From Hong Kong to London: The Remarkable Birth of MINIM Watches

In the bustling world of independent watchmaking, where thousands of microbrands compete for attention with flashy marketing and viral campaigns, one British brand has quietly captured the imagination of serious collectors with something far more valuable: an authentic story. MINIM Watches, the brainchild of Chloe Chan, represents not merely a new watch brand, but a profound meditation on heritage, identity, and the ritual of mechanical timekeeping. This is the story of how a Hong Kong-born sustainable finance professional transformed her lifelong passion for horology into something truly remarkable.

The Foundation: A Childhood in Watch Love

Before MINIM existed, before Chloe Chan conceived of her debut collection, there was a young girl in Hong Kong watching her father engage in a ritual that would shape her life’s trajectory. The tradition was simple yet profound: her father’s love language was watches. He gifted them to her mother—not frivolously, but intentionally, marking moments and celebrating relationships through the selection of the right timepiece.

Chloe inherited this language of watches. At just nine years old, she received her first watch: an ICE Watch Netherlands World Cup Edition. For many children, a watch at this age might be a mere accessory. For Chloe, it was the beginning of a 15-year journey that would eventually lead to the creation of MINIM.

What distinguishes Chloe’s watch passion from the casual collecting of many enthusiasts is the intellectual rigor with which she approaches horology. Her favorite brands—Chronoswiss, A. Lange & Söhne, Glashütte Original, and Breguet—are not chosen for their prestige or investment potential. Rather, they represent the pinnacle of watchmaking philosophy: the balance between heritage and innovation, between artistry and precision engineering. In her notable pieces, including a Chronoswiss Regulateur and several A. Lange & Söhne timepieces, one can already discern the aesthetic principles that would eventually define MINIM.

Throughout her teenage years and into university, Chloe’s watch enthusiasm deepened. She attended RedBar meetups in the UK, appeared on the Scottish Watches podcast, and became deeply embedded in watch enthusiast communities. Yet her journey was not merely about collecting—it was about understanding. Her background in Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Hong Kong, followed by a Master’s degree in Environment and Development from the London School of Economics, equipped her with the analytical framework to appreciate not just the watches themselves, but the systems, philosophies, and cultural narratives that sustained them.

The Professional Detour That Wasn’t

After graduating from LSE with distinction, Chloe might have pursued a traditional career trajectory in policy, environment, or international development. Instead, she gravitated toward sustainable finance. As an Associate Banker at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), focusing on sustainable investments and manufacturing, Chloe developed expertise in a field that demands meticulous attention to detail, systematic thinking, and long-term value creation. Her background as a CFA Charterholder demonstrates her commitment to rigorous analysis and professional excellence.

To the casual observer, sustainable finance and watchmaking appear worlds apart. But for Chloe, they share a fundamental philosophical alignment: both demand that one think beyond quarterly returns, both require understanding complex supply chains and material sourcing, and both reward those who commit to quality over expedience. Her professional experience in climate-related investments, infrastructure projects, and sustainable manufacturing practices would prove invaluable when she finally decided to launch her own watch brand.

This is the key insight about MINIM that separates it from the flood of Instagram-driven microbrands flooding the market: Chloe brought professional rigor, systems thinking, and a decade of experience in building sustainable enterprises to the task of watchmaking. She was not a romantic dreamer playing with watches. She was a sophisticated thinker applying disciplined methodology to her passion.

The Call to Create: Mentorship and Community

For years, Chloe existed in a liminal space—a passionate enthusiast with the knowledge and resources to create her own watch, but lacking the catalyst to actually do so. That catalyst came through community and mentorship. Her friendship with Kevin from Pedral Watches proved transformative. Kevin’s encouragement and support provided both practical guidance and emotional validation for what would become a professionally formidable undertaking.

Equally significant was Chloe’s role within the MIC UK (Micro Indy Collective) community. As an administrator within this platform that unites 250+ independent watchmakers with enthusiasts globally, Chloe was not merely observing the independent watchmaking revolution—she was actively participating in its infrastructure. She watched as emerging brands gained traction through authentic community support rather than marketing budgets. She witnessed the hunger among collectors for watches that told genuine stories rather than following formulaic design trends.

