LAmicroLUX – Inaugural Event, Saturday, April 6th, 2019 First Installment!
That Saturday I made the trek to Los Angeles, the federally and nationally declared parking lot that starts immediately at the sign that delineates the city line. The slowdown starts as soon as….the first car started it’s engine in 1904.
Rich put together 24 boutique brands for this event that was held April 6 to April 7, 2019 at The Olympic Collection event center. This was an incredible inaugural event for micro brands and I was surely thrilled to attend. aBlogtoWatch was the media partner for the event.
Rich Park, the organizer of LAmicroLUX, said, “Smaller brands do their best to advertise and share their products with luxury watch consumers but often don’t have the advertising reach of larger brands. LAmicroLUX was born to bring these creations, fans, and brands together to unite for our favorite hobby…our love of watches.”
Rich has a YouTube! channel and a Facebook page and I hope you will hit like and subscribe to his channels.
I survived L.A. Traffic, roundtrip. (One time last year, I spent a full 12 ½ hours round trip taking family to the airport and then back to my house in the desert. I got to see a large swath of LA as my Google Maps GPS tried and failed for avoiding traffic…I had no idea where the Saddleback Church was, but I did get to see it TWICE, once in each direction!)
As soon as I got to the event, I looked around the ballroom and didn’t think that it would take long to check out the gorgeous watches on display after my first walk around.
I was wrong.
I got to nearly everyone except for three or four and by 5:00 P.M. it was over for the day. I was pretty exhausted from interviewing as many of the brands as I could.
Most of the shots were taken using my iPhone XS – not my Nikons, but manageable for being on my feet for 6-7 hours interviewing the vendors.
During the event, I posted a good number of shots on my Instagram account with manufacturers being tagged so they would show up as well. I wanted to do a more in-depth article on what I saw and some of the latest up and coming micro luxury brands.
Ocean Crawler
My first stop was at OceanCrawler, (https://www.oceancrawler.com/ IG: @oceancrawlerwatchco) a brand I had come across in my many watch groups on Facebook.
OceanCrawler features dive watches rated to 2,000 feet of water resistance, with sapphire crystals starting at approximately $900.00 for the Champion Diver and go up to $1,499.00 for the Ocean Crawler with the meteorite dial.
The brand started in 2017 and has gained wide renown in the Dive Watch groups on Facebook and on Instagram.
Limited Editions sell out quick according to Christian Champion, who had handed me the red Shipwreck Hunter and dashed my hopes of ever getting one on the deep rocks underwater. It was already sold out. Sigh.
The lume on these are quite respectable and all have a Swiss Selita movement. The hands on the dials are easy to read in daylight or in low light settings. Most of the divers have bezels with lume, something I can appreciate even if I am not 2,000 feet under the water!
The standout for me was Core Diver with the mesh bracelet and sapphire crystal. The orange dial and blue bezel really are striking. The Core Diver is $999.00 and is rated to 60ATM-just over 2,000 feet. Another standout is their Champion Diver. Yup, I love them all.
Ocean Crawler Ocean Navigator – Shipwreck Hunter
Armand Nicolet
Armand Nicolet (https://www.armandnicolet.com/ IG:@armand_nicolet) was the next display I stopped at. Their history dates back to 1875 and I suggest going to their site for more background information. (https://armandnicolet.com/history/ )
These are truly affordable LUXURY watches that exude elegance.
Their diver watch, although my iPhone pics didn’t get the shots I get with my Nikons, hopefully conveys the quality and execution of the designs.
Each watch gives the feeling of exceptional luxury that one might find wearing some of the more known brands.
Their J09 is hand assembled and starts at $30,000.00; other watches such as the JS9-GMT with a ceramic bezel and a sapphire crystal start at $2,800.00.
I would keep an eye on this brand, it’s a micro-luxury today, but I can see it growing fast and capturing the hearts of many.
Personally, I would love to own one of their divers and look forward to it! I think it ranks up there in design and execution with the best of the current luxury divers on the market.
The Diver features their Calibre SW-330 with GMT functions with luminous indexes and hands. The crystal is an anti-glare sapphire, trust me, this looks incredible in person. My phone did not capture the elegance this watch represents.
This watch features their SW-200 auto calibre movement. Luminous dots and hands provide visibility in low light, something some of my dress watches do not have.
This model features their GMT movement, the SW-330 Auto. This also has luminous dots and hands.
Zelos
Zelos had quite a few watches on display and I got to talk to their Brand Ambassador for a short while.
The Mako V2 is rated to 500m (1,640 feet) and the green dial version features a steel dial, Swiss Sellita SW200 and a sapphire crystal. The bezel is a 200 Vickers hardness ceramic insert with full lume. It starts at $549.00.
The Great White is 316L stainless or CUSN8 bronze cased, and is rated to 1000m (3,280 feet). It also features the Swiss Sellita SW200 movement and a sapphire crystal and is a steal at $649.00 for this much watch; the meteorite dial adds another few to the price and comes in at around $800.00. I am kinda partial to the Orange version of this watch…something about me and orange…next.
Their Swordfish 300m diver, ranges from $349.00 to $849.00 and comes with either the ETA 2892 or the Seiko NH35 movements. I can tell that the Cobalt Blue version is one of their most popular in this line and wow, it also has the fully lumed 2000 Vickers bezel!
Next up I got to handle their ZX Chronograph. This one was polished titanium with an auto Swiss Valjoux movement that is near the $2000.00 range. The model is the ZX-7 and is currently sold out but I hope this goes back into production soon. The first watch ever made from titanium Damascus and it’s a real eye-catcher! It’s also listed as sold out, so getting to see it in person was a real treat.
Spinnaker
Ahh Spinnaker! Spinnaker makes exceptional watches with many marking events and points in a time past.
Spinnaker had a table full of fascinating watches (I know, they are all fascinating to a watch nut like myself, at EVERY table, but I digress…) and I spent quite a while going over Andy’s watches…where do I start?
I had to come back after asking so many questions to let some of the other attendees ogle as much as I ogled…and I am still ogling in May.
All of the watches Spinnaker displayed have a sapphire crystal…
Let’s start with the Croft (SP-5058-XX). It’s available with either a leather or a mesh bracelet, and has a Miyota 8218 movement at $320.00 The design has the second hand in the lower right quadrant of the dial between the 4 and 5 hour markers. The date window is magnified and with this many colors to choose from, I tend to sway towards the -02 model, it reminded me of the chocolate Rolex Clint Eastwood frequently wore in movies. The Croft ranges from $320.00 to $400.00 with a stainless steel bracelet.
The Tesei (SP-5060-XX) also has my favorite chocolate colorings with the second hand in it’s usual spot. The Swiss hand assembled bronze version is $850.00 and has the Selita SW200 Auto movement. The same model can be had for $520.00 and that has the Miyota 8215 Auto movement (SP-5061-XX).
Another great looking watch is the Bradner. This has a vintage look with a crystal that is curved back down to the bezel. Honestly, I kept picking this one up and it just has that look that I wanted to check out. SP-5062-XX and they are $285.00, with an NH32 Auto movement.
The Sorrento had a rather unique feature: a rosewood bezel insert affixed with 6 screws and made to stand up to normal life. This also caught my eye as I had never seen one like it yet. SP-5067-XX is the model line and it runs $310.00.
The Spence is a more tactical diver with a minimalist bezel. This has a TMI NH35 Auto Movement and ranges from $245.00 (SP-5039-XX) with a NATO strap to the higher priced models (SP-5039-XX and SP-5063-XX) at $280.00.
