How do you judge a watchmaker nobody has heard of?

People write to us with a version of the same question, usually very politely: how do I know you are real? It is the right question to ask a workshop nobody has heard of, and the answer is not a feeling. You judge an unknown maker on evidence that can be checked — a named person who answers their own email, an itemised account of what was made and what was bought, photographs of the work while it is still unfinished, and terms written down before any money moves.

Below is the checklist we would use if we were the ones buying. At the end we apply it to Reigi, including the parts where we come off badly, because a checklist that only flatters the person handing it to you is not a checklist.

Who is the person, and will they answer?

Start with a name. Not a brand story — a person, with a training history you can ask about, who replies when you write. If the maker answers their own email, you can put awkward questions to them and judge the answers yourself.

Ask for the legal entity too. A company registration number can be checked in a national register, and it tells you that the business exists, where it is registered and how long it has been there. Ours: Reigi Oy, Jyväskylä, Finland, business ID 3366225-4, founded in 2023. I design and make every watch.

Then ask about the training, and ask for specifics. I graduated as a micromechanic from the Finnish School of Watchmaking in Espoo in 2024, and have been full-time on Reigi since the summer of that year. During an Erasmus+ project with a horology school in Morteau, France, I was central to building a complete wall-clock movement; the school's headmaster put that in writing in February 2025. I aim at the master watchmaker's examination in the future. I have not taken it.

What did they make, and what did they buy?

Ask it in those words: which parts of this watch did you make, and which did you buy? The useful answer is a list. If the answer is the phrase "in-house" with nothing behind it, ask for the list.

A maker can buy in most of a watch and still be completely straight with you. Buying in is not the problem. Being vague about it is.

Ours, for the series watches. Made here: the design and engineering; the case, machined and hand-finished; the dial, 22 individual parts, including the mesh woven by hand from 0.4 mm sterling silver wire; the hands, cut, filed and heat-blued; the modification and refinishing of the movement, including our own Rippling finish; assembly, regulation and final control. Bought in: the base calibre, a Swiss ETA 6498; the leather straps, made for us by a Finnish leather artisan; the boxes, from a specialist; the sapphire crystals and gaskets. On that last group: we do not have the machines to make them.

Can you see the work, or only the watch?

A well-photographed finished watch proves nothing about who made it. Ask for the unfinished stages instead: the movement before it goes into the case, a dial half-built, a part that failed and had to be made again. Ask whether the images on a website are photographs or renders. Renders are a fair way to show a design that does not exist yet, and a problem when they are presented as objects.

Reluctance here is the signal. Someone who made the thing usually cannot be stopped from showing you the middle of it. If you want to see ours, the atelier in Jyväskylä takes visitors by appointment.

What happens when something goes wrong?

Get the after in writing before you commit: the warranty length and what it covers, who performs the service, the return period and its conditions, how shipping is insured, and what a reservation payment actually buys. Ours: five years from delivery with the first full service included, a 14-day return period for an unworn watch in its original condition, insured shipping included, payment by bank transfer, and a 50 % reservation to confirm a commission. The figures live on the site, not in the journal.

Is there a trail that is not theirs?

Independent coverage does not prove quality. What it proves is exposure — that the maker has been looked at by people with no stake in the sale. Reigi has been written about by WatchTime Germany, Iltalehti and Keskisuomalainen, discussed on the Timezone.com forum, and covered on YouTube by Swiss Watch Gang and Ylilyönti Studio. Read what those people asked, not what we said back.

What do the warning signs look like?

Claims about in-house manufacturing with no list behind them. Renders presented as photographs. Nobody named anywhere. Unwillingness to show a movement before it is cased. Countdown clocks and pressure to decide this week. No written terms, or terms that appear only after payment. Testimonials with no traceable person attached. A movement described in adjectives instead of by name.

What can a small maker not give you?

A young workshop cannot give you brand recognition; nobody across the table will know the name. It cannot promise you a resale market, and we are not going to predict one for you. It cannot give you a service network in your own city. And it cannot give you decades of proof, because it has not been going for decades.

Our own scorecard. We started in 2023. I have the micromechanic's qualification and not the master watchmaker's examination. We have no awards and no customer testimonials; none exist yet. The first watch we sold and delivered, a Blue Cornerstone, went to a customer here in Jyväskylä. One person builds everything, so if I am ill, nothing moves. And a reservation is real exposure on your side: you are paying a small Finnish company before the object exists.

Two things soften that. You can stand in the atelier by appointment and look at the tools and the half-made parts yourself. And the base calibre is a Swiss ETA 6498 rather than a closed design of our own, so it is a movement other watchmakers are familiar with, and servicing it does not depend on us still being here.

If you are weighing us, or anyone else, ask the awkward version of every question above and see who answers in specifics. We are at reach@reigi.fi.