Top 5 Microbrands To Discover In November 2025
6 min read
To be honest, the only element that’s micro in today’s microbrand segment exists in just the name. The consistent growth of this space has lent the industry some of the most impressive and innovative yield. It has been a long time since the early phenomenon of “microbrands” was emerging, and today the space has grown both in the number of participants as well as in the volumes of demand.
In many ways, the niche-centric companies that form the microbrand universe attract a very mainstream audience and in doing so pose as possible alternatives to many options from brands operating in an opposite spectrum.
With so many microbrands to learn about, let’s dive back into our regularly scheduled series and know five new microbrands.
Fam Al Hut
Watchmaking originality, both in technical and aesthetic regards, is an entity as scarce as non-existent in the modern era of the craft. Much of what’s born comes as a result of mainly received craft knowledge and literally centuries of trial and error. To a point, most of the mechanics and styles originating in the current age rely on simple mathematics and very standardized designs.
If that’s the unfortunate state of the industry now, then Fam Al Hut is undeniably an entity that deserves infinite respect. With a design that’s notably original, Fam Al Hut’s Mark 1 Möbius came into being in 2025 with no literal historic reference to look up to. It’s simply one of the most mechanically and aesthetically nuanced timepieces to debut in the modern generation. It comes from a place that’s also nuanced to the tradition of artisanal hand-made watchmaking - China.
Fam Al Hut’s visionary co-founders Xinyan Dai and Lukas Youn with their debut timepiece have put China on the map for haute horlogerie, so much so that the Mark 1 Möbius won the prestigious “Audacity Prize” at this year’s GPHG awards. The watch is a compact movement housed in an unconventional capsule-shaped case focusing deliberately on a very nuanced aspect of horological miniaturization. The timepiece features a bi-axis tourbillon at the top and a double retrograde display for the minutes and the jumping hours.
All of this is packed in a very compact and organically wearable oval shape with a concave form that measures just 42.2mm tall and 24.3mm wide. It’s incredibly thin as well, at just 12.9mm, for the content it compresses in a very linear arrangement. The Mark 1 Möbius earns Fam Al Hut a position at the top of the list for brands to keep a keen eye out for.
Price: ₹28,58,560 approx.
Kollokium
The watch world in general and its microbrand space in particular deliver a fantastically amazing yield of exciting products. With so many new brands popping every now and then, it can be a bit hard to stand out. But Kollokium is one microbrand that has been able to carve its own niche with products that are leap years apart in aesthetic when it comes to competitors.
Founded in 2020 by three friends, Amr Sindi, Barth Nussbaumer, and Manuel Emch, Kollokium calls itself not a brand, but a project-based platform with a purpose defined by, “exploring new possibilities in watchmaking from alternative perspectives”. In doing so, Kollokium is exceptionally liberated in its operations and also in the future direction of its products. The brand or the platform pivots on a “neubrutalist” approach and its inceptive project took three years to be materialized as the, well - Projekt 01.
With its second and latest offering, the Projekt 02, Kollokium retained the incredibly disruptive aesthetic of the Project 01 but in a slightly distant vein. Both of these products from what could be termed as an unconventional design collective offer aesthetic consistency via some form of a topographical-like dial. In case of the Project 01, it was the cylindrical pins filled with Super-LumiNova that made up its discombobulating face and for the Projekt 02, a similar 3D approach is followed but realized in the form of a nine-layer topographic relief motif dial comprising of 67 individual plates and visually synonymous to an actual topographical map.
In its founding, expression, as well as execution, Kollokium has and will definitely stir things up on the broader watch scene. With no fixed artistic direction or heritage limitation and a completely liberated modus operandi, Kollokium will hopefully continue to be a hallmark of zero constraints and maximum flexibility.
Price: ₹2,58,679 - ₹4,06,480 approx.
Makina
As a watchmaker brand, Makina has a subtle lean towards form over function. It’s an aesthetically dominated maker of watches with a yield that speaks the best language of modern styling success. A Filipino company, Makina strives to blend industrial ruggedness with an elegant statement. The brand was birthed by Danilo Villanueva in 2017.
Makina timepieces are built in limited numbers and the brand has produced a total of five models till now, which include the Azazel, Andras, Gabriel, Mephisto, and Uriel. Beyond its standard collections, Makina also works on commissioned timepieces for companies and organizations.
Most Makina watches rely on Miyota calibers and its latest timepiece, the Mephisto III GMT, introduced earlier this year, offers a dual time zone tracking complication as well. Judging by the expanse of its high style offerings, the brand which has a name that literally translates to “machine” is definitely one to consider in the near future.
Price: ₹19,652 - ₹80,396 approx.
Straum
Amongst the many microbrand entities, Straum can be considered fairly established. Founded by industrial designers Lasse Roxrud Farstad and Oystein Helle Husby in 2017, Straum unveiled its first collection in 2021. Straum watches are designed in Norway and are Swiss Made. While the current catalog is a one model portfolio featuring variations of the Jan Mayen watch, its archives list the Opphav and Rastarkalv models as well.
The dials on Straum watches are of particular interest and, very similar in the vein of Grand Seiko, are nature-inspired. Affordability is another aspect where Straum's products find their element of attraction and for what they charge, the build quality and technical packaging occur as superlative. When it comes to its dials, there’s only a handful of very expensive watches that better or even come close to Straum’s level.
Price: ₹1,51,859 - ₹1,72,404 approx.
Anton Suhanov
Anton Suhanov is a Russian indie watchmaker with a particular renown in triple-axis tourbillon table clocks. A current candidate and a likely future member of the AHCI, Anton Suhanov founded his own manufacture in 2019. After completing a trilogy of three-axis tourbillon clocks, he decided to develop a collection of wristwatches and his first of the lot was the Racer Jumping Hour GMT, released in 2021.
In 2023, Anton Suhanov introduced the Racer Retro watch, a technical progression over the Racer Jumping Hour GMT and in 2024 marked a new breakthrough with his creation, Chronotope. It is the first Russian wristwatch with a peripheral automatic winding mechanism. Anton Suhanov has already been recognized for his skills with the Young Watchmaker’s Award in 2016. Very recently, he won the “Horological Revelation” prize at GPHG 2025 for his St. Petersburg Easter Egg Tourbillon Clock.
Price: ₹15,10,735 - ₹30,55,051 approx.
Microbrands On The Rise
Microbrands drive a surprising volume of innovation and accessibility in the watch industry. As non-traditional and niche watchmaking entities, microbrands leverage a unique agility and freedom to undercut the constraints associated with their more mainstream counterparts.
These mostly one-man operations represent a very vivid space within the larger watchmaking scene, all while validating the sentiment that an old dog can definitely learn some new tricks.
