You may be surprised to learn that there are actually a number of Romanian watch brands. Read on to learn about 5 of the top Romanian watch makers.
I was unaware that there even were any Romanian watch brands until recently. After being contacted by Andy Bica from Peren and his Transylvanian watch brand Peren, I had to ask the question, are there any other watch brands in Romania?
The short answer is four that I have found so far. But, I am including a fifth brand, Orex, that is no longer in business but has an aftermarket following. I also found some information that the company Mecanica Fina Bucuresti expressed interest in re-launching the Orex brand but all the information I can find is from 2015, so who knows. It would be cool if the brand came back, it had an interesting eastern block vibe.
Romania is a interesting country with a rich and diverse history, including that of Vlad the Impaler the medieval ruler of Wallachia, and not Transylvania as most of the stories describe. Transylvania is part of the plateau formed by the Carpathian Mountains and is a region of Romania. The Wikipedia site on Romania is very interesting and worth checking out here.
As for the watch history of Romaina there have been a few notable examples including the fore mentioned Peren and Orex. The member Always Watching on The Watch Form did a good job with a brief history. You can check it out here. See below for today’s active Romanian brands, and as always if I missed one please let me know.
The Top Romanian Watch Brands
1. Noah
Noah is another wood watch company based in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in the heart of Transylvania. Noah’s quartz powered watches are hand produced and can be customized by size, type of wood for the case and dial, hand style and strap. Make your own here. Noah also offers woman’s watches. Pricing startS at €169.00 and goes up to €1,300.00 for the Ebony Gold Edition with most running in the high €200.00’s. The model pictured is the Dual Copper Ebony for €399.00. Considering these are handmade watches from Romania pricing is not to bad. I would love to get my hands on one these watches as I have soft spot for wood watches especially with there puck style cases.
2. Optimef
Optimef is a Romainan fashion forward brand that is bring back the Optimef brand name from the late 70’s and early 80’s. With a design language that fuses past and present Optimef creates nostalgia with a twist. The brands sells watches, bags, sunglasses and bikes of all things. There watches are all Swiss quartz movements and come in a variety of designs. Pricing ranges from $170 to $280 USD depending on model. The Farazece in copper on mesh pictured above has an almost Scandinavian feel with the lug-less, puck style case.
3. Orex
Orex was a Romain watch brand that was in production from the late 70’s to the end of the 90’s. I found this listing on the website 100romaniandesignobjects.com (Edit: Unfortunately, this site is no longer up). As an overview the “Fine Mechanics Company” was the only Romanian watch manufacture and sold under the name brand of Orex. Orex was derived from “hORa EXacta” which means exact time in Romanian. Most Orex watches used Chinese Sea-Gull movements with most of the rest of the watch being produced in house. In 2012, “Rolex” sued the Orex trademark, aiming to stop the usage of that name in the future, and after a long trial, they won. More than likely this is the end of the Orex brand. Personally I do not think this was very cool on Rolex’s part, another reason to pass on the ridiculous prices of Rolex Watches.
4. Peren
Peren was founded by Andy Bica as an outlet for his long standing love of watches. Being of Transylvanian descendant Andy was compelled to promote his ancestry. With three current lines in production and a fourth launching this summer, Peren is starting to come into its own. There lines are the Classic, SOD, Nera and the Hintz pictured above will be launching soon on Kickstarter. You can check out my introductory post on the Hintz here. Peren watches have a wonderful unique and clean look to them, especially the Nera and the upcoming Hintz. Peren utilizes Swiss movements and manufacturing for thier watches and is definitely a brand to watch. I’ll add a link to the Kickstarter campaign when the Hintz launches as its a killer deal and should not be missed.
5. Stemata
Stemata is a watch company based in Urziceni, which sells quartz and automatic watches, as well as sunglasses and accessories. The company was founded in June 2019 and is registered under the trademark Bridgewater LTD SRL since February 2020. The current CEO of Stemata is the founder Mihalache Ionuț-Cătălin. This new brand recently presented itself to me and looks to be a quality product.
Please let me know if I missed a brand from Romania, and as always,
Keep Watching
Edward
