Son of American Watch Tiers

I agree with Tier 1. 😎

Jacob & Co. at Tier 12. 😮

Love it😎 WC is definitely Islanders biggest fan!!

Glad to see Lum-tec on there.

Nodus will stalk you, just give in and buy one..I've been pleasantly surprised. Love their lugs, crowns, and did not expect #alltheregulation.

IMO, and I'm not quite the historical expert you and others are, I'd add in some of these American micros. Lower tier for sure, but doing things nonetheless.

Sangin Instruments and/or Ares Watches and/or Greg Stevens Designs. Mainly because they (along with some non-US brands) are bringing the sexy back away from smartwatches in the tactical community.

In a big way actually. Not noticable maybe to the outside, but def making it cool to go analog again.

I'd also throw out Abingdon Watches. To my knowledge the ONLY American microbrand that is designing sport/tool/field/dive/pilot watches SPECIFICALLY for women. Not just throwing a bunch of diamonds in the dial, making it smaller, and adding other bling.

Also maybe Bernhardt Watch. Been around forever, and love their shark tooth-y dive watch and anchor-y sports watch.

Finally, Lorier, cuz well they are great people, love how they show the three inspirational pieces behind the design, love their opinion on making stuff affordable and #acrylic.

All of these my might not be giants, nor have the history but if Brew made the list, I'd argue these might could too.

Also I giggled at penetration, my wife says I have the mind of a 13-yr old, and she's prolly right. Still giggled.

The only one I disagree with is Timex. As fas as I know it's the largest brand that is still American.

They also make everything from cheap digital quartz all the way to Swiss powered mechanicals.

Forgot to add

Bathys, old school, out of business one of the OG's of American micros.

Also MkII, still around, Bill Yao, IMO helped start the whole reissue modern versions of classic military divers of yore.

Timex is a holding company in the Netherlands, owned by a Norwegian, who principally manufactures in the Philippines. But, they were as American as apple pie (not really American) once. I actually moved them up a slot.

My issue with them is that they perfected the disposable watch. Unless you bought a Timex 21 you were getting something that would abruptly fail in a few years. They were predatory. They bought Laco and stripped it of all of its IP (Laco was working on electric watches) and their inexpensive pin pallets drove Elgin and the American watch industry under. They survived the Quartz Crisis because they owned a controlling interest in Polaroid.

I like the post-Ironman company much more, but they still won't tell you what Miyota movements drive their automatics. You don't need to know that, plebe.

Forgive me I’m trying to understand you ranking system. It looks like you’re saying Fossil has more historical importance and better quality watches than Ball?

I would say a company that deserves an honorable mention is Fine Timepiece Solutions out of Arizona. They are not a watch brand per se, but a supplier of American made movements to some micro brands out there. So far they produce both a quartz and a mechanical movement in the US. Hopefully the advent of more American based micro brands will help to grow their capacity.

Um yep, that's exactly what I am saying. How could you disagree based on the stated criteria?

Let's step back and look at it:

The wristwatch era is approximately 100 years. Fossil dominated the American market (dominated by comparison with American companies, Citizen and Casio sold more watches) with mostly quartz watches of questionable quality for one tenth of that period. So successful was Fossil that they could buy a fairly reputable Swiss manufacturer, Zodiac.

Meanwhile, Ball, famous for its maintained and regulated pocket watches with movements made by others, made very few wristwatches. Try to find one before the nineties. They exist, but they are rare. As a wristwatch maker Ball's impact came when they were a Hong Kong company making Swiss watches.

Ball makes more and better wristwatches now than they did when they were an American company. They still claim the American heritage, but that is just marketing.

Edit: No, not better quality. Fossil has sold many more watches and Americans are way more familiar with them. Ball is popular with "watch people". Of course, Ball has the edge in quality.

Well I know on Watch Crunch this will get groans and flying rotten tomatoes, but if you’re ranking impactful American watches by the 3 criteria you have listed, that fruit company that shall not be named and is as American as apple pie should be tier one or higher.

What about the Swiss watch company? 100% American ownership. Offices in US despite the name, I think there an american microbrand worthy of inclusion.

I'm sure this list can be expanded by quite abit if we're talking about current day micros. I love my Hammies and Bulovas.

Can I respectfully ask you please, if you were at a wc meet up or standing next to a stranger would you really say “Um yep?” Just wondering.

Also just my opinion but using your criteria, Ball introduced wristwatches in the 1920’s and Fossil was a fashion company founded in 1984 so yeah I think Ball has contributed more to horology than Fossil.

Great post. Thanks. One surprise was the ranking for Weiss, which I thought would be in Tier 2 or 3 based on WC posts and online reviews. Is it because the company is a one trick pony?

Oh, do they make "watches"?

Doh!

Lack knowledge and therefore opinions! Very interesting and entertaining read as always👍

Does anybody remember the Hamilton advertising campaign, Hamilton, America’s watch! If memory serves, Harrison Ford was involved.

