WristScan

KMII
[Montblanc Moderator]
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And here are mine…

It all started - just like my time here - with Chopard. The LUC Chrono One was my first serious watch and the appreciation for the brand remains. They do many less visible or glamorous things, such as a service turnaround in two weeks as opposed to the nuclear submarine overhaul timelines of other brands, fundamentally right. 



The second one that joined and I still appreciate extremely, is Grand Seiko (and Seiko more broadly). I know that it’s a brand with some controversy but by and large I deeply appreciate their commitment, dedication to finishing (have long felt that wearing a GS to a watch AD or boutique drastically reduced chances of buying something, as the watches tried on didn’t compare if they were in a similar price range). One might find that their drive to limited editions and copying other malaises of the watch industry is lessening the appeal but there is still a genuine affection for watches there. 

The one that followed was Minerva. In the pre-Gnutti era it represents a nice small - what one would nowadays call independent - watch manufacture. With idiosyncrasies, little money to spend but also some appealing models with super long production runs. And they were early to the forum game, admittedly not here. At some point they had to be bought and things of course changed. Still to find a Gnutti era one - in some ways very different, even if not nearly as commercially successful as hoped for. 

Last but not least, these days it’s primarily the independents. The relationships are closer and more genuine, you interact with people and are much more often treated like a customer than a nuisance.