The Daily Micro-Adjust

Worn & Wound

Wei Koh and Guillaume Tetu Launch Legare with the Chapter 1 AGP Inverted

Wei Koh (Revolution, The Rake) and industry veteran Guillaume Tetu have launched Legare, a new Neuchatel-based haute horlogerie brand debuting just ahead of Geneva Watch Days with the Chapter 1 AGP Inverted: a 37.5mm Grade 5 titanium, Art Deco-inflected piece built around an original movement with twin dial-side balance wheels (21,600 vph) averaged by a differential, inspired by a 1932 student pocket watch by Albert-Gustave Piguet. Offered in "Elegant" (untreated German Silver caliber) and "Darth" (black rhodium) executions at CHF 81,944, each limited to 25 pieces, and Swiss-made through partners including PURTEC, UM2, Fabrika and GLS2F. The launch signals how a media-and-industry insider network can spin up a high-priced, low-volume brand fast, leaning on Koh's connections and a Vallee de Joux backstory to justify the price.

WatchPro

Consumer confidence climbs as retailers await Burnham’s Budget

UK consumer confidence climbed again in August, with the BRC's survey showing retail spending intentions jumping to +8 from +1 and economy expectations improving to -28 from -36, the strongest reading since the start of the Iran conflict. BRC chief Helen Dickinson credited more optimistic Gen Z shoppers but framed Burnham's coming Budget as the "acid test" for growth, warning that fresh tax and regulatory burdens could feed through into higher prices. For watch retailers eyeing the autumn and Christmas run, it's a more encouraging backdrop than July, though whether improved sentiment converts to actual discretionary spend remains the open question.

WatchPro

JBN rebrands as the NAJ Retail Network

The National Association of Jewellers has rebranded its 20-year-old JET Business Network as the NAJ Retail Network, a 40-member group of UK independent jewellers that reports average 15% year-on-year growth across membership. The rebrand pulls the peer-support network (quarterly meetings, anonymous sales benchmarking, a private WhatsApp community) tighter under the NAJ banner, a bid to recruit more independents as they weigh competition and shifting consumer habits.

WatchPro

CMJ to inaugurate Mentorship Monday at trade events

The Company of Master Jewellers is launching Mentorship Monday, a free full-day training programme for retailer members running alongside its upcoming trade events, promising over £3,000 of training value per attendee plus a £100 travel credit per head. Sessions span sales-growth strategy, digital marketing and hands-on supplier workshops from names like TH March, Goodman Bros and Thirty Three Percent. The move is a bid to keep independent jewellers close to the buying group by upskilling their staff at no cost, a soft-power play in the fight for retailer loyalty.

WatchPro

Mr Jones calls on Gen-Z to design a perfect watch and earn £3,000 plus royalties

Mr Jones Watches has opened a global design competition for 18-to-25-year-olds, with the winner earning £3,000 (the brand's standard design fee), a per-watch royalty, and a trip to London to develop their concept into a commercial release; entries close on Friday 25 September 2026. It is a low-cost talent-scouting and marketing play that hands Mr Jones fresh IP and a Gen-Z pipeline while borrowing the brand's signature two-disc, hands-free display as the creative constraint.

Fratello

Bespoke One-Of-A-Kind And Off-Catalog Watches: A Story As Old As Time

Fratello runs a survey of bespoke and off-catalog watchmaking, from Drake's diamond-clad one-off "Freeze the World" Daytona and Rolex's increasingly public off-catalog pieces (the Watches and Wonders Daytona ref. 126502-0001 at $57,800, plus Jubilee Gold Day-Dates at $61,000 and $62,700) to Vacheron Constantin's Les Cabinotiers and Roger Dubuis's Rarities programs. The real signal here: Rolex is quietly opening the curtain on a client-only tier it once kept invisible, which erodes the very "off-catalog" mystique that made those relationships worth cultivating. When the secret catalog ends up on the website and in the press kit, brand exclusivity stops being about access and starts being about spend.

Quill & Pad

Hong Kong: Watch-World’s Other Hub

The 45th Hong Kong Watch and Clock Fair runs September 1 to 5 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, spanning haute horlogerie, Chinese independents (CIGA Design, Shanghai Watch), a fourteen-brand Swiss Independent Watch Pavilion, microbrands, and the deep OEM/ODM component ecosystem. The real signal here is Asia's shifting center of gravity: conference programming on RCEP as a tariff cushion and Chinese makers moving from manufacturing base to genuine market competitor tell you where the industry's growth (and supply chain) conversations are actually happening.

