Hemel

Founded in 2012 by Marvin Menke, Hemel is billed as Long Island's first watch microbrand. The brand draws on the visual language of historical military and aviation timepieces, building affordable mechanical chronographs and tool watches as heirlooms rather than disposable accessories. Hemel built its reputation on the Airfoil, a 1970s British military pilot homage powered by the Seagull ST19 column-wheel hand-wound chronograph, and has expanded into automatics, mecaquartz chronographs, and collaborations such as the Hawkeye with Long Island Watch. Hemel, LLC also runs the more value-oriented Eylandt sub-brand and is active in microbrand enthusiast communities.