Am I Buying Microbrands All Wrong? (w/ Zach Kazan, Worn & Wound)

Zach Kazan is the managing editor of Worn & Wound, and he’s covered microbrands as closely as anyone for the last decade.

In two weeks, Worn & Wound puts on its Windup Watch Fair in New York (Oct 16–18) with 160+ brands under one roof. I’ll be there, along with some of you, so I wanted to get Zach on to talk about the state of the microbrand.

We talk about whether “microbrand” still means anything, and why some brands hate the word (while others embrace it); the boom of a decade ago and the more experimental one happening now; Ming, and the point where a brand stops being micro; pre-orders as interest-free loans; why Zach keeps coming back to watches made by people he knows; the founders who still answer their own DMs and Reddit threads; how Serica and Anoma collect feedback before a launch; Halios, and the case for staying small; the AP x Swatch, the Bulgari x Vianney Halter, and other watches built to be loud for a week; Moser’s move into the main hall at Watches and Wonders, the Streamliner 34, and the $4,900 ana-digi Off-Grid; whether a shakeout is coming; why the Apple Watch isn’t the cool thing to have anymore, and which brand should be saying so; the Gallet relaunch.

I also ask which watches from Geneva Watch Days he’s still thinking about, a few weeks later.

“It’s all gone from my brain, Tony,” Zach says.

* Podcast episodes are published on Fridays. Listen here, and subscribe to get future episodes in your feed: Spotify / Apple / RSS.

* Unpolished is the newsletter for collectors. Join for free or become a paid subscriber for $8/mo or $80/year: unpolishedwatches.com

Show Notes

* Worn & Wound; Zach on Instagram

* Windup Watch Fair NYC, October 16–18

* Behind Lorier’s Acquisition by Worn & Wound, Unpolished

* Prevail Onward Future Field Watch