm steel case: the steel version carries an Earth element made of mokume-gane, a layered metal imitating Damascus steel, in titanium and gold, while each black version has an inlay of Muonionalusta meteorite, so no two dials are alike. It was launched at the Cosmonautics Museum in Moscow.\n\n"In Battle Go Only Old Men" is an 80-piece series marking the 80th anniversary of Victory, priced at 280,000 rubles and inspired by the 1970s Soviet film about a squadron of fighter pilots, with a black textured dial showing the Maestro aircraft and a five-pointed star. It uses the Soviet-designed Vostok 2409A in a 40mm steel case on an aged leather strap. The most affordable watch, Chaif – In the Rhythm of Rock, celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Yekaterinburg rock band Chaif with a bright orange dial, vertical markers evoking staff lines and hands shaped like a kefir bottle and half a loaf of bread, a reference to one of the band's songs. It has a 37.6mm steel case, sapphire crystal and the hand-wound Luch 1801.1N from the Minsk Watch Factory, and sells for 40,000 rubles, or 150,000 rubles in a gift set signed by the band, in a series the brand states as 100 pieces; the AllTime retailer lists it as 400 and as an entry in the Best Russian Watches 2025 contest's Independent Watchmakers category.\n\nPrices across the four series run from 40,000 to 350,000 rubles, and the total of the announced series is about 410 pieces. Gagarin watches are listed with a lead time of three to four months, and the brand ships within Russia.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/alexey-yakushik-watches/">View the full listing</a></p> echo/neutra (Piove di Sacco (Veneto) / Milan, Italy)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/echo-neutra/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/echo-neutra/Wed, 14 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://echoneutra.com/cdn/shop/files/Payne_sGrey-01_042026_02.png?v=1776702814&width=2400" alt="echo/neutra" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>echo/neutra</strong> — Piove di Sacco (Veneto) / Milan, Italy</p><p>echo/neutra is an Italian mechanical watch brand founded in 2018 by designer Nicola Callegaro and aerospace engineer Cristiano Quaglia, operating through the company ENCQ Srl. Callegaro founded the communication agency Zeppelin Studio in 2008, and Quaglia's background is in propulsion systems and sustainable innovation. Reports place the company in Piove di Sacco in the Veneto, with a dedicated Studio Milano as its first exclusive space, and the watches are described as Swiss Made and designed in Italy. The name nods to the architect Richard Neutra, whose houses were designed to be ready for anything, and the brand's collections take their names and inspiration from the Dolomites. Its stated philosophy is timeless design and durability, an emotional connection to the object, and a rejection of throwaway culture, with a deliberately distinctive rather than broadly appealing style.\n\nThe debut Averau collection, launched on Kickstarter in 2018, is now a family of Swiss Made automatic field and tool watches on the Sellita SW279 elaboré. The 39mm Averau 39 comes in three-hand and moon phase versions, with Black, White (full lume) and Green and Blue Degradè dials from €690, and a double moon phase indicator from €890. The larger 42mm Averau Ceramic has a matte black ceramic case with a Grade 2 titanium TiFrame structure, in three-hand form at €970 and as a chronograph on the Sellita SW510 at €1,970. The 1956 collection is the vintage-inspired line, drawing on watches of the 1950s and 1960s and a contemporary field watch: 3H models from €840, GMT models on the Sellita SW330 from €1,290, hand-wound Sellita SW510M chronographs such as the Cortina-inspired bi-compax from €1,690, and tri-compax Chrono GMT watches with a second time zone and day/night indicator from €1,970.\n\nCristallo is the brand's 42mm professional diver, named after another Dolomite peak, with a screw-down crown and 500m of water resistance on the Sellita SW279, from €1,190. Rivanera is a rectangular dress watch in sandblasted titanium described as shaped by advanced engineering and strict minimalism, at €1,490, with a smaller Piccolo version in a deep black finish with guilloché dials at €1,640, a Studio Edition sold only at Studio Milano and a Worn & Wound limited edition with Art Deco styling that has sold out. Under the One of a Kind banner, echo/neutra also makes single unique pieces that emerge from the design process and are never repeated, such as the Rivanera "Payne's Grey" (Archive 01), a Grade 5 titanium case on a manual-winding ETA 7001 with a Payne's Grey dial and copper-tone applied indices, and the matte black ceramic Averau Ceramic Chrono "Amaranth" (Archive 02), both of which have sold.\n\necho/neutra also publishes an editorial series called Proud to Be Italian, which profiles Italian people and companies, beginning with the Sicilian agricultural estate Planeta. Prices across the range run from €690 to €1,970, the watches are sold direct with a two-year international warranty and free worldwide shipping, and some models are offered as pre-orders or sold out. No production figures are published.