Photo Report: Central Europe’s Watch Fair – Micro Praha 2025

Editor’s Note: In addition to being a writer and member of the international watch media community, Bhanu Chopra is also the co-founder of Micro Praha, a regional watch fair in Prague, which just celebrated its third year. We asked Bhanu to share his thoughts on the evolution of the event, as well as some photos from this year’s festivities.

Regional watch fairs have been around for several years, but their focus remained mostly mainstream brands and few independent brands. I remember visiting Vienna Time and Munich Time in the mid-2000s, and seeing Lange & Sohne and Habring booths in the same hall.

Three years ago, Ondrej Vislocky and I, two watch enthusiasts and friends, took the initiative to create a micro brand watch fair for the Central European region. Prague happens to be in the very heart of Central Europe with easy access to Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Poland, Italy, and even the Nordic countries. It also happens to be the city where we live. We are big fans of micro brands, so we wanted to bring our enthusiasm to Micro Praha.

The U.K. has a very active micro indie scene with fairs throughout the year. There are watch fairs in Germany, France, Italy, and Poland, but the participation remains very regional. Micro Praha brings together brands from around the globe. This year 82 brands participated, representing 24 countries, including Germany, France, Italy, Poland, the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico, Finland, Singapore, Taiwan, Sweden, the U.K., and Czech Republic. 

Micro Praha follows the same principles of the Windup Watch Fair: the entrance for visitors is free, and there are no barriers between the brands presenting their watches on the open table. The number of brands and visitors has nearly doubled in three years. This year there were 3,200 visitors including media and retailers from Central Europe, the Nordic countries, and the U.S.

Micro Praha also happens to be the last major regional watch fair of the year. It coincides with the opening day of the Christmas markets in Prague, which makes for a festive mood for the visitors and participating brands. Yet-to-be-discovered brands like Geo from Puerto Rico appreciated the attention from media, retailers, and had the opportunity to introduce and sell directly to visitors. Georshua Castro had an enthusiastic response to his attendance, “This was such an amazing event and experience for our brand. The organization and Czech hospitality was great, and for my first experience at a watch fair, I presented my watches live on (Czech) CNN!”

There were 36 brands participating for the first time at Micro Praha, including Arcange, Awake, Atlantic, Beaubleu, Crafter Blue, Dennison, Duckworth Prestex, DUG, Elliot Brown, HTD Watches, Isotope, Kneijnsberg, Maen, Nivada Grenchen, Selten, and Stowa. Additionally, master watchmaker, Thomas Schnelle, demonstrated assembly and disassembly of a vintage Longines movement. 

We were lucky to find an amazing venue inside the historical part of Prague’s central train station. The Fantova Budova building was restored recently and features Art Nouveau charm with replicas of period lights, restored vaults and stucco, and rich floral paintings. The Foyer cafe, where Micro Praha Saturday cocktail evening takes place, looks like the set of the period movie from the 1930s. 

In 2026, Micro Praha will return on November 28 & 29, again on the opening day of Prague Christmas markets. The venue will remain the same, but there may be inclusion of mid-priced independent brands along with micro brands. The definition of “micro brand” is evolving and so are the brands. Christopher Ward, Formex, and a handful of others were once considered micro brands, but have evolved into something not quite matching what we all thought the term meant just a few short years ago.

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