inutes + Hours returned to Los Angeles on August 1 and 2 for its 2026 edition, bringing more than 70 brands to the Westdrift Hotel in Manhattan Beach and welcoming the largest audience yet for the event’s Los Angeles show.

The two-day gathering continued the format that has defined Minutes + Hours since its beginnings in Southern California: a broad mix of established manufacturers, independent watchmakers and emerging brands presented in an environment designed to encourage direct interaction between the people who make and represent the watches and those who collect them.

That mix was particularly evident this year. Christopher Ward returned with one of the most active booths of the weekend, reflecting the British brand’s continued growth among American collectors. Junghans represented a very different tradition of watchmaking, bringing the German manufacturer’s distinctive design heritage to the show while also taking a larger role in the weekend as sponsor of the Worn & Driven breakfast.

Swiss watchmaking was well represented by Squale, Perrelet and Fortis. Squale brought its long association with professional diving watches, while Perrelet presented a collection rooted in its mechanical heritage and recognizable contemporary designs. Fortis added another strong tool-watch presence to the exhibition, continuing the brand’s close association with aviation and exploration.

Marathon also attracted interest from collectors drawn to watches with a functional and military heritage. The Canadian company has produced watches to government specifications for decades, giving its presence at the show a distinctly utilitarian counterpoint to some of the more design-led independent brands in the room.

Other exhibitors included Pinion, Venezianico and Nivada Grenchen, together with Exquisite Timepieces, the Florida-based retailer whose extensive involvement with independent and enthusiast-focused watch brands brought another dimension to the show.

The diversity of the exhibitors remains one of the central characteristics of Minutes + Hours. Rather than concentrating on a particular price category or definition of independent watchmaking, the event places brands with very different histories and audiences alongside one another. A visitor can move from an established manufacturer with decades of history to a new brand being encountered in person for the first time.

This year, Speake-Marin was among the most popular booths. The independent Swiss watchmaker attracted a steady audience throughout the weekend, giving collectors an opportunity to experience its distinctive cases, movements and contemporary approach to haute horlogerie at close range.

Mad Hudson was another heavily visited exhibitor, although for very different reasons. Its more unconventional and playful presence offered an effective contrast to the traditional watchmaking represented elsewhere in the room. The popularity of both booths illustrated the range of tastes represented among those attending the event.

This diversity has become increasingly relevant as watch discovery continues to shift online. Social media, specialist websites and digital retail have given smaller brands access to audiences that would once have been difficult to reach. At the same time, the growing number of enthusiast events suggests that physical contact with the watches remains an important part of the purchasing and collecting experience.

At Minutes + Hours, watches are generally presented with relatively few barriers between exhibitor and visitor. Collectors are encouraged to handle pieces, compare them on the wrist and speak directly with founders, designers and brand representatives. For independent brands in particular, these conversations can provide an opportunity to explain details that are more difficult to communicate through photography or specifications alone.

The 2026 Los Angeles show also continued the event’s effort to connect watch collecting with other enthusiast communities. On Saturday morning, Junghans sponsored a special Worn & Driven breakfast, bringing together the watch and automotive audiences before the main show opened. Worn & Driven, together with McLaren Newport Beach, brought a collection of performance, exotic and hypercars to the event, creating a natural intersection between two collecting cultures where mechanical engineering, design, heritage and provenance are central to the appeal.

The combination gave Saturday a character quite different from a conventional watch exhibition. Visitors moved between the watches inside the Westdrift and the automobiles outside, while collectors from both communities found considerable common ground.

Sunday morning offered another perspective on collecting through a breakfast hosted by The 1916 Company. The retailer brought a selection of significant watches to the event, including examples from De Bethune and Audemars Piguet, together with Rolex Certified Pre-Owned timepieces. The presentation introduced another level of contemporary and established haute horlogerie to a weekend otherwise centered largely on independent and enthusiast-driven watchmaking.

The opportunity to encounter a De Bethune or Audemars Piguet in the morning and then discover a far smaller independent manufacturer on the show floor shortly afterwards reflected the increasingly broad interests of today’s collector. The presence of The 1916 Company also underlined the development of Manhattan Beach as a watch destination in its own right.

Since the previous Los Angeles show, Minutes + Hours has established a permanent retail location at Manhattan Village, only a short distance from the Westdrift. The store carries a curated group of brands including Perrelet, Baltic, Nivada Grenchen, Mühle-Glashütte, MeisterSinger, Sternglas, Junghans, Marathon, Squale, Reservoir, Giuliano Mazzuoli, Undone, Praesidus, Camp, Tourby and Le Forban.

For Minutes + Hours, the opening of the store marks an important evolution. What began primarily as a series of temporary gatherings now maintains a year-round presence in the Los Angeles market.

This progression reflects the wider development of Minutes + Hours itself. The event began in Southern California as LAmicroLUX before evolving into a multi-city watch series, with shows now bringing together collectors and brands in Los Angeles, Chicago and Austin.

Despite that growth, the format remains intentionally direct. The emphasis is less on elaborate brand installations than on access to the watches and the people associated with them. That atmosphere was again evident throughout the Los Angeles weekend. Collectors compared watches, exchanged recommendations and met people they had previously known primarily through social media. Brand founders and representatives moved between booths and spent time with other exhibitors, creating an event that functioned as much as a meeting place for the watch community as it did a commercial exhibition.

The record attendance in Los Angeles suggests that there remains considerable demand for this type of experience, particularly in a market where independent brands have become an increasingly important part of collecting.

For the brands, events such as Minutes + Hours offer direct access to collectors. For visitors, they offer something equally valuable: the chance to move beyond digital images and specifications and experience watches as physical objects.

The 2026 show demonstrated that the Minutes + Hours formula continues to develop. More brands, a larger audience, the addition of Worn & Driven, special presentations from The 1916 Company and a permanent Manhattan Beach retail location have expanded the event beyond its original format. Yet the underlying idea remains relatively simple: bring together watches that merit discovery, the people behind them and collectors interested in seeing what comes next.