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/echo-neutra/">View the full listing</a></p> L. Leroy (Bienne / Geneva, Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/l-leroy/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/l-leroy/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://imageconv.festinagroup.com/convert?code=eyJidWNrZXQiOiJia3QtZmVzdGluYS1zd2lzcy1jbXMtc3RyYXBpLWVudi1wcmotcC1wbGF0Zm9ybS1lY29tbWVyY2UtMWVmMyIsImtleSI6IjE3ODk0NjQ0ODQ0NDMtQXJjLVBsLUJCLmpwZyIsInBhdGgiOiJmZXN0aW5hLXN3aXNzLWNtcyIsImVkaXRzIjp7ImZpdCI6Imluc2lkZSIsImZvcm1hdCI6IndlYnAifX0=" alt="L. Leroy" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>L. Leroy</strong> — Bienne / Geneva, Switzerland</p><p>L. Leroy is a revival of one of the great names of French and Swiss watchmaking. The house was founded in Paris in 1785 by Charles Leroy, the son of a watchmaker, and was soon appointed watchmaker to the king and later a supplier to the French imperial family. In 1835 it became watchmaker to the French Ministry of the Navy, supplying marine chronometers to the major European fleets until the late 1980s, and its clients over two centuries included Marie Antoinette, Queen Victoria, Napoleon III, Chopin, Louis Pasteur, Henri Matisse, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and General de Gaulle. Its best-known creation, the Leroy 01 "La Lucie", was commissioned by the Lisbon collector António Augusto de Carvalho Monteiro and took seven years to develop: a gold pocket watch of 975 components and 27 complications that won first prize at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle and remained the world's most complicated watch until Patek Philippe's Calibre 89 in 1989. Louis Leroy also installed the first radio-telegraph time-signal system at the top of the Eiffel Tower in 1910, and the house sold an automatic-winding wristwatch as early as 1922.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/l-leroy/">View the full listing</a></p> Jacob & Co. (New York / Geneva)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/jacob-and-co/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/jacob-and-co/Mon, 12 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://watchesbysjx.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Jacob-Co.-Astronomia-Maestro-3.jpg" alt="Jacob & Co." style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Jacob & Co.</strong> — New York / Geneva</p><p>Jacob & Co. is a New York jewellery and watch house founded in 1986 by Jacob Arabo, who remains its founder and chairman. Arabo arrived in the United States from the former USSR as a child with his parents and four sisters, spent his first American summer apprenticed to a watchmaker, then trained in jewellery and began designing and making pieces in his bedroom after hours before opening a booth in New York's Diamond District. The company's first watch came from a childhood memory of a two-timezone watch his father gave him: the quartz Five Timezone, made with simple bezels and straps because Swiss suppliers had turned him away. A photograph of Naomi Campbell wearing it put the brand on the map for watches, and when Arabo returned to Switzerland he worked with a boutique watchmaking firm on the Quenttin, a vertical tourbillon with a 31-day power reserve, retailing from US$360,000. Today the company combines a New York base with Swiss watchmaking, with boutiques in New York and Geneva, among other cities.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/jacob-and-co/">View the full listing</a></p> ZBL ZBIOLAND (Hong Kong)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/zbioland/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/zbioland/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://www.zbioland.com/cdn/shop/files/20260901102753_429_47.jpg?v=1788230020&width=5000" alt="ZBL ZBIOLAND" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>ZBL ZBIOLAND</strong> — Hong Kong</p><p>ZBIOLAND, shortened to ZBL, is a Hong Kong-registered brand founded in 2021 by Lu Jinzhi, who has spent more than 20 years in the watch industry and whose early skill at painting and love of science fiction led him to design his first wristwatch. The name reads as Z for 'zero origin,' BIO for life and vitality, and LAND for a creative territory free from the limits of traditional horology, and the stated aim is to give every watch a heartbeat and a vivid soul, drawing on interstellar machinery, urban architecture, and pioneering engineering. Its watches carry ZBL model numbers and run on a mix of Sellita SW200, Miyota, and modified 'ZBL in-house + SW' movements, plus the Barcelona's proprietary caliber.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/zbioland/">View the full listing</a></p> Ollech & Wajs (Zurich / Haute-Sorne, Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/ollech-wajs/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/ollech-wajs/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://ow-watch.com/cdn/shop/products/3.4astrochron.jpg?v=1681394428" alt="Ollech & Wajs" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Ollech & Wajs</strong> — Zurich / Haute-Sorne, Switzerland</p><p>Ollech & Wajs was founded in 1956 in Zurich by Joseph Ollech and Albert Wajs, who took a small shop at 55 Stockerstrasse with a retail counter just one metre long, selling Omega and Breitling. They began making their own watches in 1957, first as OWZ (Ollech & Wajs Zürich) and under the Helsa and Piz Palu names, settling on OW from 1959, the year Ollech designed the propeller-shaped OW mark. In 1958 they had become the first Swiss watch brand to sell by mail order, and in 1964 the Caribbean 1000 Precision shocked the industry with a certified 1,000-metre depth rating in a monobloc 'Triple-Safe' case, said to go 700 metres deeper than anything Rolex or Omega had achieved.