Worn & Wound

Hands-On with the Studio Underd0g 02SERIES (Gen2): A Refreshing New Take on the Famous Dirty Dozen

Worn & Wound went hands-on with Studio Underd0g's 02SERIES (Gen2), a $1,200 field watch reworking the WWII Dirty Dozen, and calls it "unlike any field watch I've encountered before" and "one of the best options right now at this price point," praising the multilayer tinted-sapphire dial, the case slimmed to 11.5mm at 37.5mm, and the manually converted Sellita SW200-2 M now good for 63 hours. The trade takeaway: in a field-watch segment they concede is saturated with WWII homages, they credit Studio Underd0g with adding something genuinely original, a reminder that this six-year-old British independent is punching above the microbrand pack on design and finishing.

Monochrome Watches

The Tissot PRX 40mm Powermatic 80, now with Mother-of-Pearl Dial

Tissot has brought its white mother-of-pearl dial, previously exclusive to the 35mm PRX, to the 40mm PRX Powermatic 80 (ref. T137.407.11.111.00), pairing the waffle-textured MoP with the collection's 40mm steel case, 11mm profile, integrated bracelet and the 80-hour Powermatic 80 movement. It joins the permanent collection at EUR 825, a 50-euro premium over the standard metal-dial version. The move is a deliberate signal that Tissot sees MoP as more than a "feminine" play, extending a proven volume seller into yet another SKU rather than betting on scarcity.

Hodinkee

Czapek Promenade Transparencies "Aqua Blue"

Czapek has released the Promenade Transparencies "Aqua Blue," a limited edition of 38 pieces that brings the brand's in-house Transparency dial concept (a metallized fumé sapphire disc, gradient built from eight-micron dots) to its own Promenade line after the earlier Fratello collaboration. It keeps the 38mm steel case (10.8mm thick, 5 atm) and shows off the skeletonized SXH7 micro-rotor caliber through the dial, on a blue Nubuck strap or steel Milanese mesh, at $40,300 (28,800 CHF). Available today via Czapek's site, Geneva boutique, and global retailers; it's a telling move as Czapek keeps using the Promenade as a dial test bed while the Antarctique soaks up most of the collector attention at this price point.

Also at: Monochrome Watches · SJX Watches · Fratello

Hodinkee

Blancpain Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe 70th Anniversary Limited Edition

Blancpain marks the Bathyscaphe's 70th anniversary with a 300-piece limited edition that closely follows the 1968 reference: a 37.4mm steel case, sunburst meteor grey dial, vintage logo, white-gold indexes with warm-toned Super-LumiNova, and a ceramic bezel insert, now with a display back showing the 100-hour caliber 1150. Priced at $18,300 on a chocolate calf strap, it's available now. The heritage-heavy playbook is Blancpain leaning into its dive-watch lineage at a price point where nostalgia does real commercial work.</parameter> <parameter name="categories">["dive", "vintage"]

Also at: Fratello · SJX Watches · WatchPro · Revolution Watch · Time + Tide · Monochrome Watches

Hodinkee

The Glashütte Original Senator Chronograph And Senator Chronograph Navigator

Glashütte Original replaces its Senator Chronograph Panorama Date models with two new flyback chronographs: the classically styled Senator Chronograph (galvanic silver dial, blued gold Roman numerals) and the tool-oriented Senator Chronograph Navigator (matte black dial, luminescent Arabic numerals). Both share a 41mm steel case, 12.9mm thick with 48.5mm lug-to-lug, and run the in-house automatic Caliber 37-24 with flyback function, Panorama Date, silicon balance spring, and 70 hours of power reserve; the redesign drops the old 12-hour counter and power-reserve indicator. Priced at $17,100 on bracelet and $16,100 on strap, not limited, available through Glashütte Original retailers.

Also at: Time + Tide · Monochrome Watches · aBlogtoWatch · WatchTime

aBlogtoWatch

ProTek USMC 250th Anniversary ‘Semper Fidelis’ Sports Watches Aren’t Just For Marines

ProTek, the tactical-watch brand founded by Luminox co-founder Barry Cohen, has rolled out its USMC 250th anniversary "Semper Fidelis" collection, including the Series 4100 carbon dive watch (ref. PT4105SFC) reviewed here: a 45mm carbon case, 300m water resistance, AR-coated sapphire, T100 tritium tube markers, and a Miyota 2035 quartz movement, at $595. Produced in official collaboration with the United States Marine Corps and available in green, gray, blue, and black digi-camo dials, it slots ProTek squarely into the authentic-military-collab niche at a price point that undercuts the luxury Panerai crowd it name-checks.

aBlogtoWatch

The SUPERLATIVE Podcast: Gabe Oppenheim On How History And Politics Shape The Watch Industry

On this week's Superlative podcast, aBlogtoWatch founder Ariel Adams talks with author and journalist Gabe Oppenheim about his book "Borrowed Time," covering the history of Swiss watchmaking, the origins of "Swiss Made," the decline of American manufacturing, Chinese counterfeiting, and the information gap between luxury brands and collectors, a useful listen for anyone in the trade thinking about how history and politics still shape the market.