MICROBRAND
Ferro & Company, vintage-minded racing watches from Vancouver
An independent Canadian brand with a clear point of view: mid-century motorsport and aviation design, small-batch production, and prices that stay grounded.
Image: Ferro & Company
Origin
Ferro & Company was founded in Vancouver in 2014 by brothers Bob and Ary Shahbakhshi. Rather than inventing a grand heritage story, the brand builds watches shaped by an evident enthusiasm for mid-century design, especially racing chronographs and pilot’s watches. Its first collection, the Distinct, was a single-hand watch inspired by Porsche tachometers, and that automotive thread still runs through the catalog today.
What makes it notable
Vintage styling is easy to claim and harder to execute well. Ferro cares about the smaller cues that make a watch feel coherent: domed hesalite crystals, restrained case shapes, applied indices, and period-leaning dial textures like the asphalt finish on its racing models. The result reads as a consistent design language rather than a generic retro costume, and a decade in, the brand claims more than 30,000 watches on wrists, with coverage in Top Gear, Fratello, Wired, Time+Tide, and aBlogtoWatch.
Signature
The Race Master Chronograph channels 1960s Le Mans with compact proportions: a 39mm brushed steel case, 45.2mm lug to lug, a domed hesalite box crystal, and 50m of water resistance. Inside is the Seiko VK64 meca-quartz movement, a smart choice at this end of the market. You get crisp pusher feel and a snappy chronograph reset without the cost and maintenance of a fully mechanical chronograph. It starts at $485 USD.
The Distinct 3, pictured above, distills the same racing spirit into a single-hand watch at $455, while the Paramount dress line reaches into Art Deco territory at $950. Most of the catalog sits between those points.
Where to find them
The official store is the best source for the current collection, specifications, and availability. Because Ferro works in small batches and limited releases, stock can move quickly. Watches ship worldwide free with a two-year warranty and 30-day returns.
Ferro & Company is not trying to outshout the market. If you like vintage-inspired racing and pilot’s watches with a confident use of color, Ferro is worth a closer look.
And at Spot.Watch — that’s always worth noticing.