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/ollech-wajs/">View the full listing</a></p> Nomadic Watches (Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/nomadic-watches/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/nomadic-watches/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://nomadicwatches.com/cdn/shop/files/1.1314_d5130474-f63a-438c-b0fa-193952d58a1c.png?v=1780996034&width=1400" alt="Nomadic Watches" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Nomadic Watches</strong> — Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK</p><p>Nomadic was founded in 2021 in Belfast by Peter McAuley, a former mechanical engineer who sketched his first watches in a spare room, and takes its name from the SS Nomadic, the Titanic's tender. Its stated mission is to put Belfast on the watchmaking map in the way the city's shipbuilders once put it on the industrial one. Every watch uses a Swiss movement and is built in the flagship store by three Belfast-born watchmakers who handle assembly, regulation, and finishing, behind a glass wall visitors can watch through. Recurring signatures include engraved casebacks, a custom rotor, and a bright yellow seconds or GMT hand that nods to the Harland & Wolff shipyard cranes. Nomadic is the official timing partner of the United Rugby Championship and the North West 200, and backs every watch with a lifetime guarantee conditional on a service every five years, 30-day free returns, and free shipping.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/nomadic-watches/">View the full listing</a></p> Metrical Watch (Hong Kong)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/metrical-watch/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/metrical-watch/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://framerusercontent.com/images/f0UPwMCVNSbK48aQCooGONtzu8.png?width=2000&height=2000" alt="Metrical Watch" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Metrical Watch</strong> — Hong Kong</p><p>Metrical Watch is an independent Hong Kong watch brand founded by Paul MH Li, operating as Metrical Watch Limited. Li came to watchmaking through a personal fascination with horology: hands-on study led him to design his own watches, and the first Metrical timepiece began as a sketch. The brand's stated approach is "Heritage Meets Innovation" — drawing on 18th- and 19th-century pocket watches while pursuing original design — and its Latin motto, "Symphonia Temporis Pulsans," reflects that classical grounding. Design and direction are done in Hong Kong, with Swiss movements and Swiss Made production, which Li describes as a commitment to quality and reliability.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/metrical-watch/">View the full listing</a></p> Horologically Unique (Singapore)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/horologically-unique/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/horologically-unique/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://monochrome-watches.com/app/uploads/2026/05/Horologically-Unique-HU-01-Finale-Series-34mm-Diamond-Dials-Calatrava-Inspired-2.jpg" alt="Horologically Unique" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Horologically Unique</strong> — Singapore</p><p>Horologically Unique is the project of a single Singapore-based collector, who signs his notes only as 'A.' and describes himself as a guy who started a second Instagram page to sell part of his collection. That account, @horologically_unique, grew into a community, and he turned from selling vintage watches to making his own. He is explicit that the HU projects are not a brand or a business, there is no PR team, and the aim is accessible watches at the best quality he can manage. His brief for the first one was a clean, time-only dress watch that is affordable, thin, comfortable, and well made, with no logo on the dial, so the buyer pays for the watch rather than the label.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/horologically-unique/">View the full listing</a></p> Epos (Lengnau, Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/epos/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/epos/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://epos.ch/wp-content/uploads/refs/3373.808.20.15.25_3.jpg" alt="Epos" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Epos</strong> — Lengnau, Switzerland</p><p>Epos traces its roots to 1925, when James Aubert founded James Aubert SA in the Vallée de Joux and devoted himself to chronographs and minute repeaters, handing his knowledge to his son-in-law Jean Fillon, who became Epos's leading watchmaker and the source of in-house complications such as a jumping hour and a regulator modification. The brand itself dates to 1983, when Peter Hofer and his wife Erna founded Montres EPOS SA at the height of the quartz crisis, betting on mechanical watches and working closely with Fillon for twenty years. In 2002 the Chonge-Forster family took over, with Ursula Forster, from a Swiss watchmaking family, as president and her husband Tamdi, a longtime Swiss watch industry executive, as CEO, broadening the range and expanding internationally under the slogan Artistry in Watchmaking.