The USA was once a watchmaking powerhouse. Brands like Waltham and Eltham pioneered the mass-production of watches and directly inspired other industrial titans like Henry Ford with their innovative manufacturing techniques. Their low-cost watches made personal time-telling accessible to the masses, and the new ways of making components spread across the world and transformed watchmaking.

In honour of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence falling tomorrow, we thought we'd look at the current world of American watchmaking today. There are currently over 230 active Microbrands in the USA, it's the largest market for many established brands, and the market with the highest growth over the last couple of years. We thought we'd highlight some of our favourite brands to show the amazing variety of great timepieces on offer.

Brew Watch Company

Based in Brooklyn New York, Brew have a distinct colourful design style for their affordable watches. Mostly using quartz, Brew were one of the first young microbrands from the US to really take off and get worldwide attention. Using a rounded square case for every model, the watches are inspired by coffee machines and taking (and timing) coffee breaks. A clear story, consistent theme and extremely accessible price points mean that Brew have been very successful since launch in 2015. They are a great example of a successful modern Microbrand.

Nodus

Taking a different approach on the other side of the country, Nodus make tool watches. Designed and assembled in Los Angeles, they've got Field Watches, Dive Watches and GMTs, all of which take traditional design features and deliver them crispy and cleanly, including lots of variants of a sector dial. They are bold with their use of colour including some incredible ceramic bezels in the recent Unity range. The founders went on to start the Intersect watch event series, which are held as day long parties rather than more traditional watch shows or exhibitions, designed to allow the community to come together and party with the Microbrands they love.

Timex

Timex are unfortunately overlooked as they are a huge mass market brand regarded almost with disdain in the watch community, but they have a long history of American watchmaking. Today it is both owned and headquartered in America, with the majority of their design done in their Connecticut base. They make a wide range of watches in traditional styles, and created Limited Editions of US-assembled watches in the documents range. They have collaborations with the Peanuts comic strip that are very popular, and an iconic watch with clothing brand J-Crew. They are a great example of a modern mass market company creating interesting watches alongside their classic best sellers, and focussing on solid distribution to sell high volumes.

RGM Watch Co

At the very pinnacle of US watchmaking stands RGM. Based in Philadelphia and focussed on modern interpretations of classic watches and movements in American History, RGM is real American High Horology. Named after founder Roland G. Murphy, he started working in a clock business then trained as a watchmaker and had a great career with Hamilton. He founded RGM in Lancaster County Pennsylvania as it was the historic centre of US clockmaking. In 2008 he launched his first in house movement, the Calibre 801 and today they make around 200 watches a year. They've reached the point where they can make the dials, cases and movements all in house, a fantastic achievement. There is a wide range of watch types and lots of great customisable options, including gold balance bridges, upgraded components and unique finishes. This is proper watchmaking, with low volumes, great finishing, and interesting designs.

Conclusion

There are many more great brands in the USA, and we encourage you to explore them further. We're delighted to host some of them at our watch shows in the UK, and will be inviting more to join us in future. If you know of any we should invite, please let us know!