WATCHES BY THE COUNTRY

The Watchmakers of Mexico

Where artisan leather, metalsmithing, and a proud national identity find their rhythm on the wrist.

Image: BOCA MMXII

Mexico’s relationship with the wristwatch is older and richer than many collectors realize. During the import-substitution boom of the 1960s and 70s, domestic names like Haste and Steelco built a homegrown industry, turning out watches for a country eager to make its own. Those mid-century marques still surface in vintage circles today — a subject of lively debate on forums like WatchForum.com, where enthusiasts trade notes on Mexico’s lesser-documented horological past (see, for example, the roundup at Timepiece King).

But Mexico is far from a museum piece. A new generation of microbrands has emerged, drawing on the country’s deep well of artisan craft — leather-working, metalsmithing, and design sensibilities honed over centuries — to build watches that feel unmistakably Mexican. Mexico City reinforces that momentum by hosting SIAR, one of Latin America’s most important watch fairs, giving the region a genuine stage and cementing Mexico’s role as a dynamic hub in the wider watch world.

The Makers

The New Guard

BOCA MMXII, founded in 2012, is a Mexico City-based brand that stitches two worlds together: Italian design instincts and Mexican leather craftsmanship. The result is a lineup of watches — and eyewear — that reads as a genuine cultural crossover, where European aesthetics meet the tactile richness of Mexican artisan traditions.

It’s a fitting emblem of where the country’s watch scene is heading: outward-looking in style, rooted at home in material and making. The brand’s leather-forward identity leans into exactly the craft heritage that gives Mexican timepieces their distinctive character, and its founding year — encoded in the name’s Roman numerals, MMXII — signals a maker consciously building a modern chapter rather than reviving an old one.

Mexico’s watch story runs on two tracks at once — the vintage nostalgia of Haste and Steelco, and the forward energy of makers like BOCA MMXII carrying artisan craft into the present. With SIAR anchoring the calendar and a growing community of collectors documenting and celebrating the country’s output, Mexico is a scene worth watching. Hasta la próxima — keep your eyes on the wrist.

Why this watch, on this wrist?