The Best Watches From Micro-Brand Watch Show District Time 2025

I recently had the chance to drop in to the District Time watch show in Washington, D.C., a microbrand-centric watch expo that has grown steadily over the years, with this year’s edition featuring more than 50 brands. Loren Sciurba and his team from The Time Bum blog, along with co-sponsor McDowell Time, did a fantastic job bringing the horological heat to a traditionally underserved Mid-Atlantic market, and based on the wall-to-wall crowds over two days, the event was a resounding smash. 

I had a blast on this run-and-gun road trip, getting to spend the day with our intrepid media maestro, Danny Milton, connecting with old friends and making new ones in this celebration of watch culture at its absolute finest. Even with a larger space this year, lines at the booths were stacked, with queues for brands such as Christopher Ward extending halfway through the length of the hall. There was plenty to see and try on, with Danny having way too much fun posing with the Heisman Trophy at the Axia Time booth. And if you didn’t get the chance to check it out yourself, we’ve got you covered. Some of these watches are brand new, and some new to us with our first in-hand impressions, but it was fantastic to experience a lot of these microbrands up close, given the difficulty in seeing many of them first-hand before clicking the “Buy It Now” button. So here, in alphabetical order, are ten standouts that really won our hearts and minds, and will likely be lightening our wallets soon.

Baltic

It wouldn’t be a microbrand show without a visit to the Baltic booth, and the French brand continues to show why they’re a force to be reckoned with in the space. The French brand’s vintage-inspired lineup continues to expand, and their winning blend of classical good looks and affordability cements their place as a fan favorite. We got to see some new models up close, leaving impressed with the 36mm salmon-dialed MR Roulette, a small seconds model with a casino-inspired dial layout, as well as the vibrant limited edition Prismic Stone models, especially in the rich green jade variant of the New York Edition. But my pick of the litter is the new bronze version of the 37mm Hermétique Tourer, a daily driver available in three smoked gradient dials with substantial lume blocks as hour markers, 150 meters of water resistance, and a 4 Hertz Miyota 9039 caliber beating away inside.

Bulova

Bulova is a revered historic brand, and certainly not a micro, but it's been serving up heaps of collector catnip to enthusiasts for the last several years, and it’s great to see a major player mixing it up with the scrappy microbrand field. I’ve become quite enamored of the reimagined Super Seville, a retro-tastic integrated model with a super-accurate Precisionist quartz movement and some intriguing dial choices, but Danny and I were both taken with the new Snorkel series. If you haven’t seen them in person, I can say that although they feature a Hybrid Ceramic case not dissimilar to the blockbuster MoonSwatch, these water-resistant dive-style models feel more robust in their construction. Available in four fun colorways with more to come (I’m partial to the white and orange Clownfish), they feature a ratcheting bezel, 100 meters of water resistance, a screw-in stainless caseback, and tropic-style rubber straps. The Devil Diver aesthetics bring the look to a new audience at a more approachable $350 price point, and we’re here for it. 

Draken

Draken is a New Zealand brand with its roots in South Africa, a name famous in the microbrand community for its substantial tool watches, but the brand caught my eye at District Time with a postmodern field watch in a size more suited to my own wrist. The Aoraki is a wearable 39mm, with a Miyota movement inside, 100 meters of water resistance, and notably, an elevated antimagnetic rating of 20,000A/m, achieved through its Faraday cage construction. A beefy stainless-steel case profile, drilled lugs, crown at four, and your choice of four different dial configurations adds up to a winning package. As an added bonus, the Aoraki ships with two straps, a single-pass nylon, and a single-pass leather bund, and it was that look that sucked me in like a tractor beam. While some say the bund strap is making a comeback, for some of us, it never left.

echo/neutra

I’m a big fan of Italian microbrand echo/neutra, and its whole stylish aesthetic. Echo/neutra wowed the watch world last fall with its Rivanera titanium tank-style model, myself included, and suffice it to say some surprises are in the works for the near future. Co-founder Nicola Callegaro was kind enough to show me a few sneak peeks, but the cat’s outta the bag on this one, the brand's newly announced manually-wound 1956 White Chronograph, the latest iteration of an already successful design that harks back to tool-watch classics of the ‘50s and ‘60s. The bianco colorway has a creamy hue, with great contrast via the black handset, and a striking pop of red above 6 o'clock and on the chrono hand. The 40mm stainless-steel case, Sellita SW510M elaboré caliber, 100 meters of water resistance, and telemeter scale bezel are the headlines here, and the whole package is one of midcentury perfection.

Farr and Swit

Chicago-based Farr and Swit is a lifestyle brand with a focus on watches, and an emphasis on fun, colorful timepieces that don’t take themselves too seriously. They’re known for well-priced, water resistant daily drivers with automatic movements and cheerful colorways, but their standout for me is the insanely fun Retro Digital Mix Tape Vol. 1 model, an absolute bargain at $34.99. These throw it back to the days of boomboxes and homemade cassettes, with translucent cases in vibrant candy colors, and their new B Sides versions feature a reverse negative LCD display. They’re the most fun you can have for the price of a nice lunch out, and the Stranger Things vibes will put a huge smile on your face.

