The horological gospel tells us that there has been something quite amazing happening within the micro and attainable side of independent watchmaking in the past decade which never took place in the past. Even though I for one believe that microbrands are not a new concept and existed before in the 1960s/70s prior the Quartz Revolution (where many white-label brands got their watches manufactured in Switzerland and not Asia), those of today—of the past decade or so—are much more innovative than their forebearers were. Perhaps this is due to a global renewed interest in horology, or the greater number of small independent brands in existence today compared to back then, or the fact that society is such that more and more folks are looking to be unique or to make unique products. Whichever it is, there is no denying the veracity of the gospel: micro and small independent brands are extremely creative visually and technically, and offer much higher value than than most mainstream brands do. 

On Mainspring we’ve reviewed quite a few interesting models in the past six years and just this week we dissected the incredible Xeric Retroscope Jump Hour, and not long before that the Brew Metric Digital Blend. Both examples showcase this side of watchmaking’s daring design and irregular mechanics which are available for less than 500 one dollar bills which is little to pay for such singular creations. If you pay a little more, but surprisingly not that much more, you now have access to additional innovations pioneered by smaller houses of watchmaking: custom mechanical modules tethered to readily available movements, lumecast markers, titanium cases, and of course brand new design vocabularies. These past words woven into sentences lead us to today’s subject of horological analysis: the Arken Alterum Anthacite Grey which constitutes one of the most singular pieces of watchmaking I’ve ever seen for well below the stress-inducing $1,000 USD price frontier which is quite the achievement. 

Specifications 

You may have heard of Arken before through the Alterum launched in 2023 but not its debut collection called the Instrumentum launched in 2021. The latter served as the basis for the former but it is the Alterum which caught the undivided attention of many enthusiasts and collectors for it did many new and unusual things at an unbeatable and never-seen-before price: a custom 12-hour GMT complication housed in a hyper modern hardened titanium case and complemented by a fully bespoke minimalist utilitarian dial for which the brand requests that you remove 600 of His Majesty’s Pounds or roughly 691 of Uncle Sam’s dollars from your bank account. Evidently we’re going to dissect all of this horological goodness in just a few moments but it was important to set the stage for what’s to come. The person behind the brand by the way is Kenneth Lam, a multi-medium communication strategist and self-taught watch designer who self-imposed the lofty goal of creating the ideal tool watch he would wear for the rest of his life.

The first and most important point of engineering we’re going to go over is the movement and 12-hour GMT module Ken had manufactured just for the Alterum. In the early days of Arken, our ambitious hero was searching for a company which could redecorate entire movements which led him to learn about these enterprises’ capabilities to invent entire mechanical modules from scratch. What he knew he didn’t want for his second model was to be one of the most ubiquitous types of watches every other brand inevitably outputs: a chronograph. Since Ken creates military-inspired robust tool watches, he started developing a concept for a 12-hour GMT module which would fit inside a comfortable titanium case and remain legible whilst also being entirely singular to his brand. Thus he found a manufacturing partner which produced a module to work with a standard Miyota 9015 to indicate the time in a second time zone by way of an additional 12-hour hand and two apertures which indicate day and night time for each time zone. 

Setting the time in two places on earth simultaneously was not second nature to me on account of how the module functions: to set the GMT hand one has to move the hands forward then backward to engage the GMT complication which locks it in place whilst the correct time difference between the two locations is set by moving the local hour hand further back. For example, I move the hour hand in reverse to create a six hour difference between France and the East Coast of the United States before rotating the hands forward again to set the correct time. (Ken added these instructions which explain this much better than I could.) Then the left aperture shows whether it is AM or PM for the local time, and the right aperture does the same for the second time zone, where white indicates day and black night. You’re probably by now familiar with the Japanese made Miyota 9015 (4Hz/42 hours of power reserve) which is very popular in this segment of the market and made for a robust choice as the base for a custom module. 

