The Best Scandinavian Watch Brands You Need to Know

Scandinavia is a fascinating part of the world, wild and untamed and yet home to some of the most stylish and well regarded designers of all time. It’s a unique melting pot of rugged Nordic influences and classy minimalism that you won’t find anywhere else. What’s more, all of these diverse elements find a wonderful place in horology – even though it’s not quite so well known as the watchmaking regions of Germany or France. From subtle dress watches, daily beaters and practical tool watches, you can find them all from across Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland. So without further ado, here are some of our favourite Scandinavian watch brands that you should know about.

Von Doren

Von Doren Il Tempo Gigante Automatisk Kronograf

From accessible flashes of summer ready colour to chunky, exceptional chronographs, Von Doren runs the full gamut of watches. As is the case with many a modern watch brand, founder Øyvind VonDoren Asbjørnsen was originally inspired by an heirloom Swiss timepiece handed down from his father. Far from an homage brand however, there’s something decidedly Norwegian about Von Doren, from their Art Nouveau inspirations to the stories their watches tell.

While the Runde is a handsome, colourful watch, for our money the ultra-cool, ultra-macho and ultra-retro Il Tempo Gigante is Von Doren’s opus. Inspired by Norwegian stop-motion film, 1975’s The Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, it’s every bit the throwback racing chronograph in a funky colourway of brown, black and yellow. It’s not your typical streamlined Scandi chic watch for sure, but it’s very much something only Von Doren could build.

More details at Von Doren.

GoS Watches

GoS Watches Sarek Rissa No1

Think of typical Scandinavian landscapes, the tundra, the glaciers, the Northern Lights, and you’ll see precisely where GoS Watches get their unique aesthetic. The Swedish brand is the brainchild of master watchmaker Patrick Sjögren, and smith and knifemaker Johan Gustafsson, who decided to pool their skills for a deeply Scandinavian brand.

From Gustafsson comes the copious use of Damascus steel across cases and some dials – albeit supplied these days by bladesmith Conny Persson; from Sjögren the kind of immaculate, nature-inspired finishing that would make Grand Seiko fans hot under the collar. The Norrsken, with its gorgeous wavy dial and even more gorgeous colours, is about as beautiful a Nordic watch as you can find.

More details at GoS.

Bravur Watches

Bravur Grand Tour La Corsa Rosa IV

There has always been some cross-over between cycling and watches, but no brand has encapsulated cycling culture quite as succinctly as Sweden’s Bravur Watches. After all, what watchmaker also produces a snappy line of cycling clothes? But while the jerseys and bib shorts are pared-back in a performance-oriented way, the watches are not.

Case in point, the Grand Tour La Corsa Rosa IV. A fabulous mix of tarmac grey (with a similarly inspired texture to it) and various shades of pink ranging from pale to hot, the watch is an homage to the Maglia Rosa, the leader’s jersey in the Giro d’Italia. It’s a showstopper, but there are also more subtle touches that show Bravur’s love of the sport. Look at the 13 on the minute track, for example. Not only would it not normally be there, but it’s upside-down, a reference to how the number 13 rider wears it to ward off bad luck. See? Nobody does cycling and watches like Bravur.

More details at Bravur.

Sarpaneva

Sarpaneva Supermoon

Sarpaneva’s angry moon looking like it’s been pulled right out of Georges Méliès’ imagination has become an icon of independent watchmaking. It’s just one part of the brand’s modern approach to high watchmaking, but it’s by far the most visible, especially when combined with the intensely skeletonised dials, unique case shapes and playful approach to lume. There’s a lot going on and that moon is the lynchpin of it all.

The brand’s Supermoon, as the name suggests, amps that up to the next level. The twin moon display at six o’clock has more character than most watchmakers can fit on an entire dial, a tribute to the brand’s earlier 2008 Korona K3. Apparently, this specific moon is an ode to Finnish spirit, though from personal experience most Finns I’ve met have been far, far happier than this melancholic orb. It is however everything Sarpaneva stands for.

More details at Sarpaneva.

REC Watches

REC Watches The Habu Limited Edition

Danish brand REC have carved out a historical niche for themselves with one spectacular inclusion: pieces of actual historical machines. If that sounds familiar, it’s something the wider watch industry has embraced in recent years but none to quite the same extent as REC. Their limited collection includes salvaged metal from cars, motorbikes, aircraft and pretty much anything that can move on its own steam.

We’re not just talking vintage here, either. The Habu, REC’s latest, is made from an SR-71 Blackbird, a legendary long-range reconnaissance aircraft that’s as much space craft as plane. The watch dial is made from the aircraft’s inner engine nacelle exhaust ejectors – and if you know what those are, REC as a brand probably get you very excited. Set in a titanium case inspired by the Blackbird’s aerodynamic form, it’s a statement watch in more ways than one.

More details at REC.

JS Watch Company

JS Watch Company 101 38mm

Hailing from Reykjavik and priding themselves on being one of the smallest watchmakers around, JS Watch Company nonetheless count the likes of Mads Mikkelsen, Ben Stiller, Ed Sheeran and Jude Law among their fans. That’s a big following for a small Icelandic watchmaker, but JS Watch Company offer the kind of watches that have purists fawning, with coin-edge bezels and the overwhelming choice of black or white dials.

