These Are the Best Affordable Watch Brands You’ve Never Heard of

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: It’s a great time to be a watch nerd.

Although mechanical wristwatches have arguably never been less necessary than they are today with the proliferation of smartwatches, cell phones and cheap quartz watches, the industry that produces them has arguably never been hotter.

Much of the attention paid to the industry is in the luxury space, with most major brands from Switzerland and elsewhere leaning into the premiumization trend and moving higher and higher upmarket. But you don’t actually have to spend a ton of money to get a watch that’s innovative, attractive, high-quality and cool as hell.

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In fact, I just spent the weekend checking out a whole bunch of lesser-known independent watch brands on the affordable side of the spectrum that are producing some of the most exciting and dynamic watches in the world.

The watches in question were on display at Intersect, a watch show that took place in Austin, Texas on Saturday, November 16. The collaborative show is co-managed and organized by a trio of independent brands — Nodus of Los Angeles, Dallas-based Jack Mason and Swiss indie Formex — and has been produced in multiple cities since the first L.A. show in 2021.

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The Austin event was the first time Intersect made its way to the Texas capital, with the organizers telling me they’re currently scouting new cities for future shows. In addition to Austin and L.A., Intersect has previously produced shows in Atlanta and Dallas. For insight on where and when the next show will take place, you can sign up for their newsletter.

Intersect is different from other watch shows because it’s organized by the brands themselves. Not only that, but these are all small, enthusiast-owned brands. The owners themselves represent their brands at the show, giving potential and existing customers the chance to interact with them directly, and all of the owners are friends with each other, too.

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This all makes for a very welcoming and familial environment that feels markedly different from other watch shows I’ve attended. As the kids like to say, the vibes are immaculate.

Good vibes aside, the watches are the real stars of Intersect, and the Austin event had some great ones. In addition to organizers Nodus, Jack Mason and Formex — all of which are fantastic brands — there were also industry darlings Baltic, Farer, Studio Underd0g, Serica and Lorier, plus OG microbrand pioneers MKII and Raven.

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Several other lesser-known affordable brands also really impressed me, including a few with which even I wasn’t familiar. Below, you’ll find information on some of these standouts, and hopefully, you’ll discover something new that strikes your fancy. Most of these brands’ collections are priced under or around $1,000.

Traska

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Jacksonville-based Traska is probably the best-known of the brands profiled in this article, but it’s still not close to a household name. However, if founder Jon Mack keeps up the brand’s obsessive levels of attention to detail, that’s sure to change. Every minute aspect of Traska’s watches is well thought-out and executed at a high level.

Take the brand’s new Freediver. Already the sixth iteration of the dive watch — the brand was founded just six years ago — it features such refinements as crazy-tight tolerances, perlage on the clasp, hard-coated steel and ceramic ball bearings under the bezel. All this for just $685 on a bracelet.

Dryden

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If you like extremely good-looking sports watches that are stupid affordable, then Kansas City-based Dryden is for you. The brand’s quartz chronograph costs under $300, and its Miyota automatic-powered diver with a ceramic bezel and textured dial goes for $550. Both are gorgeous.

Dryden also offers a wide range of straps in unique materials, including wool, and features designs inspired by brand founder and professional shutterbug Jerry Wang’s wildlife photography.

Sō Labs

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Chicago’s Andrew Perez is best known for founding Astor+Banks, one of the more lauded tool watchmakers in the microbrand space. That brand was at the show and makes excellent watches, but it was Perez’s other brand, which he co-founded with his friend Rick Cosgrove, that really caught my eye.

The avant-garde Sō Labs’ watches are simply fun for the sake of being fun, with an ’80s and early ’90s-inspired aesthetic that looks like nothing else out there.

Artefkt

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The youngest brand to exhibit at Intersect Austin, Artefkt’s first watch is still available to pre-order on Kickstarter. But you’d never know it from handling the brand’s watches, as their design, engineering and manufacturing are all top-notch. That’s due to the Detroit brand’s founder, designer Brandon Little, a watch industry veteran with two decades of experience working for brands including Zodiac, Shinola and even Jaeger-LeCoultre.

Artefkt’s first watch is packed with innovation and high-end materials, such as a Grade 5 titanium case and bracelet and an innovative quick-release bracelet exchange system built into the case that is flat-out awesome and reminds me of Zenith’s proprietary mechanism.

Tsao Baltimore

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Founded by Baltimore native Alan Tsao, Tsao Baltimore designs and assembles its watches in Maryland, often using local materials — including a Maryland-assembled automatic movement.

The brand’s FKM rubber cut-to-size straps, complete with an extending clasp, really impressed me, as did the fun dial textures and colors on their Torsk-Diver Pro. Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh has also been spotted wearing a Tsao watch, showing just how deep the brand’s Baltimore connections run.

Visitor

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Indiana-based Visitor is an old-school microbrand that does everything its own way. Founded by Phillip Rodenbeck in 2013, the brand is still largely a one-man operation.

Its watches are highly original and interesting, with unexpected case shapes and unique designs. The brand’s complex cases are machined in America, too, adding another feather in Visitor’s cap.

Straum

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Straum is starting to gain steam in the collector community and is knocking on the door of being the next big industry darling (see: Underd0g, Studio above), but it’s still a young and largely unknown brand (it has just over 11,000 followers on Instagram).

Based in Norway and founded by industrial designers and adventurers Lasse Roxrud Farstad and Øystein Helle Husby, Straum creates watches inspired by its founders’ adventures around Norway. The brand’s viral integrated sports watch, the Jan Mayen, was inspired by a trip to the eponymous volcanic island and some versions even have dials made of porous volcanic rock.

Circula

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Most microbrands were founded within the past decade, or at the earliest, around the turn of the century. But Circula? It’s been around since 1955. This tiny German brand is now in its third generation of family ownership with Cornelius Huber, the grandson of the brand’s founder, at the helm.

All of Circula’s watches are still produced at its family atelier in Pforzheim. It is strictly a tool-watch brand making divers, pilot’s watches and field watches the old-fashioned way but with modern materials and performance and priced very fairly.

Colorado Watch Company

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Colorado Watch Company of Fort Collins is the new start-up from Vortic Watches founders R.T. Custer and Tyler Wolfe, and it is already the most American watch made at scale today.

Nearly every aspect of a Colorado watch is produced and built in the U.S. — the mechanical movement being the biggest exception that isn’t — with the brand having the ultimate goal of someday producing 100-percent American-made watches.

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