Micro-Brand Digest: Featuring Watches from The Sacred Crafts, Barrington Griffiths, and Alato

Welcome to the Worn & Wound Micro-Brand Digest, a semi-monthly roundup of all the new micro-brand news we’re following, from concepts that show promise, to Kickstarter launches to restocks, and everything in between. Small independents, and affordable micro-brands spurred the creation of Worn & Wound over 10 years ago, and they still drive our enthusiasm in a big way.

Here’s what’s caught our eye this month.

If you’ve come across a project, you think qualifies, hit us up at [email protected] for inclusion.

Alato Watches

Swedish brand Alato Klokor was founded in 2023 in Gothenburg by Pierre Strömbäck. With a background in architecture and civil engineering, as well as professional experience in the construction industry, he possesses a keen eye for both form and function. All their watches are designed in their small studio in Sweden and manufactured in Hong Kong by a factory with a proven record for reliability and quality control. They are a small company with big goals. They aim to unite collectors through the stories of their watches.

Their first piece is named Arvet (The Legacy), drawing inspiration from the Reuleaux Triangle, a curved geometric shape with a constant width. The latter is formed from the intersection of three circular disks, each with its center on the boundary of the other two. It is named after Franz Reuleaux, a 19th-century German engineer who pioneered the study of machines for translating one type of motion into another. This shape is at the heart of Mazda’s rotary combustion car engine. In his design, Pierre uses inverted Reuleaux triangles. They are on the dial at 12, 3, 6, and 9 and in the rotor shape, visible through the back display case.

The watch measures 38mm x 10.9mm and has a lug-to-lug measurement of just 46mm. Its shape is reminiscent of one of the most iconic pieces of a particular high-end Japanese brand, although there is enough difference to be original. The Arvet is available in black, blue, and red patterned dial configurations, with applied gilt markers and hands filled with BGW9 SuperLuminova. There is even lume on the rotor’s tips to add a little whimsy. The Miyota 9039 time-only automatic movement powers it and is water resistant to 100 meters.

The watch has a mixed brushed and polished stainless steel H-link bracelet featuring a ratcheting micro-adjusting twin-trigger clasp. The steel used for the case and bracelet has been hardened up to 1200 Vickers for extra scratch resistance. The pre-order price is $749; delivery is expected in October 2024. You can find more details here.

Markwell Watches

Inspired by his grandfather’s watch, which sat on his father’s dresser, and after three decades of collecting, researching, breaking, fixing, and sharing his collection, John Liley decided it was time to make his dream come true. He wanted to start his own watch company and create timepieces that embody the idea of an everyday, universal wristwatch. A tool that tells the time, a daily companion that adorns your wrist as you make your mark in life. He enlisted the help of one of his friends, a successful businessman and fellow watch nut, and in late 2023, Markwell Watches was born.

Their initial model is the Memento Mori, a Latin phrase meaning “Remember you are mortal.” In other words, your time on Earth is finite. Make the most of it. As proud Freemasons, the owners wanted the dial to feature masonic symbols, reminiscent of the American watches available to their grandfathers. Instead of numerals or standard markers, each hour’s position on the silver sunburst dial features those symbols. A set of beautifully faceted and lume-filled hands are combined with a red arrow-tipped second hand to tell the time. Beneath the brand name and logo at 12 o’clock, you will find the word “mastermatic” in lowercase at 6 o’clock.

The Memento Mori watch measures 37mm x 10.5mm and has a lug-to-lug distance of 43mm. The lugs are modified mid-century teardrops in style, which complements the design perfectly. They also curve downward to hug the wrist for extra comfort. The beating heart of this timepiece is the Sellita SW200, which has 26 jewels and beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour, and it can be admired through the display case back, which features a ghosted image of a skull and crossbones. It is available in standard stainless steel and gold PVD-plated stainless steel.

Both options are priced at $969. Each watch comes with a soft leather strap (brown for the gold, black for the steel) and a signed pin buckle. You can find more information here.

Barrington Griffiths

The Barrington Griffiths Watch Company of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, has been making watches since 2010, and there’s an excellent chance you’ve never heard about them. Frankly, neither had we. It doesn’t get more Canadian than making a cool thing and humbly waiting to get noticed. Even more remarkable is that they make all their cases and Horween leather straps in-house. Everything else is imported and assembled in Alberta. They may be a small business, but their partners and customers appreciate their effort to produce their watches in Canada.

