“Indies,” “microbrands” — whatever you call them, these smaller, independent watch companies are making waves in the market right now.
James Stacey, in an excellent essay published on Hodinkee in August of 2018, laid out a conundrum in the watchmaking world: watch fans want to buy boutique or “microbrand” watches, yet brands hate the moniker.
“[Microbrand] operates as a blanket term for small watch brands that operate online, which lumps quality producers in with scam artists and get-rich-quick schemes,” Stacey wrote, while at the same time, insisting that it was a useful term (legitimate enough to be found on Wikipedia) that could be applied to quality brands.
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