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Underdogs: What are yours?

By: Modernahab : November 25th, 2025-07:44

Underdog: Someone who is hardly noticed (The Urban Dictionary)

I’m sure many of us have brands we think of as over-hyped and overrated (names will not be mentioned ;-D), but perhaps likewise some that we admire and feel worthy of more attention and respect. Members have posted from underappreciated or underrated individual watches or even brands in the past, but as times, fashions, and markets change, I believe the topic of underrated watchmaking companies may be one worth revisiting.

Apropos, my candidates for the title of ‘Underdog’ are different now than they were perhaps a decade or two ago. Consider Chopard. I wonder how many would have doubled over laughing if told in 1990 that the jewelry firm known for its quartz-powered Happy Diamond watches would evolve into a serious force in the world of mechanical watchmaking?

LUC Twist (Photo:Europa Star)

LUC Quattro Regulator

But as the LUC line matured from the sometimes whacky-tacky design language (or was it just gawky adolescent charm?) of the early 2000s to the sublime elegance of the Heritage Grand Cru or the Quattro Spirit 25, Chopard no longer seems underappreciated and garners plenty of respect on these boards. (For the observant, the original and now revived LUC 1860 was a portent of things to come.)

LUC Héritage Grand Cru

LUC Spirit 25 (Photo: Monochrome Watches)

On the other hand, there are also companies, whether well-established or newer, which still seem to me underrated in the public eye. Among the most exemplary to me would be the firm of Arnold & Son. True, the modern company started as a ‘zombie’ brand resuscitated in the 1990s by The British Masters Group. True also that the watches produced during the British Masters phase, though sometimes equipped with nifty exclusive calibers from Le Joux-Perret, were, shall we say, rather awkward and gimmicky in design.

Arnold & Son Scout (Photo: Delray Watch)

Arnold & Son White Ensign (Photo: European Watch Company)

Surely, the tide has surely turned since Arnold & Son has effectively become the retail house brand for Le Joux-Perret, and yet I find it interesting that A & S doesn’t even have its own brand forum here at WPS, while, say, Moser, Habring, Ming, and Montblanc (Montblanc?!) do. Wouldn't it make sense if the company that’s given us the Time Pyramid and the Luna Magna, to name but two highly awarded designs, were more widely appreciated?

Time Pyramid, Rose Gold

Luna Magna (Photo: The Watch Pages)

So, please share – what mechanical watch brands do you think merit greater recognition halfway through the third decade of the 21^st century?

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Some beautiful watches there. I always loved that LUC Twist.

By: Blansky : November 26th, 2025-01:39

Speake Marin is/was a brand that seemed to fly under the radar.

Possibly so was Ulysse Nardin.

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Yup, Speake Marin does seem to suffer some from the Rodney Dangerfield syndrome.

By: Modernahab : November 26th, 2025-17:56

I think they deserve credit for their individual and idiosyncratic design language, though I wonder if that also impedes their popularity.
Ulysse Nardin is an interesting case, I think. I felt that they were much more in the public eye a couple of decades ago, especially during the Oechslin period, when they were releasing some really innovative in-house calibers and showcasing their acquisition of Donzé Cadrans enamel works in beautiful grand feu and flinqué dials. After that there was an interval when they seemed to be coasting on the Freak, with a gajillion minor variations. I'm guilty myself of not having paid much attention to UN over the past few years, so I'm not certain of their current direction. Nevertheless, I do think they deserve respect for their heritage, including the Sonata, the Oechslin-designed perpetual calendar, and of course, the Freak. I owe UN another look - thanks!

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Very interesting thread and proposition…

By: KMII : November 30th, 2025-07:50

Depending on perspective this could apply to many brands.

As you say, Chopard in many ways still lags in perception behind the quality of watches. The LUC line generally sports nice and horologically sound pieces, the AE fully fits the current era / customer preferences but some of the other lines are between petering out and living a zombie like existence (Mille Miglia for instance). And they don’t get rewarded for many of the solid choices like 14 day service turnarounds. Secondary values still lag a bit behind, too.

GO is possibly another such brand. Swatch Group does not fully seem to know where to take it. On the bright side the subsidies received stipulate that local content needs to be used, so you do not get yet another mid tier Swatch fare brand but at the same time that makes the brand an odd one out in the portfolio. Some say the choice of name was a mistake (Union had the better cachet at the time of reunification) but in the end the not knowing what it should really stand for hinders it in fulfilling its potential.

Blancpain I would add to the list. Likewise suffering a bit from an owner possibly more suited to brands lower down in the range, it struggles in successfully expanding beyond the FF line.

UN and Gap have both seen better days and while individual watches still have appeal (Freak, Sonata, Bridges…), the overall lines don’t benefit from that aura sufficiently 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Very astute!

By: Modernahab : December 2nd, 2025-01:39

Regarding Chopard, I agree that the Mille Miglia line seems like an adipose appendage at this point. I also think that the jewelry watches in the Happy Diamonds mode may continue to damage the perception of Chopard as a serious player in the mechanical watch market, Geneva Seals and Qualité Fleurier designations notwithstanding.