Marathon

It’s always a must to see the folks at Canada’s Marathon, purveyors of bombproof no-BS tool watches from our neighbors to the north. I’m a big fan of its SSNAV no-date quartz model, a modern take on the ‘80s Steel Navigator. Marathon has kept the military Type II case design, and packed today’s version with tritium tube lume, a sapphire crystal, and the ETA F06.402 HeavyDrive/PreciDrive Quartz movement for reliable, all-conditions timekeeping. But the big news is the release of the overbuilt 41mm OSAR-D diver’s automatic from the early 2000s, issued to Canadian Search and Rescue techs. It features a mil-spec Type I dial with date cyclops, a Sellita SW200-1 caliber inside, 300 meters of water resistance, and big swaths of Mara-Glo lume, making legibility a cinch.

Nodus/Raven

You can always rely on LA-based Nodus to bring the micro heat, and it definitely delivered with the latest iteration of the Canyon, a green-dialed collab with our friend, The Smoking Tire’s Matt Farah. Their latest project features a 41mm case, a green-to-black gradient dial, and a La Joux-Perret G101 movement with a 68 hour power reserve. There are subtle automotive cues throughout, and this one’s a definite GADA contender, launching in late April. I also got to spend some quality time with my favorite Nodus, the fixed-bezel Trailtrekker GMT, a collaboration with Kansas-based Raven Watches. It features a fantastically wearable 39.5mm case, a Miyota 9075 traveler GMT movement with independently adjustable hour hand, and a matte gunmetal gray DLC finish on a stainless case and bracelet. I’m a sucker for the stealthy look of this one, getting a savage jolt of color from the orange-yellow GMT hand, and the proprietary NodeX micro-adjust clasp is a pleasure to use.

RZE

RZE is one of those brands that previously slipped beneath my radar, but it’s hard to ignore a dude enthusiastically bludgeoning his brand’s watches with a heavy rubber mallet. Huiy Tang is easily one of the most effective microbrand evangelists out there, and his Singapore-based RZE is beating the drum (or rather, watch) for titanium. I was smitten by its lineup of contemporary tool watches, available in a range of sizes, specs, and features, with the yellow-dialed, solar-powered 36mm Urbanist field watch a personal standout. But the big story for the brand is its new digital tool watch, the UTD-8000, and yes, it’s titanium, even the bracelet. It’s got G-Shock-levels of durability, and just for comparison, a full titanium G-Shock will run you nearly $2,300 more than the $329 cost of the UTD-8000 on the bracelet. RZE even offers one of the most robust try-before-you-buy programs out there: a full refund on your titanium timepiece if you don’t fall in love after two weeks of real-world use. 

Sheffield

Both Danny and I were taken with the offerings from Sheffield, a sort of love letter to affordable tool watches from the man who revived the brand, Jay Turkbas. Turkbas is a successful sporting goods executive, but when he discovered that the IP from his childhood dive watch was available, a passion project was born. Jay not only launched the Sheffield Allsport’s modern incarnation, he even kept the price the same, an inflation-adjusted $108. For your money, you’ll get a capable, no-nonsense 200-meter quartz diver that offers complete transparency about its component sourcing. Everything is strictly quality controlled, and I have no idea how Jay manages a profit, but so much the better for collectors of budget-baller timepieces. Sheffield now has a much broader lineup, including new Seiko-powered automatic GMT models that retail for an absurd $238, as well as limited runs that include Danny’s favorite, the Sheffield 24Hr, with its striking day/night dial. My pick? The 38mm 1A 38 in its black and orange guise, a well-specced slice of no-date retro goodness that retails for under $200.

TSAO Baltimore

Finally, we wind up with local heroes TSAO Baltimore, a micro that celebrates its regional heritage with special editions boasting a Baltimore-centric twist, with the brand recently being named as the official watch of the Orioles. Since 2017, Alan Tsao has committed to designing and assembling all their timepieces in Baltimore, and while his brand's lineup is broad, it’s these hometown versions that seem to connect with collectors most. Maryland is renowned for its crab dishes, and my fave, the Old Bay no-date field watch, features a vibrant orange textured dial on a 40mm, 200 meter GADA timepiece. The 43mm Steel Torsk-Diver, named after a submarine serving as part of the Baltimore Historic Ships museum, is available in a range of colorways, but none so proud as the Raven Purple version. And Danny’s favorite, the Natty Boh moon-phase model, features the mustachioed National Bohemian beer mascot within the moon-phase aperture. This is a fun collection that celebrates Baltimore’s culture, and word from the brand is that we can expect some more surprises in the very near future. Stay tuned.