By August 2024, when Chloe was appointed as a Delugs Ambassador—a position that recognizes influential figures in watch collecting—her trajectory seemed inevitable. She had the knowledge, the community connections, the professional background, and the personal passion. All that remained was the moment of commitment.

The Bridge Between Worlds: Conceiving MINIM

The name MINIM is not arbitrary. It derives directly from Chloe’s Chinese given name—旻 (Mǐn)—yet it carries profound symbolic weight. In watchmaking contexts, the term “meridian” speaks to the lines of latitude that unite distant parts of the globe. For Chloe, the meridian represented something more personal: the geographic and cultural line connecting her birthplace in Hong Kong with her adopted home in London.

This is what makes MINIM fundamentally different from other East-meets-West branded watches: for Chloe, the concept is not a marketing angle. It is the core expression of her identity and lived experience. The brand’s philosophy—”A meridian that connects cultures, between heritage and innovation, artistry and precision”—emerges directly from her biographical reality.

The design brief that emerged from this conceptual framework was remarkably disciplined. Rather than chasing trends or attempting to appeal to everyone, Chloe deliberately narrowed her focus. The debut collection would consist of a single watch in three distinct dial variants. The watch would be sized at 36.5 millimeters—deliberately small by contemporary standards, but historically appropriate to the vintage era that inspired the design. The movement would be hand-wound rather than automatic, a deliberate choice honoring the ritual of mechanical watchkeeping. The finishing would demand meticulous guilloché work, a technique more commonly found in watches at five times the price point.

The Birth of the MN01: Technical Excellence Meets Cultural Narrative

When MINIM finally announced its debut collection in October 2025, the response within watch enthusiast communities was immediate and enthusiastic. Yet enthusiasm without substance rings hollow. What distinguished MINIM’s announcement was the technical maturity and design confidence evident in every specification.

The MN01 (Meridian) is powered by the Sellita SW261-1 M—a hand-wound mechanical movement, not the more convenient automatic alternatives that have become standard in contemporary watchmaking. This choice reveals Chloe’s philosophical commitment. In interviews, she has emphasized “the ritual one develops with a traditional manual-winding watch.” This is not performance pedantry—the power reserve of 38-43 hours demands that owners engage with their watches daily, winding them with intention. The soft resistance of the crown, the faint mechanical click as the mainspring tightens, the knowledge that you have personally energized the watch—these ritual elements matter to Chloe in ways that transcend horological specifications.

The 31-jewel Sellita movement, operating at 4 Hz (28,800 beats per hour), ensures precision performance while remaining serviceable at watchmakers globally. Critically, the movement features sapphire exhibition caseback, allowing owners to observe the mechanical choreography of the movement—a detail that transforms the watch from a merely functional tool into an object of contemplation.

The case, measuring 36.5 millimeters in diameter and 9.5 millimeters in thickness, represents a calculated rejection of contemporary oversizing. Most modern dress watches have inflated to 40mm or beyond. Chloe’s 36.5mm specification harks back to vintage proportions, reflecting the golden age of watchmaking when cases were scaled to actual wrists rather than photographic impact. The coin-edged bezel, onion crown, and elegantly curved lugs—each detail references authentic vintage design language without descending into pastiche.

Three Stories, Three Colors: The Dial Variants

Where MINIM truly demonstrates design maturity is in the three distinct dial variants, each telling a separate cultural narrative while maintaining design coherence.

Bik¹ 碧 (Olive Green) opens the story with Eastern aesthetic sensibility. The Chinese character 碧 evokes jade and natural waters, symbolizing calm strength and renewal. The dial employs Chinese numerals—a deliberate nod to Chloe’s heritage. The guilloché pattern, meticulously CNC-machined, combines soleil and sunburst motifs that capture light with subtle brilliance. This is not retro design masquerading as contemporary; it is contemporary design drawing authentic inspiration from historical sources.

Zing¹ 晶 (Ice Blue) continues the Eastern narrative with crystalline imagery. The character 晶 speaks to clarity and lightness. Like its green counterpart, it employs Chinese numerals and guilloché patterning, yet the ice-blue color palette provides visual distinction while maintaining aesthetic family resemblance. For collectors interested in acquiring multiple variants, Bik¹ and Zing¹ create a natural pair—complementary yet distinct.