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/epos/">View the full listing</a></p> CN Orologi (Milan, Italy)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/cn-orologi/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/cn-orologi/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://www.cnorologi.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Italiano-Verde-Alpi-DLC-GUN-metal-transp.webp" alt="CN Orologi" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>CN Orologi</strong> — Milan, Italy</p><p>CN Orologi, the watch house of CN Milano Srl, is the creation of Chiara Nardo, founder and creative director, who has designed the Italiano in Milan since 2020. Nardo says she grew up moving from one Italian city to another and cannot name a single place she belongs to; what shaped her instead was a shared culture of living, observing, and designing, and Italiano is the name she gave that identity. She describes her work as a balance of opposites — classic and contemporary, rigorous and natural, understated and sophisticated — aimed at making an identity visible rather than amazing the viewer. The design, the CN brand, and the Italiano logotype are registered with EUIPO and WIPO, and the brand says every part was designed and made exclusively for this watch.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/cn-orologi/">View the full listing</a></p> Benrus (New York, USA)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/benrus/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/benrus/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2641/6826/files/1_2d748d08-a073-4244-b649-8d8f27113e4e.png?v=1787165828" alt="Benrus" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Benrus</strong> — New York, USA</p><p>Benrus was founded in New York in 1921 by Benjamin Lazrus and his two brothers, and the name joins the first syllable of his first name to the last syllable of the family name. The three pooled $5,000 to import Swiss movements and case them in the city, from the Hippodrome building in the jewellery district, which is still the company's address. A Charles Lindbergh campaign followed in 1926, and the 1929 Airman, with its cut-corner case and eagle-head corners in black enamel, was billed as the official watch of National Air Transport, later United Airlines. The 1940s Sky Chief, the brand's first chronograph, was sold as the 'Official Watch of Famous Airlines'.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/benrus/">View the full listing</a></p> Atelier Nossedh Chronometrie (Sweden)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/atelier-nossedh-chronometrie/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/atelier-nossedh-chronometrie/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://www.ateliernossedh.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Atelier-Nossedh-Three-Quarter-Roman-Blue-Sunray-Dial-Blue-Strap-scaled.jpg" alt="Atelier Nossedh Chronometrie" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Atelier Nossedh Chronometrie</strong> — Sweden</p><p>Atelier Nossedh is a Swedish independent watch workshop founded by designer Alexander Gimell. The name Nossedh means "passing time" in Sámi. Gimell set out to make the small, classically proportioned, affordable chronograph he could not find for himself, and the brand describes itself as a workshop for experimentation and refinement rather than a conventional label. Scandinavian design is a stated influence: he starts with the case, aims for a classic-meets-modern look, and says every part of the design has a purpose, with nothing decorative that does not function. The company is registered as Atelier Nossedh AB; watches are Swiss made in small quantities, and no founding year or workshop address is published.\n\nThe debut model, the AN.01 Chronograph, is a vintage-inspired hand-wound chronograph that draws on 1940s designs. Its 316L stainless steel case measures 37mm in diameter, 44mm lug-to-lug and 10.5mm thick (12.5mm with the double-domed sapphire crystal), with 19mm lug width and 50m water resistance. Linear brushing meets polished transitions, and concave curves on the bezel and caseback save material and improve comfort on the wrist. The bi-compax dial has a 30-minute counter at 3 o'clock and small seconds at 9, with applied indices, bevelled leaf hands and a tachymeter scale, and the buyer chooses Roman or Arabic numerals at checkout.\n\nInside is the Sellita SW510 M in élaboré grade: manual-winding, 28,800 vph, 63 hours of power reserve, with a 30-minute chronograph counter, central chronograph seconds, small seconds and hacking seconds, regulated to about ±5 seconds per day. The AN.01 is offered in six colourways — sunburst black, blue and brown, and electroplated silvery-white, salmon and gold — on 19mm French Epsom leather straps with a polished steel pin buckle, and further strap colours are sold separately. Priced at €2,200, it was sold through pre-orders direct from the brand between 21 November 2025 and 30 January 2026, and the brand reviews it in Monochrome and Time+Tide describe it as a compact, accessible chronograph. No edition size is published; sales are in limited batches, and several colourways are currently listed out of stock.