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Welcome to the Worn & Wound Micro-Brand Digest, a semi-monthly roundup of new micro-brand news we’re following. This includes promising concepts, Kickstarter launches, restocks, and everything in between. Worn & Wound was founded over 10 years ago to support small independent companies and affordable micro-brands, and our passion for these brands remains strong.
Here’s what has caught our attention this month.
If you come across a project that qualifies for our roundup, please email us at [email protected] to be included.
Houtman Watch
Jason Liddell grew up in Western Australia and has always deeply appreciated the great outdoors. He is particularly fond of the iconic regions and landmarks in Western Australia, including the Murchison River and the Pilbara. Houtman Watches is named after the Houtman Abrolhos Islands, charted by the Dutch sailor Frederick de Houtman in 1619. The Houtman Abrolhos is the southernmost true coral reef system in the Indian Ocean and comprises a stunning chain of 122 islands along with their associated reefs.
The first two series have been named after the rivers mentioned earlier, and their most recent collection is called the Murchison. This series showcases four dial and hand configurations, which include two field/dress watches, one field/sport watch, and one pilot watch. All these watches have a stainless steel case with a diameter of 40mm, a thickness of 11.5mm, and a length of 48mm from lug tip to lug tip. The interior width measures 20mm, allowing for various strap options. They all feature the same beautiful engraving on the back of the case, showcasing a kangaroo in mid-hop.
These are your quintessential go-anywhere, do-anything (GADA) watches. With robust cases that are water-resistant up to 100 meters and a reliable Swiss-made Sellita automatic movement, these watches are designed to accompany you everywhere while looking good at the same time. They can be paired with a minimal-stitch leather strap or a beads-of-rice style bracelet featuring solid end links, a brushed and polished finish, and a milled clasp with on-the-fly micro-adjustment—no tools required.
Those four variations are River Lume, which features a fully lumed dial with three different Superluminova colors. The Aviator has Arabic numerals, a black dial, and bold hands. The Burnt Earth has a salmon-colored dial with black numerals and hands. Lastly, the Sport features large lumed hour markers, sword hands, and an anthracite dial. There will be no more than 75 examples of each configuration, priced at $445 plus your choice of strap or bracelet. More information on the brand’s website here.
Knis Kyoto
Keisuke Nii founded Knis Kyoto in 2021 to showcase Japan’s craftsmanship in watchmaking. As the watch market has declined due to the rise of smartphones, Knis aims to remind Japanese consumers of the value of meticulous, local manufacturing. The company is dedicated to sharing Japan’s traditional techniques with the world and believes that the Japanese watch industry will thrive in the future. Their designs aim to surprise with unique, subtle details while preserving a timeless appeal that people of all ages can enjoy for years to come.
Their most notable piece is the Knis Meteorite, which, as the name implies, features a striking meteorite dial. The material is sourced from the Muoninalusta meteorite, which is believed to have impacted northern Scandinavia near the Sweden-Finland border about one million years ago. The first fragment was discovered in 1906 near Kitkiöjärvi, 140 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. Muonionalusta is the oldest known meteorite, dating back about 4.5653 billion years. “Muonionalusta” comes from Finnish, meaning “a place below” near the Muonio River.
Apart from its cosmic origins, what makes this material interesting is the unique lattice pattern formed by the prolonged cooling of molten material in the vacuum of space during the solar system’s formation. For this reason, each dial is unique and adorned with diamond-cut hour markers and hands filled with a strip of luminous material. Protecting all of this is a flat piece of scratch-resistant sapphire glass.
The Knis Meteorite features a stainless steel case with a diameter of 38mm, a thickness of 12mm, and a lug width of 20mm. Inside, it has a Miyota 8-series movement with 21,600 vibrations per hour and a power reserve of 42 hours. This movement can be viewed through the screw-down display case back. It is water-resistant up to 100 meters and is available in black-coated or standard stainless steel. It comes with a genuine leather strap featuring a deployant clasp or a 5-link bracelet with a butterfly clasp. The starting price is $740. More information can be found here.
Migma Watches
There’s a long held belief that the German people are comfortable with silence, and don’t feel the need to fill conversations with meaningless chatter. The website for the German brand Migma is a reflection of this idea in that it is free from unnecessary information, irrelevant historical details, and ineffective marketing. Their values are to the point: Deliver outstanding service, craft the highest-quality watches, and differentiate yourself through your achievements.
