Value for Money in Independent Watchmaking – Part 2

This article is the next in Watch Affinity’s series partnering with UK-based independent watchmaking specialist retailer, The Limited Edition, looking to showcase different independent watchmakers and brands to highlight what they have to offer in the ever-expanding watch market.

Be sure to read to the end to find out how you can get a little bonus with any order at The Limited Edition as well!

During this three-part series (check out part 1 here), I will be focusing on independent watchmaking at the more affordable end of the market, the idea being to showcase three more fantastic brands in this sector and some of the watches they have on offer which I think offer excellent value for money.

Today, we are taking a look at three different brands from around the world – hopefully there will be one which piques your interest that you hadn’t previously been aware of! Let’s take a look…

Minase Watches

First, we head to Japan, and to the mountainous prefecture of Akita to the find independent watch brand Minase. Theirs is perhaps not a name which springs to mind when you think of Japanese watchmaking, with brands such as Seiko and Grand Seiko, Kurono, Orient, and watchmakers such as Hajime Asaoka and Naoya Hida perhaps more prominent.

I first encountered Minase was at the Watchmakers Club event in 2019, where I was fortunate to be able to get hands on with a couple of pieces and try them out. I will openly admit that Minase wasn’t a brand I had heard of before that night, but my standing memory of them was being impressed by the quality of the watches I had handled and, suffice it to say, the brand was etched into my memory.

An interesting history starts in 1963 as a drill bit manufacturer under a different company name. The company specialised in step drills (in fact this is the basis for the brand’s logo), and this expertise soon attracted the attention of the Japanese watchmaking industry. Before long they were producing watch cases, bracelets, and as a result even evolving their polishing expertise, too (more on that in a moment).

The Minase brand was founded in 2005, seeking to benefit from the expertise that had been developed over the preceding years, to create their own watches in their own way.

Today, Minase offers a series of designs with either a round or square case, each with a featured date complication in an aperture that exposes either 3 or 7 numbers of the date wheel. Each alternate date number on the wheel is either black-on-white, or white-on-black, which I think makes for more of a feature of a complication with can otherwise be a little… underwhelming.

In addition to the feature of the date complication, Minase employs a “case-in-case” configuration, where the modified Swiss ETA movement is actually cased inside the dial, which is itself suspended within the case.

What this configuration creates is a real visual depth that you don’t get elsewhere, even more so with the Urushi dials. Without the watch or the movement being skeletonised, you still can see through the watch if you hold it to the light; to my mind, when you see and understand the case-in-case configuration, Minase becomes all the more impressive.

There is also an option for what Minase call an Urushi dial, which is essentially a handcrafted lacquer dial created by the brand’s own artisans.

I mentioned earlier the brand having evolved their polishing expertise…

With Minase, it is not only the dials which are special, but the cases (and bracelets) are just as much a highlight, showcasing a mastery of Sallaz polishing. You might have heard of Zaratsu polishing (as used by Grand Seiko), but what you might not know is that the term Zaratsu finds its origins with a company called Gebrüder Sallaz (or Sallaz Brothers), who manufactured a polishing machine used by Seiko in the 1950s. When using the machine, the folks at Seiko started referring to the polish finish it created as Zaratsu, with “zarats” being the phonetic pronunciation of the German name, Sallaz.

So, whilst it might not be obvious without delving into it, Sallaz polishing and Zaratsu polishing are exactly the same thing.

Given a Minase watch includes a Swiss automatic movement, unique case-in-case configuration, and depending on the model can also have Sallaz – or Zaratsu – polishing on the case and bracelet, and / or a handcrafted lacquered Urushi dial, the prices will likely surprise you. Prices start from around £3000 for the ‘Five Windows’ on a leather strap and go up to around £5000 for an Urushi lacquered dial or a little over £5000 for a piece with a Sallaz polished bracelet. In terms of value for money, that’s pretty impressive in my book.

Learn more: Minase-Watches.com or follow Minase Watches on Instagram.

