Are Microbrands The Future? Ardra Labs Might Be The Answer

There was a time when collecting watches felt almost linear. You started with entry-level Swiss, graduated to the icons, and eventually if you stayed the course arrived at the hallowed ground of legacy maisons. The journey was predictable, even aspirational. But somewhere along the way, that script stopped working for me. Not because the great houses lost their appeal, but because something else started to feel more exciting, more personal, and frankly, more honest: microbrands. 

As collectors, we like to think we’re rational. We talk about movements, finishing, complications. But what we’re really chasing is emotion, passion and the quiet thrill of discovery. And that’s where microbrands have changed the game. They don’t come with centuries of history. They don’t need to. What they offer instead is immediacy: a direct line between creator and collector. When I buy a microbrand, I’m not buying into a legacy I’m buying into an idea, often at the moment it’s being born. There’s something deeply satisfying about that.

The Joy of Owning Something Different

Walk into any collector meet today, and you’ll still see the usual suspects. But increasingly, the watches that spark conversation aren’t the predictable ones. They’re the unexpected pieces, the ones you don’t immediately recognise. Microbrands thrive here. They create watches that feel personal, almost like inside references. Owning one feels less like participating in a trend and more like being part of a quiet, knowing community.

Let’s address the obvious: pricing. The steady climb of luxury watch prices has forced many collectors to pause. Not because we can’t buy but because we’ve started questioning value. Microbrands step into this space with surprising confidence. You begin to notice details solid case construction, thoughtful design, reliable movements that feel disproportionately good for the price. It’s not about replacing high horology; it’s about rediscovering value in watchmaking. And once you see it, it’s hard to unsee.

Where Ardra Labs Changed My Perspective

Every collector has that one moment. That one watch that shifts how they think. For me, this moment was India Watch Weekend 2026, where I discovered Ardra Labs. At first glance, it didn’t shout for attention. But the deeper I looked, the more it revealed itself as something genuinely different not in styling alone, but in purpose. If you’ve ever used a GMT watch in India, you’ve probably done the mental math. That half-hour offset GMT+5:30 has always been an inconvenience quietly accepted by collectors. Most watches simply ignore it. Ardra Labs didn’t.

What makes the story even more compelling is how personal the brand’s origin really is. Navaneeth Krishnan didn’t set out to start a watch company in the traditional sense. He set out to solve a frustration he lived with daily. Splitting his life between Washington, D.C. and his family in South India, he found himself constantly adjusting for India’s +5:30 time zone, a detail most GMT watches simply ignore. That small but persistent inconvenience became an obsession, leading him down a path of sketches, mechanical study, and eventually years of development. Ardra Labs, in that sense, isn’t just a brand it’s the outcome of a question every serious collector has asked at some point: why hasn’t someone fixed this yet? And perhaps that’s what resonates most it wasn’t created to fit into the industry, but to challenge something the industry had long overlooked.

What sets Ardra Labs apart, at least from where I stand, is intent. There’s a clarity to the watch. Every design decision feels anchored in function. The dial isn’t just different for the sake of being different, rather it exists to communicate something more effectively. In a space where many watches are designed to evoke the past, this felt like a watch designed for how we actually live today. Globally connected, constantly shifting between time zones and increasingly aware of detail.

Owning a piece like this doesn’t replace the icons in my collection. It complements them. But it offers something they often don’t: the feeling of having discovered something early. Of supporting a brand not because it’s established, but because it deserves to be. And in many ways, that feels closer to what collecting is supposed to be.

The Way Forward

If the last decade of collecting was about chasing icons, the next might be about chasing ideas. And that’s where microbrands especially ones like Ardra Labs become impossible to ignore. Because at some point, every collector asks the same question: Am I buying the watch everyone recognises, or the one that makes me think? Lately, I’ve found myself choosing the latter.