The Migma Plankton is a dive watch with a diameter of 42mm and a thickness of 13.5mm, crafted from titanium. It features a sapphire crystal that protects a utilitarian dial, which includes bold hour markers and large sword hands designed for divers. All elements are generously coated with SuperLuminova BGW9, which glows blue in the dark. The unidirectional bezel includes a luminous pip at the 60-minute mark and is DIN-certified with a 60-click detent.
The Plankton features a Swiss-made ETA 2824-2 automatic movement, which operates at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offers a power reserve of 40 hours. A soft iron cage protects it to enhance its anti-magnetic properties. It features a screw-down crown and a screw-down engraved case back, providing 200 meters of water resistance. Dial color options include black and dark blue, with the possibility of changing the second hand to yellow and completely changing all the hands to plongeur-style hands.
You can choose between a rubber strap, canvas straps, or the full titanium bracelet, which has screws for sizing, a safety folding clasp, and a diver’s extension. Pricing starts at €575. More information can be found here.
Shelby Watch Co.
Matthew McMillan discovered a passion for repairing vintage timepieces, which sparked his interest in watchmaking as a hobby. He combined this newfound interest with his 15-year career as a Canadian paramedic to create the initial designs for the MEDIC wristwatch. These preliminary sketches served as the foundation for the final prototype and led to the establishment of the Shelby Watch Company in 2023. They believe that each watch can perform another task in addition to telling the time.
Constructed from durable 316L surgical-grade stainless steel, the Medic has a diameter of 40mm, a thickness of 12.5mm, and a lug-to-lug length of 47mm. It features a bi-directional rotating bezel with two separate scales: a pulsometer for calculating heartrate and an asthmometer for measuring respiration. To use either scale, rotate the bidirectional bezel until the starting point of the chosen color aligns with the second hand. Enhancing this model for medical professionals or anyone that loves “the glow” is a fully lumed dial and bezel scales.
The Shelby Medic is powered by an automatic movement from McDowell Time, a relatively new player in the industry. The movement, designated as caliber MD7081, is based on ETA 2824 architecture, making it a suitable replacement. This movement comprises Swiss and foreign components, with final assembly performed at the MWW shop in Hagerstown, Maryland. It is a 4 Hz movement regulated to maintain accuracy within +/- 10 seconds per day and has a power reserve of 42 hours.
The Shelby Medic is water-resistant up to 150 meters and comes with a brushed steel H-Link bracelet that tapers down to 18mm at the quadruple-trigger clasp. The clasp features two buttons for opening and closing and two additional buttons for deploying the micro-extension. Sizing is adjusted using one-sided screws, and up to 5 full links can be removed. McMillan has pursued private funding despite a failed crowdfunding campaign, and the Shelby will be available for purchase in early 2025 for CAD 885. More details here.
Tennet Watch
Royce Wee, co-founder of Tennet and longtime watch collector, was a lawyer who worked for the Singapore government and in the technology industry. He thinks of watches as more than just their components, and a well-designed and crafted watch can elevate its function beyond the ordinary. A tenet is a principle, belief, or doctrine generally held to be true. These are theirs: (i) make honest, good quality watches, (ii) provide good value to our customers, (iii) make the customer journey a cinch, (iv) be reliable and trustworthy, and (v) be a responsible stakeholder in our community.
The brand’s first collection, Somerset, showcases an impressive level of attention to detail far exceeding expectations for such a young company. The case is made from 316L stainless steel and features deeply curved lugs and a concave bezel that gradually slopes up to the boxed sapphire crystal, which is treated with multiple layers of anti-reflective coating. The step dial has various finishes, including a sunburst pattern and a textured outer track. It also features applied polished indices and elegantly sculpted cardinal point markers.
The hands of the watch have also received an elegant, sculpted treatment, creating a stunning contrast against the text-free dial. Even the brand name appears as a cutout plate, giving the impression that it is floating on the dial. This timepiece is powered by a Top Grade Sellita SW 210 manual-wind movement, which is fully adorned with Côtes de Genève stripes, perlage on the base plates, and heat-blued screws. It can be admired through the display case back, secured with four polished screws.
The Tennet Somerset has a diameter of 38mm, a thickness of 9.5mm, and a lug-to-lug measurement of 46mm. Additionally, this elegant watch is water-resistant up to an impressive 200 meters. Its available dial colors are Onyx (black), Moon (silver), Lagoon (blue), Vermilion (red), and Clover (green). Each comes on a color-synergistic full leather strap exclusively crafted by the acclaimed strap retailer Delugs. Remarkably, these timepieces are priced at $1200 and are available now. More information can be found on the brand’s website here.