Laan⁴ 蘭 (Orchid Purple) represents the Western bridge. The character 蘭 references the orchid flower, revered across Eastern cultures for grace and refinement. Yet here, Chloe makes a deliberate design choice: she employs Roman numerals—a nod to European watchmaking tradition, to the Breguet and Lange & Söhne aesthetic that so profoundly influenced her design sensibility. The guilloché work becomes more elaborate, layering soleil, écaille de poisson (fish scale), and clous de Paris (hobnail) patterns. This is the most “European” of the three variants, yet unified with its siblings through shared design DNA.

Together, the three dials function as a manifesto. Collectors who acquire all three are not simply accumulating watches; they are collecting a statement about cultural bridge-building and design intentionality.

The Craftsmanship Story: Where Geography Meets Purpose

MINIM’s manufacturing strategy deserves examination, as it too reflects the brand’s fundamental philosophy. Rather than centralizing production in a single geographic location, Chloe deliberately dispersed manufacturing to honor her multicultural identity.

The movement, appropriately, comes from Switzerland—the Sellita producer representing the precision and reliability that defines contemporary Swiss watchmaking. The case finishing and assembly, however, takes place in Great Britain under the skilled hands of Horologium, a professional watchmaker whose meticulous approach aligns perfectly with MINIM’s standards. The leather straps come from HasNoBounds, a Hong Kong-based artisan leather craftsperson, connecting directly back to Chloe’s heritage.

This is not virtue signaling. The decision to assemble in Britain rather than outsourcing to cost-effective Asian manufacturers represents a commitment to local craftsmanship and supply chain transparency. The decision to source straps from Hong Kong ensures that Chloe’s heritage is literally woven into the final product. Every MINIM watch, then, is a physical manifestation of the East-West bridge that gives the brand its reason for existing.

The guilloché finishing on the dials represents the crowning technical achievement. CNC machining, while seemingly at odds with “traditional craftsmanship,” actually represents the evolution of traditional techniques. Rather than hand-guilloché work (which would render £999 pricing impossible), Chloe invested in precision CNC equipment that can replicate the traditional patterns with consistency and accuracy that handwork cannot achieve. This is the intelligent marriage of heritage technique and contemporary precision manufacturing—precisely the philosophy that Chloe spent a decade developing in her professional career.

The Launch That Reflected the Brand: Community Before Marketing

When MINIM announced itself in October 2025, it did so without the typical microbrand playbook of influencer partnerships, discount codes, or manufactured urgency. Instead, the brand emerged organically from within established watch communities, announced first through the MIC UK (Micro Indy Collective) platform where Chloe serves as administrator.

The pre-order period ran from October 25 to November 9, 2025—a deliberately brief window that created genuine scarcity without resorting to artificial hype. The pricing—£999 in the UK (approximately $1,200 USD)—positioned MINIM in the premium microbrand segment, well above mass-market watches yet significantly below established Swiss luxury brands.

The response from watch journalists and enthusiasts was uniformly positive. Frater Watches published a detailed feature article celebrating the brand’s design maturity and founder vision. Oracle of Time included MINIM in its October 2025 microbrand roundup. Mainspring.watch published a professional review from respected journalist Sophie Cassaro. Most tellingly, Reddit’s r/MicrobrandWatches community, notorious for critical discourse and skepticism toward emerging brands, received MINIM’s announcement with genuine enthusiasm—18+ upvotes on the initial specification post, with comments praising the “design maturity” and “guilloché quality” of a debut collection that might easily have felt amateurish.

The Scottish Watches podcast featured Chloe in a guest appearance, and the community response was profound. One comment captured the sentiment perfectly: “Finally launch! Truly wonderful.” This was not manufactured enthusiasm. This was the genuine excitement of a community welcoming a peer who had walked the same passionate journey finally taking the decisive step.

