Zach Kazan

We've been saying it for years, but one of the things that makes the microbrand and small independent scene so exciting is that there is truly a watch for everyone. It's a playing field that allows makers to be incredibly obscure, follow their own strange and otherwise hard to understand impulses, and bring watches to market that simply wouldn't exist without that individual jolt of creativity. Ianos is a great example. This is a brand that exists to explore Greek diving culture (which has a rich history) and has built a design language around traditionally Greek motifs that simply don't exist elsewhere in watchmaking. It doesn't really get more niche than that.

If you follow me on Instagram, or if you know me in the real world, you're probably aware that I'm currently in the uncomfortable but exciting process of packing up my life into a neverending series of cardboard boxes, destined for a moving truck. After several years of becoming far too well acquainted with members of the Amtrak Acela crew, I've decided to put those relationships on hold, and relocate to New York City. I signed a lease on a too small, too expensive Brooklyn apartment, and I honestly cannot wait to live in it. It'll be a great opportunity to work more closely with my Worn & Wound colleagues who I see primarily in Google Meet windows and fleetingly on my office visits and to experience the watch industry from the center of it in the United States. It'll also be fun to

We're at an interesting time when it comes to the dialogue in the watch community on vintage inspired watches. Watches that make explicit references to the past are simply less common now than they were a decade ago, or even 4 or 5 years ago. I've long believed that a maturing group of collectors who entered the hobby when these watches were all the rage have aged into a point in their collecting journeys when more adventurous and contemporary designs simply have more interest.

Wren, the microbrand founded by Wrist Enthusiast's Craig Karger, has just unveiled the Vessel, a sharp left turn from the brand's well received dive watches, and easily their most ambitious watch to date.

Toledano & Chan has introduced their latest release, the B/1 Dazzle. Eagle eyed GPHG watchers might have gotten a small tease of this one when nominations were released a few months back (it's fairly routine for brands to submit embargoed watches, and they're often revealed before the official launch as part of the GPHG voting process), but now the cat is fully out of the bag. The Dazzle is actually a pair of watches, both using Toledano & Chan's now familiar case architecture inspired by the

RGM has introduced a new perpetual calendar, their first since the Model 103-R Minute Repeater Perpetual which was introduced in the 1990s. The new watch, dubbed the 501-PC, has classic RGM aesthetics and incorporates a new module from Dubois-Depraz for the calendar complication (not unlike

If you were around the micro/indie watch world in 2021, you almost certainly remember the release of the first Ming collaboration with Massena LAB. It was a limited edition that sold out incredibly fast (as most Ming releases did in those early days) and was notable for a few things beyond what I think is still an objectively cool design. First, this release came at the height of pandemic drop culture, and the quick sell through angered many Instagram commenters and there was a memorable backlash toward both brands (though I recall Ming taking the brunt of it). You could even argue that this release marked a sort of inflection point, and we began to see brands (including Ming) take steps with future releases to be more fair minded about how pieces are allocated. Second, when these watches eventually did make it to owners, there were a handful of notable and widely reported QC/mechanical issues (which of course were resolved by the brands, but still, not the cherry-on-top anyone was hoping for). Was the launch a catastrophe? Not really. Examples of these watches still routinely sell for well over retail on the secondary market. They're one of a handful of releases from this era that really mark a specific moment in time.

For their tenth anniversary, Monta has released a pair of limited editions paying tribute to the Swiss watchmaking town of Neuchâtel, where every Monta from the earliest days of the brand has been developed. The two new watches, variants of the Triumph and Skyquest, offer a bunch of unique Easter eggs for longtime Monta fans while also remaining attractive and accessible timepieces on their own. Like all Montas, they are understated and built on a love of vintage tool watches, but for their tenth anniversary the team has allowed themselves to get a bit reflective in some of the design details, which I think many enthusiasts who've been with them from the beginning will appreciate.

We've arrived at the time of year where we can finally highlight my favorite seasonal watch niche. Skull watches, most often created to underscore the philosophy of memento mori (an acknowledgement of our mortality) tend to pop up in October to coincide with Halloween and Day of the Dead celebrations. This is a watch design rabbit hole that has snuck up on me over the years, but if you think about it, it makes a certain amount of sense that a skull represented on a dial surface could be an interesting platform for a variety of craft techniques. We'll have a (long) list of some of our favorite skull watches on the website a little later this month.

Breitling fills a big hole in their Navitimer collection today with the release of a pair of watches that feel like concerted efforts at engaging the watch enthusiast community. The new Navitimer B09 Chronograph 41 and the Navitimer B02 Chronograph 41 Cosmonaute are not limited editions, but part of the brand's core collection, their presence there will surely please a wide swath of longtime Breitling fans, particularly those interested in vintage Breitling, and classic chronographs more generally.