Watches, Stories, and Gear: American Watchmaking Edition

This week on Watches, Stories, and Gear, we’re doing something a little different. Today is July 4, Independence Day in the United States, so we thought this would be a great opportunity to bring you a selection of posts from the Worn & Wound archives that deal with American watchmaking in one form or another. We have a little of everything today: a feature story on a historic American pocketwatch, a podcast on the state of American watchmaking, and an in depth review of one our favorite watches, made largely right here in America. We hope you enjoy, and that you have a safe and happy Independence Day. 

This installment of “Watches, Stories, and Gear” is brought to you by the Windup Watch Shop.

The Howard, Davis, & Dennison #3: Inside the Sale of the Most Valuable American Pocket Watch

A little over a year ago, Zach Kazan was able to dig deep into the Howard, Davis, & Dennison #3 pocket watch, one of the most important watches in the history of American watchmaking. This story is not only about the watch itself, but about the excitement of the live auction where it sold for an historic amount last year.

Read it here

The Worn & Wound Podcast Ep. 94

This podcast from May of 2019 is a discussion about several facets of contemporary American watchmaking, including the Timex American Documents series (which at the time was a new release from the brand), and Fine Timepiece Solutions, an upstart manufacturer of American quartz movements. Be sure to also check out Zach W’s feature on Fine Timepiece Solutions right here.

Listen here

Interview: Rick Hale – American Clockmaker 

Worn & Wound contributor Christian Alexandersen spoke with Rick Hale, a self taught clockmaker based in Michigan, back in 2017. His creations are fairly extraordinary and not inexpensive – his custom built clocks cost in the neighborhood of $20,000. But, as watch enthusiasts, it’s incredibly cool to see someone genuinely interesting work in a completely different sector of horology.

Read it here

How Watches are Made: Vortic Watch Co.

We couldn’t have an American themed WSG without an entry from Vortic. This look at their facilities in Colorado is one of our favorite pieces of content on Worn & Wound  – it takes you behind the scenes of Vortic’s mission to save American pocket watches by converting them to truly unique wrist watches using state of the art manufacturing techniques. It’s a great story, and the video included here is a perfect watch for Fourth of July weekend.

Read it here

Review: Vero SW

Vero’s modern SW (Sport Watch) is a Worn & Wound favorite, and the brand is committed to doing as much manufacturing as possible in the US, which is not a simple or inexpensive task. Ed Jelley went hands on with the SW last summer, and found the entire package to be quite impressive.

Read it here