Anyway, knowing Hamilton’s history, it always gave me a chuckle.

Then you start getting into the whole “issue”. For instance, IWC was started by an American, owned by same for a long time, but has always been produced in Switzerland.

You start to see the problem.

IMHO, it just isn’t worth worrying about how to “classify” a watch company as far as which country can claim it.

You forgot the most important American brand... @Ichibunz!

Because I am bored this Friday morning, I tried to think of a better way to determine the definition of "American" watch brand than your excellent but fuzzy distinctions. This has been a more complex undertaking than originally anticipated.

There are several axes which we can evaluate this from.

Ownership percentage/control

Some here have argued that American ownership/control might denote American provenance. This is attractive as a definition prima facie, but I don't think it holds up.

Thierry Stern lives in Geneva and owns Patek Phillipe which is about as Swiss as it gets. Sure, this is a situation where nationality and ownership coincide with a generally accepted definition of Swiss-ness.

Richemont is controlled and predominantly owned by a South African national, Johann Rupert. Six of the next nine largest shareholders are American mutual or index funds and God knows who the underlying shareholders of those structures are.

LVMH is 50% owned by the Arnault family, by and large Parisians and the next four largest shareholders are all American mutual or index funds.

I don't think you could convincingly argue that Jaeger LeCoultre (owned by Richemont) is South African or that Zenith (owned by LVMH) is French. This is even more complicated as people can own things in other countries pretty easily, via stock market exchanges. If I own a share of Richemont, I don't think that makes it any more American than if a Swiss Bank owned the same share.

Mostly, I think the ownership arguments are mostly pejorative (witness the watch influencers who deride Corum as Chinese when its manufacturing has largely stayed untouched in La Chaux de Fonds).

Where the HQ is

This is a little better. Most of the legacy swiss watch brands are based in the towns where they were started and where their manufacturing is.

But in the era of globalized trade, I'm not convinced this works either, especially since many jewelry brands became rather acclaimed watch makers themselves.

For example, Cartier is based in Paris and Bulgari is based in Rome. But all their watches bear the title Made in Switzerland and their manufacturing headquarters are in La Chaux de Fonds and Neuchatel respectively,.

Where the production is

As warped as the Swiss made label has become over the years, I actually think its rather useful as a designation. If you think that the Swiss make better watches than other nationalities, then it's best to know that a certain percentage of the production actually occurred inside the geographical boundaries of Switzerland. Mind you, I don't think this is a particularly good way to determine quality of a watch....but I do think that it's an pretty decent way to figure out the effective nationality of a watch.

With regards to American watches, I think you largely have to leave the movement manufacture out of it (I think the Ameriquartz factory in Arizona is pretty much it in terms of US manufacturing of movements now) so its largely assembly in the US that is the determinant of American-ness. You are better equipped on the legacy side but I think it cuts through the chaff on the microbrand side.

Nodus is an American brand and so are Vaer, Lum-tec, Weiss, Shinola, and RGM.

Swiss Watch Company is a Swiss Watch Company.

I think Islander, by an large, comes off as a Chinese watch company with some US manufactured lines (most recently the Bethpage which admittedly does have the distinguishing feature of having a fully American movement)

Great post and comments! A few more micros to consider:

Detroit Watch Company

Kobold

Traska

How many times have I mentioned Vero in the last 2 weeks - and yet you still miss them?

Third tier - they tooled parts, made a soft relaunch and went bit more conventional, released a future classic amongst other unique models.

But are they a "true" microbrand? I always make that distinction.

Ah - and not one guy paying other guys to make a watch - got you.

None of these are true brands or microbrands then - no tiers

What does the sidenote regarding RGM entail?

("would rank higher if...")

I only ask because I'm seriously considering buying the ref. 600-B chronograph. Are there any issues of which I'm unaware?

It just means that they make few pieces and most people don't know the watches first hand. Quality, by reputation, is excellent.

Great fun and love the piss-taking on some of the brands. I think Jacob & Co and Stauer belong in the same bottom tier.

I'm not going to go for tiers here, but thought I'd add a few to the list.

Of course, I have to start with a clear God Tier (above Tier 1 and a watch I desperately would like to add to my collection...maybe a retirement gift to myself)...

Joshua Shapiro of Los Angeles, CA...America's Roger Smith...

Recent microbrand that I think is really quite good...Dumoreau...

Someone else mentioned Detroit Watch Company...

Bulova was mentioned, but we need to include Accutron for completeness...

Tornek-Rayville was mentioned, but we can't forget those who would resurrect them today in MK II...

And lastly, a fun one in Martenero...

I omitted Joshua Shapiro because I couldn't work his watches into the conceit of the post. You are right to compare him to Roger Smith. Bespoke makers like these stand above and beyond watches that most consumers are ever exposed to. I think that I need to add MK ll. In last years' post I mentioned that I was going to omit sub-brands. So, I think that Accutron is like Westfield and Caravelle as a sub-brand of Bulova.

Great post, a very interesting read!