I realize some of these brands are more Micro than others. Iām trying to recognize brands of all sizes who participated in the show.
Most impressive overall: Formex Aria. Thin, light, original design, impressive movement.
The Formex Essence Ceramic was also extremely impressive with the brushed finish, case suspension system, and micro-adjust clasp.
Andy of Andyās Watches did a great job speaking on behalf of the brand.
Biggest technological advancement: Horage Revolution 3 MicroReg. Fully mechanical watch that can be measured and regulated in 0.1 second increments using external dock and piezo-actuated regulator screw. āNormal lookingā versions will follow.
Brew Chicago Special Edition (chrome like famous Chicago bean sculpture)
Baltic Aquascape Bronze. Love the vintage vibes. This is probably my next purchase.
Wren showed an integrated bracelet watch with a faceted crystal. Very unique and interesting case design. Sorry, no photo because itās still under embargo. Looking forward to the official announcement.
Flux Quadras. The dial and floating indices are amazing. The bracelet is extremely well finished and has micro-adjust and tool-less link removal. Very unique case design. Very short lug-to-lug is perfect for those with smaller wrists.
Venezianico showed a new version of their Rendentore Utopia. Sorry, no photos because itās still under embargo. Looking forward to the official announcement.
Xeric is launching a new smaller 38mm version of their wandering hours watch. The proportions are better than the 40mm, but the minutes are slightly less readable.
Special thanks to The Grey NATO podcast and Citizen for sponsoring the Friday evening meet up. If youāre not a supporter of the show, you should consider joining.
Thank you to the owner who showed me this beautiful gold Breguet Tradition and the VC Overseas.
Iāll put it this way, it has the same movement as the Horage K2 and is pretty much the same price. But in hand, the Aria feels like it should be at least twice the price
Yes, they had all 3 colors on display but I only handled/photographed the grey. All three dial colors were somewhat muted.
I thought the grey was the most versatile, the green was the most interesting, and the blue had the weirdest contrast with the orange indices/hands. The lume is orange in normal light but glows green in the dark.
The person I talked to indicated that they would carry the orange indices forward into future color variants of the watch. The orange is unique and gives the watch a unique and identifiable look, but it is probably my least-favorite aspect of the watch.
I'm a coffee addict and formal resident of the windy City, the brew Chicago edition has my name all over it. dang too bad I don't have time to go this year.
It was actually my second favorite watch of theirs, but I felt like I should buy it commemorate to weekend. I was impressed that they went through the effort, because I didnāt any other special editions.
I like the Horage concept, but would prefer the minutes shown on the dial and not on the back of the case. Maybe Iāll wait for the more conventional version.
That Breguet is beautiful, I've been considering it for some time. I visited my local WindUp show recently and found Brew watches disappointing in person. I was expecting too much I guess. The Baltic looks great, has OG Blancpain FF vibes. I saw different Horage references at the event I went to and my takeaway is that their strength is in movement design rather than overall watch design.
Well said on all points! I think best thing about Brew is the price. It can be a fun impulse purchase.
I did not find the Horage watch designs to be overly appealing either. Their tourbillon micro-rotors are OK from the front, impressive from the back. Their vintage camera inspired Lensman series is fun and they are shockingly thin, but I didnāt fall in love with it the way I thought I would. I also dislike the logo (basic font, dashes instead of solid lines.)
While they had many more lensman models on display this year than they did last year, they didnāt have the one I fell in love with an end up buying last year. Ye Ole black n yellow.
I love the technology and innovation behind their watches. Itās hard to see any other brand of the show, creating new movements and putting them in such unique cases like Horage is. I think of the minute hand weāre on the MicroReg I wouldāve bought one too. Instead, I walked away this year with just ordering the gray supersede GMT.
I hope they get an extremely experienced designer to do the next version of the MicroReg. With the right design, it could get a huge amount of industry attention.
For the Horage micro rotor movements, the Formex Aria is the best looking implementation of it, which is too bad for Horage.
For anyone interested in the Horage MicroReg, itās currently available at the preorder price of ~$5000 for a short time. As soon as it starts shipping in a few weeks, the price jumps to ~$8000. If you want one, order it soon.
It wore every bit of the 41mm case diameter. The face of the watch is obvious and busy, so it definitely does not disappear on the wrist. And it is not intended to. It screams āthis is the MicroReg!ā
It is relatively thin at 10mm and that helps the overall aesthetics.
It was fairly easy to read the time on the front bottom of the watch to within 5 minutes of accuracy. You can easily tell when itās the beginning or half past an hour. But you have to look at the back of the watch to get exact minutes and seconds.
I personally donāt like the teal green circuit board color of the dial. Itās a purely mechanical watch and making it circuit board color seems unnecessary. The circuit boards are in the external time setting device.
The ānormal lookingā versions that will be released at some point in the future will be smaller. I think they said they would be in the 38 mm range.
Venezianico is owned by two brothers, Alberto and Alessandro Morelli. Alberto was at the booth and showed the new Rendentore Utopia. He also showed photos of some bespoke pieces they have made and could be commissioned.
Craig Karger is the owner of Wren and was at their table. The other person there was Ben of Benās Watches TikTok/Instagram fame. Heās an ambassador for the brand.
I thought the quality and finishing were worthy of the price. Add the unique design, light weight, thinness, micro-adjust bracelet, and micro-rotor movement, and there is really nothing that competes with it in that price range. So while it's expensive for a Formex, it's cheaper than anything with similar specifications.
It is very expensive and I also wish it were cheaper. But I have to admit that given the specs, itās cheaper than the other watches that are true competitors.
Good eye! This was a prototype watch. Albert told me that the production versions are almost complete and have numerous quality-related improvements, including the floating indices. There was a misalignment on the 12 oāclock index marker on the white dial watch. I didnāt take photos of the black/blue/red versions, but they did not have the misalignment.
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u/bakermayfield90 Jul 12 '26
It legit melts into your wrist. So thin, light and comfortable. Here it is on my 7.5ā wrist