Louis Erard

Next up, we head to Le Noirmont in the Swiss Jura, and to Louis Erard. The history of this brand can be traced back to 1929 in La-Choux-de-Fonds, when founder Louis Erard opened his watchmaking school and started a watch casing company.

It was just 2 years later in 1931 that the first watches were produced under the Louis Erard brand, where watch production continued for decades. A significant landmark achievement arrived during the 1980s when they added a power reserve indication and regulator layout to the Peseux 7001 movement – which remains exclusive to (and is arguably a calling card of) the brand today, featuring prominently across their current offering and has been the canvas for multiple recent collaboration watches.

The Louis Erard brand was purchased and relocated to its current home in Le Noirmont in 1992. However, here, it remained essentially dormant until it was revived by new investors in 2003, and it has not looked back since, having significantly grown their production output to tens of thousands of pieces annually.

Louis Erard places great emphasis on their four core values of delivering watches. These values are that their watches should be 1) of the highest quality; 2) of a timeless design; 3) assembled by the hands of experts; and 4) excellent value for money.

Today there are three collections on offer. The Excellence collection comprises the majority of Louis Erard watches, which are predominantly regulator displays; The La Sportive collection encompasses a series of limited edition chronographs; and the Héritage collection features three-hand models with conservatively coloured sunburst dials that fade to black on the periphery, and a discreet date aperture at 6 o’clock.

Personally, my favourite thing about Louis Erard is the collaboration watches that they have produced in recent years. They have worked with the likes of Alain Silberstein, Eric Giroud (who has worked a lot with MB&F), and the inimitable Vianney Halter, to produce interesting, limited edition references of their famous regulator watches. Indeed, the Louis Erard x Vianney Halter collaboration has this year been nominated in the GPHG Petite Aiguille Award.

In my mind, these collaborations serve not just as unique watches, but vehicles to make watches bearing the names of the collaborators more affordable, too – something that I think is highly commendable.

In terms of affordability, Louis Erard offers a lot of bang for your buck. A Héritage collection dress watch will set you back around £1000, a day-date chronograph from the La Sportive collection is a little over £2000, and a regulator watch with power reserve indication is a little under £2000. Even the collaboration watches were available (although not for long!) for around £3000, so be sure to keep your eyes out for any more of these in future, too!

Learn more: LouisErard.com or follow Louis Erard on Instagram.

Garrick

For the final brand today, we travel to Norfolk, England, to take a look at Garrick, a small independent brand founded in 2014 with an annual production of around just 50 watches. Garrick watches are inspired by traditional British watchmaking, and a desire to produce as many components internally as possible.

From the client’s perspective, with Garrick being a small-scale outfit, it allows for a truly intimate experience – they offer a fully bespoke service whereby clients are able to have an input into the design and the details of their watch.

When I attended the aforementioned Watchmakers Club event in 2019, I was also fortunate to be able to handle a few Garrick timepieces. As with Minase, Garrick wasn’t a brand I was overly familiar with at the time, and so getting to handle the watches and speak to the team was a real privilege to learn more.

My main takeaway of Garrick that evening was that I thought that these were certainly watches which need to be seen in person to really do them justice – the attention to detail on these watches, especially on the engine turning, is just incredible.

Testament to the quality of these watches is the fact Garrick’s S4 watch has this year been nominated in the GPHG Petite Aiguille Award (coincidentally, alongside the Louis Erard Vianney Halter collaboration discussed earlier).

A significant amount of the work to create a Garrick watch takes place at their Norfolk manufacture, including the dials, hands (including the bluing process), bridges and cases. For the movement, Garrick initially modified existing Unitas calibres, and even developed their own free-sprung balance wheel to use in place of the index adjuster found on mass-produced watches used to regulate the movement.

The index adjuster works by essentially altering the length of the balance spring in the balance wheel. Where the spring passes through a pin at either end, the index adjuster moves the position of one of the pins, thus essentially either shortening or extending the length of the spring, depending on how it is adjusted.