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/atelier-nossedh-chronometrie/">View the full listing</a></p> Armand Nicolet (Tramelan, Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/armand-nicolet/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/armand-nicolet/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/7cc0dc_9f08b4e7045f411c9add537676ba2e81~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_290,h_550,al_c,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/7cc0dc_9f08b4e7045f411c9add537676ba2e81~mv2.png" alt="Armand Nicolet" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Armand Nicolet</strong> — Tramelan, Switzerland</p><p>The Armand Nicolet story begins around 1875 in Tramelan, in the Bernese Jura, where Armand Nicolet, the son of a watchmaker, set up his own Atelier d'Horlogerie after a brilliant apprenticeship. In 1902 he produced a pocket watch with a guilloché rose-gold case, an enamel dial, a single-button chronograph, a complete calendar, and an hour, quarter, and minute repeater, and his watches are still kept in the company museum. When he died in 1939 his son Willy took over and built the firm into one of the region's most important production facilities, and in 1987 Willy's chance meeting with the Italian watch entrepreneur Rolando Braga began a cooperation between Swiss technical skill and Italian creativity.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/armand-nicolet/">View the full listing</a></p> Arcturus (Singapore)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/arcturus/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/arcturus/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/facccb_71234ceaa88f4deb897c657c48304e64~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_936,h_1172,al_c,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01/facccb_71234ceaa88f4deb897c657c48304e64~mv2.png" alt="Arcturus" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Arcturus</strong> — Singapore</p><p>Arcturus is a Singapore microbrand founded in 2017 by Alexander Ian Loh, a legal counsel with a French multinational by day and, by night, a watch designer and watchmaker. It is named for the brightest star in the northern celestial hemisphere, reflecting the team's hope of becoming a supernova among microbrands and putting Singapore on the horological map. The four-person team also includes Ronald Chiam on finance and treasury, Sattish Segaran, a mechanical engineer who serves as Chief Artistic Officer, and Vin Chng on operations and logistics. Its Arcturus Promise is that no timepiece will go uncared for: every watch is tested and regulated before shipping, and LC-2 buyers receive a two-year international guarantee followed by Arcturus covering 50% of maintenance and repair costs for a further ten years.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/arcturus/">View the full listing</a></p> Aera (United Kingdom / Switzerland)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/aera/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/aera/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://aera.co/cdn/shop/files/AERA_Ecom_260625_C-1Chrono_CloseupDial_Lume1_03_c77a51ff-614c-4784-8849-9b3e6b23247e.jpg?v=1761213936&width=4000" alt="Aera" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Aera</strong> — United Kingdom / Switzerland</p><p>Aera began in Geneva in early January 2018, when a small group of watch professionals from different corners of the industry met to answer one question: what defines a good watch? Their answer was that it should be honest, well made, and reasonably priced, and they took their cue from the tool watches of the 1950s and 1960s, not as retro copies but as contemporary, original designs. The name comes from the Latin 'era', a period of time with a distinct character. The brand sells under the line 'Swiss made, British design' and trades as Lone and Tonto Ltd in the UK. It launched with two models, the D-1 Diver and P-1 Pilot, and has since added the M-1 field watch and the C-1 chronograph.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/aera/">View the full listing</a></p> Charles Berret (London, UK)https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/charles-berret/https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/charles-berret/Fri, 09 Oct 2026 12:00:00 +0000<p><img src="https://charlesberret.co/cdn/shop/files/DSC_5974.jpg?v=1769685414" alt="Charles Berret" style="max-width:100%"></p><p><strong>Charles Berret</strong> — London, UK</p><p>Charles Berret is a London-born microbrand, designed in Britain around Swiss movements and launched in 2023 as what it calls an attempt to reinvent vintage horology with modern craft and technology. Its debut Darth Collection takes Gérald Genta's first design as its starting point, gives it a science-fiction aesthetic, and refines it with modern engineering; one reviewer called the result an affordable alternative to the Polerouter. The collection began as a limited run of 100 pieces presented as three interpretations: Asteria, Darth, and Arrow.</p><p><a href="https://independentwatchmaking.com/makers/charles-berret/">View the full listing</a></p>