In the 21st century, the epitome of cool is knowing something before anyone else discovers it. That’s why it’s tough for us to reveal the names of some of our favourite lesser known watch brands, but in the long run we believe you deserve to be sporting one of their amazing timepieces on your wrist and that trumps our craving for coolness any day.
Below we’re spilling the beans on 5 hidden gem watch brands around the world.
Cool Watch Brand #1 – NOMOS Glashütte
NOMOS Glashütte is a small independent watchmaker located in a tiny German town that specializes in manual-winding and automatic mechanical watches. The company was founded in January 1990, two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall, by Roland Schwertner. In its early years, NOMOS Glashütte focused on manufacturing mechanical watches with hand-wound, Swiss-made movements, but since 2005, NOMOS has been designing and producing its watch movements in-house (which is almost unheard of at this price point). These timepieces are steeped in watchmaking tradition, so though they may not be expensive, they are certainly rich in heritage and elegance.
Cool Watch Brand #2 – MeisterSinger
MeisterSinger is a name that’s still unknown outside of hardcore watch-loving circles, but its unique brand philosophy is one that deserves your attention. What makes MeisterSinger stand out? Its watches, of course, which have only one hand. While other brands are adding complex complications to make their timepieces cool, MeisterSinger is stripping them back to basics.
Manfred Brassler founded the company in 2001 to create clear, consistent and simple measuring instruments at affordable prices. The concept is just as fresh today as it was when it was introduced more than a decade ago.
Cool Watch Brand #3 – Van Der Gang
Passion, detail and craftsmanship are all of utmost importance to Van Der Gang. The small, high-end Dutch watch brand is located in the historic town of Dokkum, in the north of The Netherlands, where it builds parts at a microscopic level used in spaceflight and medical facilities.
Van Der Gang’s approach to watchmaking focuses on the simple elegance of a well-balanced design with no dominating features. The result is a collection of watches that are understated but filled with refined details that are appreciated when you look up close.
Cool Watch Brand #4 – Bremont
Bremont is a name more likely to be familiar to our readers. The award-winning British company produces impressively engineered chronometers out of their HQ in Henley on Thames, England. The company’s journey began in 2002 when, inspired by their love of flying historic aircraft, a pair of brothers set out to create a line of high-quality pilot’s watches.
The timepieces in their classic range are all COSC-certified and hand built in limited numbers. Their technical mastery, innovation, precision, reliability and durability consistently impress.
Cool Watch Brand #5 – Junghans
In April of 1861, Erhard Junghans created a company with his brother-in-law. By 1903, that company had become the largest watch and clock factory in the world. These days, Junghans produces timepieces that blend tradition with modernity and outstanding manufacturing quality.
A Junghans watch will remain with a single watchmaker or a small team of specialists, who are fully responsible for its development from the first moment onwards, all the way through to power reserve fine-tuning and final water-resistance testing. Junghans watches live up to every German stereotype about efficiency and quality.
No comments:
Post a Comment