For our favourite neighbours up north – and prospective Aussie enthusiasts – we’ve gathered 5 of Canada’s best brands to celebrate Canada Day in style.
This week, we at Watch Advice are celebrating independent watch brands. From the humblest microbrands to the dizzying heights of haute horlogerie, independent watchmaking has seen a massive uptick in popularity over the past few years. Celebrating the rise of independence seems especially fitting right now, as this week also coincides with two major Independence Day celebrations in North America.
We covered a shortlist of American watch brands last year, so this time we’ve turned our attention north to Canada. While you may not think of it as a destination for watchmaking, Canada has proven time and again that the watch industry thrives on creativity from unexpected sources. So, with that in mind, and to mark Canada Day, we’ve highlighted five of the very best representatives of Canadian watchmaking.
Marathon
Perhaps the most famous watch brand from Canada is none other than Marathon. Founded and owned by the Wein family, the company has roots in both Montreal, Quebec, and Vaughan, Ontario, where it is currently based. Like most watch companies, much of its manufacturing still takes place in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, but that hasn’t stopped it from maintaining a highly distinctive brand identity.
That identity is largely thanks to the Second World War, when Marathon became a primary supplier of timing devices to the Allied forces from 1941 onwards. The relationship continued after the war, with Marathon producing field watches to meet the United States military’s MIL-W-46374 specification. Today, Marathon remains the sole supplier of wristwatches to the United States Armed Forces, while also supplying the Canadian Armed Forces and Environment Canada.
With such a reputation for robustness, it’s no surprise that Marathon watches are known for their rugged construction, practical and highly legible designs, and, in many cases, their use of tritium gas tubes instead of traditional luminescent pigments. Thankfully, it’s not an exclusive club, as almost every Marathon watch is available to civilians as well as military personnel.
The most popular watches in the catalogue are the SAR Series, originally developed for elite military and emergency search and rescue teams. Alongside these, Marathon also offers the Navigator Series, first produced at the request of pilots stationed at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, its General Purpose field watch collection, and the Maple Leaf line, which injects a healthy dose of national pride into every watch. On that last point, Canada Day usually brings discounts across the patriotic collection if you’re looking to celebrate yourself.
Discover more about the brand online at MarathonWatch.com
ZLTD Watches
While this next watch brand is technically only half Canadian, the body of work ZLTD Watches has produced in such a short period of time is worthy of recognition in its own right. Co-founded by Z.L. ‘Kenny’ Toh and Raf Dzwonek, the independent venture is split between Singapore and Calgary, Alberta. Dzwonek also runs his own microbrand, Arcus, from his workshop in Canada.
Founded in 2023, ZLTD burst onto the scene with the Series 1 dress watch, featuring a laser-engraved guilloché dial that captivated enthusiasts around the world. The brand quickly followed it up with the non-guilloché Series 1.5, before eventually returning to the concept with Special Project No. 1, this time featuring a hand-engraved dial created using a rose engine lathe.
Over the course of their three-year partnership, Toh and Dzwonek established a strong focus on traditional craftsmanship and in-house complications. This is best demonstrated by the Series 2, launched in November 2025. Representing a bold, avant-garde departure from the Series 1, it features a heavily modified ETA Cal. 6498 movement. But there’s modified, and then there’s ZLTD.
The brand uses the movement’s base architecture as the foundation for its Cal. RD01, which features a skeletonised movement, a displaced miniature time display, and a 20-degree angled escapement. Delivering many of the same benefits as a tourbillon without the added complexity, it demonstrates Toh and Dzwonek’s commitment to producing standout pieces of haute horlogerie.
Discover more about the brand online at ZLTDWatches.com
Momentum
If Marathon is the poster child of Canadian watchmaking, and ZLTD represents its latest generation, then Momentum is in-between as a seasoned veteran. Founded in 1980, the brand began life as the St. Moritz Watch Corp, established by Simon Pennell. Pennell originally cut his teeth alongside his brother at Chronosport Watches, also working with brands such as Breitling. Like Marathon, Momentum earned its reputation through a no-nonsense, specification-driven approach to watchmaking, producing timepieces designed to perform in almost any environment.