Limited Edition Magic: The First 50

One final detail reveals Chloe’s understanding of collector psychology and exclusivity’s genuine function. The first 50 customers who purchased MINIM during pre-order received something unprecedented: a custom, one-of-a-kind variant of their MN01—never to be replicated, unique to that individual owner.

This is not a transparency gimmick or artificial scarcity mechanism. Rather, it represents a profound gesture: early supporters receive something genuinely unrepeatable, transforming the first-generation purchase from a simple commercial transaction into collector legacy. Those fifty watches become historical artifacts—the founding pieces of a brand with genuine potential for sustainability and growth.

The Market Moment: Why MINIM Arrives When It Does

Understanding MINIM’s significance requires understanding the broader watch market context. The microbrand independent watchmaking sector has exploded since 2020, yet many emerging brands copy formula rather than creating authentic vision. The market is saturated with “vintage-inspired” watches that apply retro aesthetics superficially to contemporary designs. MINIM stands apart because the East-meets-West narrative is not cosmetic—it emerges from the founder’s authentic biographical experience.

Additionally, the market is increasingly receptive to hand-wound mechanical movements. The meditation and ritual aspects of manual winding align with broader cultural movements toward mindfulness, intentional consumption, and rejection of convenience-obsession. Chloe’s hand-wound choice positions MINIM perfectly at the intersection of technical sophistication and cultural zeitgeist.

The focus on 36.5mm sizing, in an era when 42-44mm has become the norm, appeals to collectors rediscovering vintage proportions and those with smaller wrists who have felt abandoned by contemporary watchmaking. The commitment to guilloché finishing at accessible pricing makes traditional haute horlogerie techniques available to enthusiasts who previously could only admire them from afar.

What MINIM Represents: Beyond the Watch

At its deepest level, MINIM represents something increasingly rare in contemporary watchmaking: a brand with coherent philosophy. The hand-wound movement is not a retro affectation but an expression of values about ritual and intentionality. The 36.5mm sizing is not trend-chasing but authentic allegiance to vintage proportions. The guilloché finishing is not marketing gloss but genuine commitment to craft. The East-meets-West narrative is not cultural appropriation but authentic personal biography expressed through design.

Chloe Chan approached watch design the way she approaches sustainable finance: with systems thinking, long-term value orientation, and commitment to quality over expedience. MINIM is not a brand launched to capitalize on watch collecting trends. It is a brand created by someone who has understood watch culture for 15 years, studied sustainable value creation professionally, and arrived at a moment where she could finally synthesize her knowledge into something genuinely new.

The Future: Building on Foundation

As of January 2026, MINIM watches are delivering to customers worldwide. The brand has established relationships with the watch media, cultivated genuine community support, and created a product that feels mature beyond its months-old existence. No follow-up collections have been announced—Chloe is wisely focused on successful delivery of the inaugural MN01 collection.

Yet the foundation is laid for something sustainable. The community support extends beyond casual interest to genuine collector enthusiasm. The product quality justifies the premium pricing. The founder story is authentic and compelling, distinguishing MINIM from the thousand other microbrands seeking attention.

Conclusion: The Meridian Line Connects

MINIM Watches represents the convergence of several remarkable elements: a founder with genuine passion spanning 15 years, professional rigor informed by sustainable finance expertise, authentic multicultural heritage rather than performed cultural bridge-building, design maturity that seems impossible for a debut collection, and positioning at precisely the right moment in watch market evolution.

Chloe Chan’s journey from a nine-year-old girl receiving her first ICE Watch in Hong Kong to the creator of MINIM—a brand celebrating the meridian line connecting cultures—suggests something profound about personal passion, professional discipline, and the possibility of creating something genuine in markets increasingly dominated by marketing simulation.

MINIM Watches is not simply a new brand. It is a proof of concept that authentic, thoughtful watch design can still resonate in 2026, that community support matters more than influencer endorsements, and that the best microbrands emerge not from marketing strategy but from genuine personal vision translated into meticulous execution.

For collectors seeking watches that tell genuine stories, that employ rare craftsmanship at accessible pricing, that bridge heritage and modernity, and that emerge from founders who have clearly thought deeply about their work—MINIM deserves serious consideration. Chloe Chan has created something that transcends the typical microbrand narrative. She has created something actually worth watching.