The sea of microbrand watches is deep and wide with the most prominent contenders taking the podium because of excellent design, top-notch quality, and superb customer service. Competition is fierce and not everyone survives. Brands such as Lorier, Baltic, Halios, Vaer, MkII, Raven, Serica, Traska, and Unimatic have all established themselves firmly in the space. Ask any microbrand lover about those names, and there’s instant recognition. One brand that’s probably not on your radar is Helm Watches. Founded in 2014 by Matt Cross and based out of North Carolina, Helm has quietly but steadily built up a sizable loyal following.
For a somewhat obscure microbrand with a basic and somewhat unpolished website, Helm’s watches have waiting lists as long as your arm. For example, the Miyako diver with its Miyota automatic movement, textured dial, and conical crown, has a crazy waiting period. I put myself on the waiting list just to test it, and my number came up as #3,397. Helm produces about 150 watches per month of each model, which puts my wait time at almost 27 months. That’s as long as the waiting period to buy a $10,000 Rolex Submariner from an authorized dealer. The Miyako costs a mere $375. You might think Helm’s watches are “cheap” quality due to the price, but you’d be wrong.
Photo by Amos Kwon
The brand’s latest model, the Togiak Expedition UTC, already has an 8-month waitlist. Released in the fall of last year, the watch is already a hit with the microbrand crowd. It’s rendered in Grade 2 titanium for the case and bracelet. This is the same material that Omega uses for its $11,300 Seamaster 300M “No Time To Die” 007 Edition. The cost of the Togiak Expedition UTC? $380. In fact, it’s the most expensive watch in Helm’s lineup. It comes in variations, too. Three dial colors (black, grey, yellow) and your choice of four bezel types (Elapsed-Time, Countdown, 12-Hour, 24-Hour, and Compass). It also comes standard with both the titanium three-link bracelet and a single pass Nato strap (one of seven colors). Thankfully, I didn’t have to actually wait eight months for the Togiak Expedition UTC to arrive. Helm was kind enough to send me a black dial version to review.
The first thing you notice about the Togiak Expedition UTC is its purposeful tool watch look. The look is well-executed because it’s busy without being overdone. With the Togiak Expedition UTC, the brand delivers a tremendous value that’s virtually unheard of in microbrand watches.
Photos by Amos Kwon
In addition to the Grade 2 titanium construction, you get a flat sapphire crystal with colorless inner anti-reflective coating, drilled lugs, a flat black dial highlighted with tons of Super-LumiNova C3 (hands and hour markers, minute track, date numerals), a knurled 120-click bezel with PVD coating, drilled lugs, a tapered 22-to-20mm titanium bracelet, and a milled titanium clasp. Dual timekeeping duties are managed by a Seiko NH34 caller GMT automatic movement. The GMT hand can be independently set, a more conventional approach to tracking a second timezone. It also keeps costs down while providing a feature some watch buyers desire.
The NH34 runs at 3Hz with a 40-hour power reserve and delivers 20 ~ +40 seconds/day of deviation. Because buyers can choose their own bezel, the model doesn’t get a “diver’s watch” designation. Even without the official diver label on the dial, each watch is individually pressure-tested in water at its full 200-meter depth rating for two hours. Beyond that, samples from every Togiak Expedition UTC production run undergo the full suite of ISO 6425 testing, covering magnetic and shock resistance, saltwater exposure, thermal shock, underwater reliability, and strap durability.
Photos by Amos Kwon
It’s not a small watch at 42mm in diameter with a 14mm thickness. The thickness is mitigated by the knurled bezel contrasting with the brushed case sides, and the 49mm lug-to-lug distance is just right for average wrists (6.75-7.0 inches). The location of the crown at 4 o’clock and the curved lugs also help reduce the wear and visual size. The tapered crown guard is perfectly executed.
Unlike many GMT watches, Helm’s version manages to keep the hands distinct without losing cohesiveness, no small feat. Despite the fact that there are two sets of numerals (GMT scale, hours) on the rehaut and two sets (time, military time) on the bezel, everything is clean and legible. Lume is bright and tapers off evenly during the night but remains easy to read. The bezel action is excellent with very little play. It’s easily grippable with gloves.
Photo by Amos Kwon
It’s a tremendous timepiece that looks battle-ready but still premium. Its functionality doesn’t, in any way, affect how attractive it is. The fact that it weighs a mere 145 grams with the bracelet is testament to its long wearability. For those who are in search of a rugged and handsome tool watch but don’t want to pay more than a few hundred dollars will come away with a watch that punches way above its weight. To experience the Helm Togiak Expedition UTC is to truly appreciate how much value and pleasure it provides. The long wait will be easily offset by the joy of owning one, not having to worry about its durability and practicality.
I had the pleasure of interviewing Matt Cross to shed more light on Helm Watches.
- How did you develop the designs for your line of watches? Are they inspired by any other brands?
Yes, we definitely draw inspiration from other watch brands. Seiko and Citizen have always been favorites of ours, along with ’60s and ’70s era dive watches, tool watches of any kind and all the super cool microbrand dive watches that are on the market now.
- Your watches don’t exceed the $400 mark, and you use excellent materials (including Grade 2 titanium). How are you able to keep costs down?
Essentially we keep our operating costs as low as possible by maintaining a small staff, keeping our marketing budget to a minimum and economizing anywhere we can. Maintaining our base of operations in Hong Kong and China helps as well, since the overall cost of goods and services is often lower here compared to other locations.
- The waitlist for some of your watches is years long. How is this possible with minimal marketing?
In fact, most of the waiting lists are quite a bit shorter than they used to be, with only a few of them stretching beyond the six-month mark at this point. But I think the long wait times in the past were due primarily to word-of-mouth and the gradual pace at which we ramped up production numbers (which was necessary since we weren’t funding production with pre-orders). When the waiting lists were all months-long, we were contacting 2,000 or more customers each month (but of course not all those contacts resulted in sales).
- Buyers of Helm timepieces swear by the brand, and many have multiple models. How do you account for this?
I think most buyers are attracted by the value—our watches offer great quality at a great price, without a lot of marketing gimmickry. It’s a simple formula that could be applied successfully to products in almost any category, and we just applied it to watches.
- What motivates you? How does watchmaking get your blood flowing?
There’s always a desire to add new watches (that I want to wear!) to the assortment. We have lots of models and variations in mind that we want to produce, but our development cycle is pretty slow. The desire to bring more cool projects to life and see customers get excited about them is what keeps it fun and keeps me motivated!
- What’s coming down the pipe in terms of new watches?
We’ve just recently added a few new color variations to existing models. Next, we’ll be releasing a titanium version of the Komodo and developing another GMT watch, after which we hope to begin work on our first solar-quartz model.