Their latest model is the Sandon 2.0, an evolution of the Sandon Original, released in 2021. Like the original, it is built tough to withstand life’s adventures, and keeping time is an upmarket Miyota 9015. This automatic movement, admired through the display case back, features 24 jewels, a beat rate of 28,800 beats per hour, and a power reserve of 42 hours. The curved 39mm case is 10.5mm thick and 48mm from lug to lug. Everything is polished to a mirror finish except for the case sides, which are brushed, and both front and back crystals are made of sapphire glass.

Water-resistant to 50m, the Barrington Griffiths Sandon 2.0 comes on your choice of a black or tan Horween leather strap, and it is affixed to the case via solid screw bars, which are far sturdier than standard spring bars. They even include a signed push-button butterfly deployant clasp. It is priced at $685 CAD. Should you purchase one and not be completely satisfied, you have seven days to return it, no questions asked, for a full refund. More info here.  

Nadir Watches

What is overlanding? As North Americans, we might simply think it’s a fancy term for off-roading; however, it is much more than that. Overlanding is self-reliant travel to remote destinations, where the journey is the primary goal. It typically involves off-road-capable vehicles and camping as the primary form of accommodation, lasting for extended periods. Poland’s Bart Maniecki is an overland enthusiast who founded Nadir out of necessity. He wanted a down-to-earth modern adventure tool that combined old-school build quality with a modern timepiece design. He also wanted dual-time capabilities, and thus, the Vespera came into existence.

The Nadir Vespera is a compressor-style watch made of 904L stainless steel. While standard 316L steel has excellent corrosion resistance, the steel used in this watch is outstanding. It is also brighter and takes a better polish. It has two crowns, one located just above 2 o’clock, controlling the inner twelve-hour bezel, and another positioned just below 4 o’clock for the time setting. Between the crowns is a steel protrusion, which acts as protection from sheering and is mimicked on the other side of the watch for symmetry. The sapphire glass covering the large dial has four layers of anti-reflective coating.

It is a large watch, but not terribly oversized, with a diameter of 42mm, a thickness of 12.3mm, and a lug-to-lug measurement of 47mm. The watch is powered by the same Miyota 9015 as the previous watch we featured, and there are generous amounts of BGW9 SuperLuminova in all the right places. Three dial configurations are available: black with orange accents, blue with white accents, and silver with black accents. All three are distinctive and can be paired with your choice of a hand-crafted Italian leather strap, an orange FKM rubber strap, or a black/orange seatbelt strap.

The Nadir Vespera watch’s screw-down case back features an embossed pattern and brand logo. This timepiece is water-resistant to 100 meters and is limited to 100 numbered pieces in each color. The price is €466.10 with a leather strap and €456.59 with a FKM or a Seatbelt strap. Find out more here.

The Sacred Crafts

Let’s face it: we’re drowning in trash. The founders of The Sacred Crafts came to that realization one day in Bangkok over spicy salad and cold beers. The concept is simple: all over the world, junk is piling up; what can we do about it? How can we change what we’re doing because what we’re doing now isn’t working? You might think using reclaimed materials to build watches wouldn’t make much difference. However, The Sacred Crafts makes watches and is involved in the reclaimed wood business. They create wood flooring from reclaimed wood sourced from vintage, fishing, and decommissioned boats. They are pretty serious about making an impact.

For the sake of this piece, we will focus their Kudmai dive watches. Kudmai means “Reborn” in Thai, and what is special about this one is that the bezel, crown, crown guards, and center links are made of reclaimed bronze from vintage marine propellers. They developed a custom CuSN8 formulation; the rest of the watch is 316L stainless steel. The design is also very original, and screws and Allen bolts hold everything together. Its buzzsaw bezel is heavily embossed and has a lume pip at 12 o’clock. The black dial features applied markers, and the sword-style hands are broad and filled with SuperLuminova.

The Sacred Crafts Kudmai Bronze + Steel measures 44m in diameter, 13mm thick, and is water resistant to 300m. Its top and bottom are sapphire glass, revealing the ETA 2824 automatic movement within. This caliber has 25 jewels, beats at 28,800 beats per hour, and has a power reserve of 42 hours. It also has a nautilus-inspired custom bronze rotor. Each watch has a metal bracelet, a leather strap, and a fluorine rubber dive strap with quick-release pins.

It ships with a reclaimed wood “Bento Style” box that is numbered and organized to hold all included accessories. The price is $1,299. You can find more information on the brand’s website here.