Movements are Swiss workhorse numbers finished to the highest standards, which while a bit of a departure from those classical aesthetics, means they’re more affordable than they look. Take the 101 38mm as an example. The Goldilocks sizing, clean numerals (Roman or Arabic) and Breguet hands look like absolute stunners, with a price tag well under the £2,000 mark. With three generations of watchmaking heritage channelled into each and every watch, that’s pretty impressive.

More details at JS Watch Company.

Arcanaut

Arcanaut Fordite Nebulous Eye

Doing weird things with weird materials is the name of the game at Arcanaut. The Denmark-based but pan-Scandinavian brand’s collections embrace intriguing composites and colourful fordite (made from car industry paint run-off) dials, colours aplenty and a tongue-in-cheek approach to high-end watchmaking.

The Experimental Collection lives up to its name, with incredible lume dials and casebacks. The Bonehead, as an example, involves injecting a chunk of aluminium foam used in the aerospace industry with resin, then attaching the result to a solid block of lume. This isn’t experimental in the structured, lab-based sense but in the ‘just do it and see what works’ approach. And it’s hard not to love Arcanaut for that.

More details at Arcanaut.

Micromilspec

Micromilspec Milgraph

Until recently you would have had a hard time coming across a Micromilspec watch; they were the purview of military squadrons and regiments, the sort that you’d only see with black bars scrawled across their names. Now however, the brand is opening up a bit more with production watches available to civilians.

That watch is, specifically, the Milgraph. Channelling the brand’s years of custom military watches into one piece, its multifaceted design, quirky scales of various shapes and sizes, and a lightweight titanium case all combine to create a unique looking piece with a serious specs sheet. It’s a good sign of things to come and I’m looking forward to seeing what the Oslo-based brand does next.

More details at Micromilspec.

Bruvik

Bruvik Fjord N2.0

There are more integrated bracelet sports watches these days than ever before – including when they were at their initial height in the 1970s – so it takes a solid design for one to really stand out. Bruvik has three. If you want something a bit more elegant, there’s the Senja with it’s cool tessellating bezel. If you want a no-holds-barred twist on what the Bulgari Octo’s putting down, there’s the Fjord N2.0, which combines a GMT with a funky spider web/spacetime pattern across the dial.

Then there’s the Arctic Ocean, which yes, uses a strap, but one that’s about as integrated into the case as you can get. The latest edition also reveals the inner workings of the automatic movement, bordered by scales you’d expect to see on instrument panels as much as a watch. Of the three, I’m all about the Senja, but honestly, there’s something for everyone here.

More details at Bruvik.

Båge & Söner

Båge & Söner Brew Baby

Yes, these are alarm clocks and yes, I’m aware that an alarm clock is not a watch. But bear with me on this because not only are they small, portable timekeepers, but Båge & Söner borrow plenty from the world of actual horology. The dial looks like its ripped straight from a colourful dress watch, and the rounded corners of the square shape give the whole thing the kind of retro good looks that deserves a place next to your bed.

The Brew Baby variation is particularly cool, a combination of warm browns and golds that has the kind of sepia-tinted nostalgia of a valve amp. Oh, and speaking of audio, Båge & Söner’s alarm clocks start off quiet and ramp up, so no horrifically rude awakenings.

More details at Båge & Söner.

Sjöö Sandström

Sjöö Sandström Landsort 459m

No-nonsense cool is the name of the game with a brand I’m always going to try and avoid pronouncing out loud. They hit that sweet spot of quality and accessibility that make one of these streamlined flashes of Scandi design a flawless everyday wearer. The Royal collection – and the upper end Royal Capital version – offers the kind of versatility that means you don’t need to puzzle out what watch to strap on for the day.

That all said, there are some more specialist pieces in Sjöö Sandström’s line-up. The UTC Skydiver does what it says on the tin, offering an ani-digi display fit for the literal jet-set. My favourite outlier however is the Landsort 459m. Named after the Landsort deep and sharing a name with an idyllic Swedish island, its charming asymmetrical silhouette makes it fall into the realms of a much more wearable Ploprof, with plenty of water resistance to boot. If you’re wondering why 459, that’s the deepest ravine in the Baltic sea. If you need anything more than that, you’re braver than I.

More details at Sjöö Sandström.

Halda

Halda Race Pilot

While they have since created the ultra-classical Henning XO, a 40mm solid gold, pocket watch-inspired slice of haute horological finishing, I’d argue that it’s a bit of an outlier. That’s because the rest of their collection riffs off the same concept: a smartwatch paired with an analogue watch in a swap-in-swap-out outer case. Traditional it is not. Dubbed the Race Pilot – or Trackmaster/Space Discovery depending on which variation you opt for – the watch includes both a mechanical module in various levels of ultra-modern performance looks and what is essentially a racing computer.

Fittingly for a racing watch, the mechanical movement is from Zenith, while the smart module will track all your stats on the track. In an era of redundant ‘racing’ chronographs, this might be the only real racing watch around. It also very much looks the part, and I can’t understate how satisfying the modules are to pop in and pop out. It’s overengineered and I love it.

More details at Halda.