Using a free-sprung balance wheel changes this approach – instead, the length of the spring remains constant, and the balance wheel is adjusted by tightening or loosening screws which are applied to the circumference of the wheel. This is more time consuming but leads to a better overall standard of accuracy and reliability; with Garrick’s focus on quality, this is most certainly time well spent.

Garrick achieved the goal of many independent manufacturers by producing their first in-house movement in 2016 with the UT-G01 calibre, which was designed in conjunction with Andreas Strehler and his company Uhr Teil AG and was presented in the Garrick Portsmouth, a watch inspired by old maritime instruments with a magnificent engine turned guilloche dial.

With such an impressive dedication to quality, it may come as a surprise to find that the entry level frosted-dial Garrick S4 is priced under £5000, which all things considered is simply astounding value for money. The majority of other Garrick watches can be purchased for between £5000 and £10,000 depending on the model and finish (which remember can be discussed with the brand directly as a part of their bespoke services) with a few particularly special pieces costing £15,000 or more.

Learn more: Garrick.co.uk or follow Garrick on Instagram.

In Summary

Independent watchmaking can be a tricky field to navigate, with watchmakers and brands that are not talked about so often for the most part, and that have to shout far louder to be heard in amongst the rest of the market. However, just because they are not brands or even individuals that you have heard of is certainly no reason to pass them by.

In this article we have taken a look at brands from Japan, Switzerland and England, each of whom are doing impressive work and offering incredible watches that can be acquired with a £5000 budget, proving again that you simply don’t need to spend tens of thousands of pounds for a unique or rare, high-quality timepiece.

If you want to learn more, be sure to visit the brands’ websites as above, and for those of you in the UK you can find these great brands and more with our partners at The Limited Edition.

Be sure to mention “Watch Affinity” when speaking with the team at The Limited Edition to receive a small gift with any order!

If you have any questions, please get in touch via our Contact page, or via our Instagram.

You might also be interested in:

• Independent Watchmaking – An Ode to the Indies
• Value for Money in Independent Watchmaking – Part 1
• The Watchmakers Club 2019
• Watch Books, Watch Boxes and more at the Watch Affinity Shop on Amazon (commissions earned)

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More about Watch Affinity’s Partnership with The Limited Edition

As smaller entities, independent watchmakers and brands are far more susceptible than those with corporate backing to the economic effects that will inevitably be felt following the Covid-19 pandemic, and so I felt it was important for me to try and do something to help.

The result of this was Watch Affinity’s partnership with The Limited Edition, a UK-based retailer specialising in independent watchmaking, and even working directly with indie brands, watchmakers, and collectors to collaborate on unique pieces, too. I will publish regular articles such as this one, shining the Watch Affinity Spotlight on independent watchmaking in an effort to showcase both brands and their timepieces, and spread the word. Pandemic-pending, perhaps even coverage of some exciting events, too!

Co-Founder of The Limited Edition and GPHG Academy member, Pietro Tomajer says:

“The rise of independent watchmaking is, at the time we write this, a fact of life. The appreciation of watch lovers and collectors for the artisanal workshops, the contemporary watchmakers, the alternative brands is remarkable.

“There is a misconception about artisanal independent watchmaking, an aura of inaccessible luxury that has sometimes the power to spook away some true lovers of the art of watchmaking. In this in-depth review Watch Affinity masterfully shed a light on a few makers that make in ‘proposing amazing value’ their score strength.

“With prices ranging from £2000 to £10000, these brands take us to a journey were nothing is impossible, including customised handmade dials, personalised case materials or finishing, to proprietary or in-house manufactured movements and, of course, creative alternative straps, with vegan options taking more and more importance.

“Watch Affinity’s and The Limited Edition’s intention is to take you to a journey where value is not necessary expressed by the retail price of a timepiece, but by the inner value around the timepiece and the work that goes with it. In simple terms, in independent watchmaking there really is a timepiece for everyone, starting from a £500 Raketa to a £800,000.00 Vianney Halter, and in this series of articles we explore the power of affordable independent watchmaking. Enjoy the journey.”

Remember to mention “Watch Affinity” when speaking with the team at The Limited Edition to receive a small gift with any order!