Boutique Watch Makers - An Indie Watch Fair by Spring Sprang Sprung
- Eric @ Caliber
- Oct 31, 2023
- 4 min read
The inaugural Spring Sprang Sprung event concluded over the weekend of 20-22 October and boy was it a blast! For those who do not know, an initiative by two Singaporean watch enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, Yong Keong Lim (owner of Feynman Timekeepers) and Sugiharto Kusumadi (founder of Red Army Watches), Spring Sprung Sprang was birthed with the goal of bringing the local watchmaking community together.
Their aim is to provide a platform of enablement for uprising watch indie brands in Singapore to showcase themselves to the public.
The event saw more than 30 different micro brands, both based in Singapore and overseas, held over at XM studios. While we wanted to cover every single brand, however, due to the overwhelming crowd and time constraint, we could only come by a selected few, in no order of preference.
Established in 2017, ATOWAK started off as a watch manufacturer helping micro brands make mechanical watches. Like their tagline suggests - Redefine Aesthetic at the Wrist, after 10 years of watch design and development experience in the mechanical watch industry, ATOWAK experienced a flexible chain of watch developments, movements, cases, straps, dials, hands, and different adornments, and accumulated enough technical support to create unique timepieces. The brand has been around for about 6 years now and they have quite a sizeable collection of models to choose from. Their sci-fi look and redesigned Miyota movement, these watchers will capture the attention for those who are looking for something unique.
A Singapore micro-brand inspired by Leon Leong, a former marketer who created his own smartwatch under a new company named BOLDR, after his favourite sport - bouldering. The BOLDR expedition, as the name suggests, is oriented towards outdoor sports design that fits very nicely into BOLDR’s line of adventurous, but stylish watches. Not only is the design appealing, but the watch is also driven by a reliable Swiss-made movement in the Sellita, which is also at very reasonable value at times too good to be true.
One model in the BOLDR lineup that caught our attention is the Superkuro Musuo collection. The watch dial is coated in Superkuro Musou black paint which absorbs 99.4% of visible light. This is our first experience with an ultra-black dial. The watch movement is driven by the Seiko NH movement, which is also great value, which is a testament to all pieces being sold out during the event itself!
Started in 2014 by Elshan Tang, the idea was to create distinctive timepieces with unique materials and an inimitable design language which delivers a premium experience and a lasting value far beyond price tag to their customers.
ZELOS has already gotten itself a decent following, since gaining traction and building its reputation globally, for making well specced watches. This includes the Mirage Tourbillion which is only limited to 10 pieces, and to no surprise again, were sold out during the event. We didn't even get to see it!
Another homegrown brand worth mentioning, VARIO was started by Ivan to create watch straps for himself. Since 2016, Vario has grown to offer more accessories than just watch straps and even created several watch collections.
VARIO'S watch collections often mirror classic and vintage inspired designs such as their 1918 Trench watches and their 1920s inspired Empire collection. Encased within the watch case lies a Miyota movement, making it value for money and with design perfect for your everyday watches.
One notable design is the Vario Versa which is powered by not one, but two quartz calibers. This feature defines novelty and enjoyment, and it’s essentially two watches in one. The watch module can be flipped easily by pressing on one side, allowing its owner to change to his/her preferred dial. Of course this also means setting to a different time as the faces are set independently.
Our last mention belongs to a brand outside of Singapore. Aterlier Wen prides itself as a French and Chinese creation. The brand was started by Robin and Wilfried who both share a passion for watching making and Chinese culture. They teamed up with Chinese designers and craftsmen to produce these Chinese culture infused timepieces.
We had the opportunity to speak with Atelier Wen's content manager, Mr Ignatius Tan who shared that the most notable design is the ‘Perception’ Collection which infuses the Chinese cultural design elements. The watch stands out for being made of 904L stainless steel and for its handcrafted Guilloche dial. Each dial takes 8 hours to be crafted by China’s sole Guilloche master craftsman.
One last fun fact to add, we even had the opportunity to interact with Atelier Wen's "Super Fan", Justin, who flew all the way from Hong Kong to support the brand. He shared his take on the brand's craftsmanship and design. He was also kind enough to allow us get up close of his latest owned Revolution Perception ‘Can’ that were snapped up by watch enthusiasts and collectors during the event within 2 minutes! Talk about being micro brands, these definitely aren't micro at all!
