Studio Underdog

Studio Underd0g was born from a moment of pure irritation with the watch industry, as founder Richard Benc tells it: 'The biggest news in the watch world in 2020? A certain brand was said to be upping its case size by as much as a millimetre. Thrilling stuff.' That frustration with the industry's self-seriousness became the design brief for an entirely new kind of British watch brand — one built around 'a serious watch that didn't take itself too seriously.' The name itself is a small piece of brand-naming rebellion. Benc researched conventional naming wisdom, which suggests short, distinctive neologisms — Kodak, Rolex — but found every good option already taken. His solution: since the new company would always be something of an underdog among the mighty Swiss houses, and since the whole enterprise was conceived as a design studio rather than a traditional manufacture, 'Studio Underd0g' was born — with the 0 replacing the O borrowed from gaming culture's convention of swapping in a distinctive character to stand out from the crowd, which, as the brand puts it, 'is precisely what we do.' Every Studio Underd0g watch is assembled fully in-house in Great Britain, each one built start to finish by a single pair of hands rather than passed along an assembly line — with the initials of the individual assembler appearing on the paperwork that accompanies every watch, alongside independent QC inspection via the brand's partner Horologium in Maidenhead, covering demagnetisation, three-position rate testing, and full regulation.

The core range is organised into three numbered series, each built around a distinct case architecture and playful, food- or colour-inspired naming convention rather than conventional model names. The 01SERIES is the brand's chronograph line, now in its third generation (Gen3), with references including the Watermel0n, Desert Sky, Go0fy Panda, and Mint Ch0c Chip. The 02SERIES is a field watch built around a distinctive multi-layer sapphire-sandwich dial construction, with references including Pink Lem0nade, Steffany Blue, Full Mo0n, and Midnight. The 03SERIES is the brand's monopusher chronograph line, distinguished by an oversized 'big-eye' subdial, beginning with the Salm0n reference. Beyond the numbered core range, Studio Underd0g has built its reputation substantially on a relentless string of collaborations and cause-driven limited editions: the Uneggspected Series and the Half 'N' Half for Wristcheck; the Smoked Salm0n; BWD Field for British Watchmakers' Day; a Pizza Party edition for Time & Tide; and charity editions raising funds for Mary's Meals — each one released with the same tongue-in-cheek naming energy that defines the brand's whole identity.

Studio Underd0g's most significant collaborations, however, have been with genuine names in independent and enthusiast watchmaking. Project Passion (2024), the brand's collaboration with H. Moser & Cie., introduced the Swiss Sellita SW510 M hand-wound monopusher chronograph movement to the Underd0g range for the first time, with a custom Côte de Genève, ruthenium anthracite-finished bridge made exclusively for the brand. That same movement went on to power the 03SERIES Champagne & Caviar (2025), created with Massena LAB, the collaboration label founded by noted collector William Massena; the limited-edition 200-piece run — its dial split between a shimmering champagne-toned sunray base and an oversized 'caviar' subdial rendered in a bespoke bubbled texture, with a miniature champagne-bottle silhouette hidden in the counterweight of the chronograph hand — sold out in twelve minutes at launch during Geneva's GPHG week.

A trio of cocktail-themed watches with British case-maker Fears Watch Company (the Mimosa, the Gimlet, and the Manhattan, all 2025) explored shared design ground between the two independent British houses, while the UNORIGINALS series, subtitled 'the copy of a copy,' offered a more conceptual, self-aware meditation on originality itself. A collaboration with French guilloché specialists Sartory Billard produced the SB05 Sunflower, bringing traditional hand-guilloché dial artistry into Studio Underd0g's design language. Most ambitious of all is The Alliance 02 (2025), created with fellow British independent Christopher Ward: a genuine pocket watch — a format neither brand had ever attempted — built around Christopher Ward's in-house CW-001 hand-wound calibre (a 198-part, COSC-certified chronometer movement with a 120-hour power reserve from twin mainspring barrels) inside a bespoke 44mm case derived from Christopher Ward's Light-catcher design language, paired with a Studio Underd0g dial construction using seven layers of custom Super-LumiNova beneath a floating 1.4mm sapphire disc — described by the collaborators as the most luminous pocket watch ever made. Limited to 100 pieces, priced at £2,995, and sold exclusively to members of the Alliance of British Watch and Clock Makers with all profits donated to that trade body, The Alliance 02 sold out within minutes — following the earlier Alliance 01 with Fears, which itself sold out in two minutes thirteen seconds and quadrupled Alliance membership on release. Studio Underd0g has, in the space of a few short years, become one of the UK's largest independent watch assemblers, proof, as the brand itself puts it, 'that serious watchmaking doesn't need to take itself too seriously.'