The second point of engineering to highlight are the lumicast hour markers which made Arken one of the first brands to use them as they were quite rare in 2023 even though they have become very common in 2026. Lumicast is different from other types of three-dimensional blocks of lume as the luminescent pigment is cast in ceramic (akin to Globolight we discussed when reviewing the Christopher Ward C63 Sealander Extreme GMT) instead of being 3D-printed as it is most often the case. Arken’s process makes for more even, resilient, and legible markers which also look quite stunning day in and day out. What is further stunning is that Ken managed to make the Miyota + custom module + lumicast hour markers fit in a nimble hardened titanium case measuring 38mm in diameter, 46mm lug-to-lug, 13mm thick, endowed with 200 meters of water resistance by way of a screw-down case-back, crown, and date-setting pusher. (Ken asked the module manufacturer to transform the date complication into a six o’clock hand.) 

Design

On specifications alone, the Arken Alterum casts a broad shadow over most micro and small independent brands in terms of engineering and value. £600/$691 USD is more than a fair amount of money to ask for what you get and I haven’t even covered it all: for example, the bespoke dial we’re about to dissect can be clearly seen through a flat piece of sapphire crystal equipped with multiple layers of inner anti-reflective coating. The hardened titanium case is paired with a bespoke tapering nylon strap equipped with a bespoke quick-release mechanism itself paired with a bespoke end-link attachment system. The strap is supremely soft and malleable and perfectly matches the lightness of the titanium case as the ensemble only weighs a meager 72g. Pardon my French but this is fucking impressive without matching this fantastic suite of exhaustive specifications to any price tag but even more so knowing how little Ken is asking for the Alterum. Clearly, he is not intent on becoming the next watchmaking millionaire. 

Instead, Mr. Kenneth Lam is fully geared towards creating, as we know, his ideal tool watch which he could wear for the rest of his life. Thus this watch is affordable and also unique: looking at the case and dial there is nothing commonplace about the Alterum and that is a rare occurrence to witness in horology. The hardened titanium is fully brushed with vertical and horizontal movements of the most discreet nature making the brushing at times almost invisible. The case finishing also follows and perfectly highlights its unique profile, which is symmetrical when looking at the left and right flanks of the case and the top and bottom sections. On the right, a tall, narrow and easy-to-operate 7.8mm crown ever so slightly breaks symmetry and is accompanied by an equally operable threaded date pusher at the four o’clock. North and south, the “lugs” curve in and move towards the center of the case to form metal protrusions which remind me of a Praying Mantis arms and perfectly frame the strap’s anchor points. 

When reviewing watches I often have a preference for either the case or dial but I have no such preference here as both are equally outstanding. First, the dial is made of a slightly glossy anthracite-blue melted-plastic texture which emphasizes this model’s utilitarian nature. At its periphery, a simple white minute track frames the whole and next to it we find the applied BGW9-filled lumicast hour markers shaped like dots and teardrops at the 12, 3, and 9. These markers are connected to one another by way of a white circle which is interrupted at the six by the date sub-register. The base of the latter is made of radial grooves, numerals indicating the odd numbers and hash-marks the even ones, which a lumed teardrop shaped hand points to. The hour and minute hands are lumed, both received a gunmetal finish, and are shaped like a broad sword and thin lance respectively. Moreover, the seconds hand is fully coated in luminescent compound and the GMT hand, as it is hard to miss, is an enormous orange lollipop. 

The Heart of the Matter

I have often been asked, and I routinely think about, what defines microbrands today, and more broadly, small independent brands. There are straightforward elements which define their particular nature: small or microscopic teams, internally-fueled designs and externally-sourced productions, limited release batches, and—more often than not—attainable price tags. Beyond these elements there are the technical aspects of the watches they produce which generally constitute better value compared to what mainstream brands offer even though each year, microbrands offer more or less the same tech. So rarely do smaller houses of watchmaking offer superior mechanics for still an attainable price, which is what Arken does. The design elements are also pretty much the same across the board and genres, even though, once again, some brands do go off the beaten-path to experiment with new case shapes, hand designs, and dial textures. Evidently, Arken excels in that domain too. Putting all of this together then Ken’s horological enterprise is very unique and therefore cut from a different microcloth. 

Conclusion 

The only disadvantage to making such singular watches is that they are not readily available to purchase and come in small batches because they are so intricate to manufacture and finish. I believe, however, that most of us are ok to wait a little while to acquire such an incredible timepiece sold at such an incredible price, and I have it under good authority that the Alterum will come back soon. I suggest signing up to the brand’s newsletter to not miss upcoming restocks so keep a sharp eye on Arken’s website. 

Thanks for reading.