Despite its growing popularity over the years, the brand has remained committed to a single ethos: no shortcuts, no gimmicks, and products built to last, at prices people can actually afford. That philosophy is reflected throughout the business. Not only has Momentum avoided many of the luxury mark-ups that have become commonplace in recent years, but it has also never left its original home, assembling watches in Vancouver, British Columbia, for more than 46 years and counting.
With such a long history, the brand has also been able to revisit some of its earlier designs, bringing them back into the spotlight for enthusiasts with a sense of nostalgia. Perhaps the most prominent is the Sea Quartz 30, which combines a versatile design, an accurate quartz movement, and an accessible price point.
Beyond the specifications, however, the Sea Quartz 30 became especially popular thanks to its association with actor Tom Selleck. Worn throughout the first three seasons of Magnum, P.I., the Sea Quartz 30 has earned its place as a Canadian horological icon of the silver screen.
Discover more about the brand online at MomentumWatch.com
Sarauer Horology
With the rise in support for the watch industry during the COVID-19 pandemic, independent ventures were similarly lifted. A rising tide lifts all boats, after all, and the effects were felt across the globe. This was especially true in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where Aaron Sarauer founded his eponymous brand in 2020.
After exploring horology in Switzerland and across Europe, Sarauer eventually enrolled at WOSTEP, one of the world’s premier watchmaking institutions. Having completed his training there in the early 2000s, he went on to work with John McGonigle, best known for the Irish watch brands McGonigle and Oileán. Working alongside him, as well as other respected names such as Kari Voutilainen and Andreas Strehler, Sarauer eventually decided it was time to forge his own path in the industry.
While the collection currently consists of just a single model, the Ref. 119C, Sarauer Horology is built around its founder’s ambition to create a watch from scratch. Like ZLTD, the movement uses the ETA Cal. 6498 architecture as its foundation, but it has been so extensively reworked that it’s virtually unrecognisable.
Even the ratchet screw on the Cal. SH1 movement uses a Robertson screw, a subtle nod to the brand’s Canadian heritage; The square-drive screw was invented in 1908 by P.L. Robertson in Milton, Ontario. Combined with a meticulously hand-turned guilloché dial, a displaced German silver time display, and hand-crafted hands, the 29-piece Ref. 119C may well be the most Canadian watch on this list.
Discover more about the brand online at SarauerHorology.ca
Beauregard
To top off the list, it felt fitting to return to those “dizzying heights of haute horlogerie” mentioned earlier. While the jeweller-watchmaker Beauregard has since moved its horological division and headquarters to Geneva, it retains strong Canadian roots through its high-jewellery workshop in Montreal, Quebec.
Founder Alexandre Beauregard, a lapidary artist and designer, established his eponymous brand in 2014 after training under Yves Saint-Pierre. Alongside Saint-Pierre and François Ruel, Beauregard continues to design jewellery while balancing his time with spectacular expressions of horology.
As a result of his passion for fine stones, mechanical complexity, beautiful objects, and human ingenuity, Beauregard’s watches have been consistently recognised, shortlisted, and nominated among the greats at the GPHG awards. This remarkable achievement places Alexandre as one of two Canadians ever to have been nominated.
Unsurprisingly, the Beauregard catalogue is celebrated for its fusion of horological complexity and jewellery artistry. Between the flagship Dahlia, with its central flying tourbillon, and the Lilli, with its compact construction of gemstones arranged in a floral motif, the brand has made a compelling case for Canada’s influence in the watch world.
If you’ve been reading for a while, you’ll know which watch caught my eye at Watches and Wonders a few years ago. The Beauregard Ulysse, created in collaboration with master watchmaker Vianney Halter, marked the brand’s first entry into men’s watchmaking; And what an entry it was.
Showcasing the beauty of hand-cut aquamarines, the watch features Halter’s mysterious winding movement with a peripheral rotor. It is one of the most spectacular marriages of jewellery and watchmaking, and one that firmly signals the Great White North as a force in haute horlogerie. And before I forget, there might be a new version coming at this year’s Geneva Watch Days…