About Watchatlas
Watchatlas is an interactive reference for the global watchmaking industry — 378 active and 118 historic brands across 29 countries, with HQ locations, ownership groups, founding years, key collections, timelines, and FAQ. Free to use, no account needed.
Coverage
We track every watch brand we can verify with at least an HQ city, founding year, and a working website or strong primary source. Coverage is biased toward Swiss, German, Japanese, French, British, and American makers, plus a growing tail of independent microbrands. The Graveyard documents defunct, dormant, and revived brands with the same fields plus a stated reason for the closure.
Methodology
Brand records are compiled from official brand sources (websites, press releases, watchmaker fairs), public archives, and horological databases. Where sources disagree we follow the brand's own current wording. Translations across the 9 supported languages are AI-drafted and editorially reviewed; structural facts (year, city, ownership) are kept in English to avoid drift. Each entry is dated; see the build date on the page footer.
Editorial
Watchatlas is built and maintained by Léon Houlier with a small team of AI agents (research, data engineering, QA) coordinated through Paperclip. The agents do the heavy lifting on data collection and translation; an editor reviews every change before it ships. We do not accept payment for inclusion or placement.
Corrections & Submissions
If a brand is wrong or missing, we want to hear about it. Use the report form on any brand page, or submit a correction.