Currently made in USA watches

[JwRosenthal]

As an offshoot to another thread that is currently weighing the merits of a line of watches marketed by a proponent of making US manufacturing “great again” yet selling cheap foreign made crap for insane money- I figured I would post an example of “made in USA” but didn’t want to sully any company’s reputation by being affiliated with the thread talking about that particular huckster.

One that I know of in my own backyard is Towson Watch Company (Towson being the county seat of Baltimore County- a mere 4 miles from me). I know nothing of the company other than I am aware they exist.

https://www.towsonwatchcompany.com/
Although reading the company history neither of the two owners are American by birth (Czech and German) nor are all the parts for their watches made in the USA (Switzerland and Germany), they are designed, assembled and finished in the US.

If you know of others, let’s learn together.

 

[Evitzee]

I don't consider finishing and tweaking foreign movements and putting them in American cases as being American made by any stretch of the imagination. There are/were very few Americans in the vein of George Daniels or Roger Smith that designed and made their own watches. One that comes to mind is Gene Clark (1948-2006), almost unknown, but who made everything except the hairsprings, crystals and the engraving. I believe he made seven watches in his Pagosa Springs, CO workshop.

There was a writeup of Gene Clark in Hodinkee back in 2018

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/five-american-watchmakers-you-should-know

 

[Waltesefalcon]

Assembled in the USA is far different than American made. So, I'd say that currently there are no American watch companies, or if there are they are a tiny cottage industry. Just my two cents.

 

[Larry S]

https://www.rgmwatches.com ...They are as close as you can get to American Made. Swiss Made is a significantly lower bar than American Made.

 

[mseamaster]

Larry S

https://www.rgmwatches.com ...They are as close as you can get to American Made. Swiss Made is a significantly lower bar than American Made.

What's the quality like? And how would you rate it in terms price/quality. I watched one video and the people there seemed cool.

 

[Larry S]

mseamaster

What's the quality like? And how would you rate it in terms price/quality. I watched one video and the people there seemed cool.

The quality and service are tops. They are not inexpensive. I own two and have also used them on occasion for service.

 

[RevZMan123]

JwRosenthal

As an offshoot to another thread that is currently weighing the merits of a line of watches marketed by a proponent of making US manufacturing “great again” yet selling cheap foreign made crap for insane money- I figured I would post an example of “made in USA” but didn’t want to sully any company’s reputation by being affiliated with the thread talking about that particular huckster.

One that I know of in my own backyard is Towson Watch Company (Towson being the county seat of Baltimore County- a mere 4 miles from me). I know nothing of the company other than I am aware they exist.

https://www.towsonwatchcompany.com/
Although reading the company history neither of the two owners are American by birth (Czech and German) nor are all the parts for their watches made in the USA (Switzerland and Germany), they are designed, assembled and finished in the US.

If you know of others, let’s learn together.

Bloviate much? Sheesh

Anyway, there are many micro brands in the USA but not many can say they are truly made in America as the components are typically foreign movements. The closest might be companies like LaMotte who are using FTS americhron movements. However, they do seem to use parts from their indian partner so still only hit the Assembled In USA level.

We'd be looking more at high Horology indies like roydson watches. Dr Paul F. roydson is 100% self taught, making every component including cases.

 

[JwRosenthal]

Erric, keep your shit-posts to the Trump thread.

 

[cineaste]

Shinola came to mind, but that is also US assembled I guess.

 

[sathomasga]

Larry S

https://www.rgmwatches.com ...They are as close as you can get to American Made. Swiss Made is a significantly lower bar than American Made.

There's also Weiss Watches in Nashville.

 

[RevZMan123]

JwRosenthal

Erric, keep your shit-posts to the Trump thread.

You first.

 

[Larry S]

sathomasga

There's also Weiss Watches in Nashville.

Indeed. They are also building in house movements and keeping supply chain as local as possible.

 

[Larry S]

cineaste

Shinola came to mind, but that is also US assembled I guess.

Give em props for investing in Detroit … They have been part of the recovery story.

 

[Walrus]

Larry S

Give em props for investing in Detroit … They have been part of the recovery story.

Agreed, and like RGM in PA isn’t shinola doing some in house movements? Either that or they are tooling up too. It must be difficult in the era of smart watches to start a Watch business in the US. I find the micro bands and kickstarter projects interesting, granted 99% of them aren’t using US manufacturing but they gotta start somewhere and analog watches aren’t exactly the in thing right now.

 

[JwRosenthal]

Larry S

Give em props for investing in Detroit … They have been part of the recovery story.

Yeah, Detroit (like Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh etc) is a city that had it all- Int’l airport, located on a major water way, world class museums, amazing architectural fabric- and due to offshoring & the collapse of a monoculture of industry, had the rug pulled out from under them. It’s one of several cities that have fallen on hard times trying to find their way to create a new identity.