Funny, meanwhile, that I almost mentioned Glashütte Original and Blancpain in the original post. You make a great point that Swatch Group would have been better off using the more storied Union Glashütte name for the brand. All else aside, "Glashütte Original" sounds somewhat generic by comparison, and certainly fails to call up any heritage. I do think that GO has at least partially emerged from the stigma of being an A. Lange & Sohne wannabee, but the collection is uneven. The Vintage collection feels distinctive, the SeaQ seems to have caught on, and the Senator line includes some nicely-executed complications, I suspect that the Pano offerings still suffer by comparison, due to design cues all-too-similar to the Lange 1.

I've never really understood Blancpain's niche in the Swatch Group lineup. I assume they stay afloat (bad pun!) on the strength of the Fifty Fathoms collection, though that line is up against Rolex and Omega as bigger players in the dive watch market, outside and inside Swatch Group, respectively. They've backed off of the Léman and Le Brassus collections, most likely to their benefit. However, the remaining Villeret collection faces one heck of an obstacle: Breguet. (Itself still underrated.) The two brands seem to overlap quite a bit in the market Venn diagram and still appear to share quite a few calibers between them. Yet to my tastes, Breguet will treat the same caliber/complication more distinctively than Blancpain just about every time (q.v. the Réveil du Tsar vs. the Villeret Réveil GMT). Breguet has maintained a more easily identified design language than Blancpain, and I believe Breguet also capitalizes on its brand heritage more effectively in its marketing than does Blancpain.

Of course Swatch Group has long reminded me of GM in the 1980s - just too may brands. Swatch Group appears even more redundant in the lower price ranges than at its higher end. Blancpain/Breguet is one thing, but how and why they sustain Tissot/Longines/Hamilton/Ball/Rado/Mido, etc. is beyond me. Richemont certainly seems more streamlined by comparison, and also seems to do a better job of distinguishing Jaeger-LeCoultre, Cartier, Piaget, ALS, IWC, Panerai, and what's left of poor Roger Dubuis from one another, even with considerable collaboration/parts sharing between the brands.

Girard-Perregaux does indeed seem underrated, but also rather rudderless these days. The 1966 line looks bland to me, while the Cat's Eye and the Laureato read like AP Millenary and Royal Oak also-rans, respectively. That said, I love the Vintage 1945 case, though that's up against Cartier and the Reverso in the realm of Art-Deco shaped watches, without the benefit of shaped movements and with rather aspirational pricing, considering what you get.

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I was also thinking about GM in the 1980s…

By: KMII : December 2nd, 2025-06:30

I guess Blancpain is where Biver’s journey and the resurrection of mechanical watch making started but the creative drive has now long petered out 🤷🏻‍♂️
Another one I could mention is Montblanc. The Villeret pieces remain underrated for what they are and the rest of the line somehow struggles. The NR is an exciting watch that continues to fly under the radar, they have killed the only distinctive model from a design perspective (Time Walker - whether one liked it or not, it was clearly MB) and the question is what does MB really want to be in the watch sphere 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Good point again regarding Montblanc.

By: Modernahab : December 2nd, 2025-17:22

They are one of the few houses in the Richemont portfolio, along with the utterly tragic Roger Dubuis, where I question the conglomerate's brand management. I've been impressed by some of the Minerva-derived higher end pieces they've released, and the Nicolas Rieussec chronographs are indeed very distinctive. Their mid-range offerings leave me scratching my head, however, and the one Montblanc I owned (an 1858 Geosphere) suffered from poor build quality, subpar finishing and cheap-looking components. Maybe they should just shift completely into the upmarket realm and concentrate on heritage pieces à la Minerva. Or just stick to pens.

Roger Dubuis just makes me want to cry. My wife and I have matching Sympathie S37s from the house's early days, and the commemorative throwback limited edition Sympathie retrograde QP they just did is heartening - like a visit by a friendly ghost. But I can only imagine what Dubuis himself, while alive, must have thought of his name being attached to the garish, Hublot-esque products in the current line.

Meanwhile, Baruch's recent post on Svend Andersen reminds me of another underappreciated watchmaker. Andersen has been making incredibly cool astronomical complications for a long time, and yet does not seem to have the earned quite the caché associated with any number of other independents. Too bad. Those planetarium watches are remarkable in my eyes.

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I am not sure that some of the other Richemont brands know where they are headed, either…

By: KMII : December 2nd, 2025-17:38

Not that familiar with RD but see your point.
The one that worries me somewhat is JLC. Hopefully Jerome Lambert can instill a period of positive experimentation again, reinstalling the brand as the watchmaker’s watchmaker.
I am probably only marginally able to judge (admittedly) but I feel that last big bang (in the mid tier range) was the already demised Geophysic line with the quite exciting dead beat movements. The rest appears to me like a riding on past investments without a great story or vision for the way forward. That’s not to say there are no interesting watches just that most of them are updated versions of things done before (reissue of Duometre, Reverso chrono…).

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