I had hoped that the major tech industries would pull their heads out of their asses-and Silicon Valley- and relocate to these once amazing cities where cost of living could be amazingly affordable for their employees. These same cities have all that is needed for a major manufacturing base as well, including a large workforce that has had to pivot or has fallen into poverty over the last 30 years due to a lack of opportunity. All it takes is a desire to reinvest in US manufacturing and labor…but then that would mean less profits…and that would be un’merkin.

 

[Walrus]

JwRosenthal

Yeah, Detroit (like Baltimore, Cleveland, Pittsburgh etc) is a city that had it all- Int’l airport, located on a major water way, world class museums, amazing architectural fabric- and due to offshoring & the collapse of a monoculture of industry, had the rug pulled out from under them. It’s one of several cities that have fallen on hard times trying to find their way to create a new identity.

I had hoped that the major tech industries would pull their heads out of their asses-and Silicon Valley- and relocate to these once amazing cities where cost of living could be amazingly affordable for their employees. These same cities have all that is needed for a major manufacturing base as well, including a large workforce that has had to pivot or has fallen into poverty over the last 30 years due to a lack of opportunity. All it takes is a desire to reinvest in US manufacturing and labor…but then that would mean less profits…and that would be un’merkin.

Boston jumped out ahead offering these companies sweetheart deals now Boston is a mini Silicon Valley. My families home (I don’t own it) was built by hand by my grandfather on the outskirts of Boston for probably 10k it’s in the millions now. GE headquarters left the state I’m currently in for Boston. I see other states doing this so why not Baltimore, Philly and Detroit? I don’t know if the exodus out of cali is as serious as some of the media plays it up but it is happening to a degree.
Even these sweetheart deals are a double edged sword when Bezos was searching for Amazon 2 headquarters he had the states competing sending Amazon data on the states plans for development 20 years plus into the future. It was probably the greatest data mining plan any company ever put together. All that info is in the Amazon cloud probably using AI to plan amazons most effective future growth.

 

[JwRosenthal]

Walrus

Boston jumped out ahead offering these companies sweetheart deals now Boston is a mini Silicon Valley. My families home (I don’t own it) was built by hand by my grandfather on the outskirts of Boston for probably 10k it’s in the millions now. GE headquarters left the state I’m currently in for Boston. I see other states doing this so why not Baltimore, Philly and Detroit? I don’t know if the exodus out of cali is as serious as some of the media plays it up but it is happening to a degree.
Even these sweetheart deals are a double edged sword when Bezos was searching for Amazon 2 headquarters he had the states competing sending Amazon data on the states plans for development 20 years plus into the future. It was probably the greatest data mining plan any company ever put together. All that info is in the Amazon cloud probably using AI to plan amazons most effective future growth.

Baltimore was one of the cities competing for the Amazon thing a few years ago. We got a casino despite everyone I know voting against it on referendum. Moving in the wrong direction.

The Bethlehem Steel plant which sits on the east side of the city, on the water (they had a shipyard) with a major highway servicing it (which feeds directly into I95)- is all but dormant (may be completly shuttered at this point). Talk about a major industry that should be at least maintained on skeleton crew by the government for the institutional knowledge of steel manufacturing. I had friends from college who worked there in its last gasp of the 90’s- they still ran 24 hours so you could go to class during the day and work the 2nd shift for union wages. These guys are all in their 50’s now…that knowledge has is drying up.

Edited: Sep 27, 2024

 

[Walrus]

JwRosenthal

Baltimore was one of the cities competing for the Amazon thing a few years ago. We got a casino despite everyone I know voting against it on referendum. Moving in the wrong direction.

The Bethlehem Steel plant which sits on the east side of the city, on the water (they had a shipyard) with a major highway servicing it (which feeds directly into I95)- is all but dormant (may be completly shuttered at this point). Talk about a major industry that should be at least maintained on skeleton crew by the government for the institutional knowledge of steel manufacturing. I had friends from college who worked there in its last gasp of the 90’s- they still ran 24 hours so you could go to class during the day and work the 2nd shift for union wages. These guys are all in their 50’s now…that knowledge has is drying up.

My father was probably there at one point. He was a metallurgist ran a few foundries until they put him in charge of the “Asia transition” he saw what was coming like Ted Williams seeing a fastball over center of the plate. I remember him saying how bad it was going to be for the US but I was too young to fully grasp what he was talking about. Now you see the loads of empty manufacturing space that seems to have touched every state in the union and I understand. Pharmacies, elder care, and weed dispensaries seem to be sprouting up everywhere.

 

[Walrus]

I’m finding a couple articles like this hard to pin down many 100% made in the US watches
https://hiconsumption.com/watches/best-american-made-watch-brands/

 

[Walrus]

Shoot again not US movements but I do dig these never heard of them
https://havenwatchco.com/shop/thechilton