The American watch brands to know now

There was a time – a century and a half ago – when the USA produced more watches than any other country. The advances in mass production pioneered by the likes of Hamilton, Waltham and Timex were envied and replicated by the Swiss. Today, some American watch brands still enjoy household-name status, but very little end-to-end watchmaking takes place in the United States. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a thriving array of US-based brands, however. The last few decades have seen a number of successful start-ups emerge, and now American watchmaking spans a wide range from affordable kickstarter alumnni to low-volume haute horlogerie craftsmen. These are our favourite American watch brands.

American watch brands to know

Autodromo

Designer Bradley Price makes no attempt to disguise his all-consuming passion for the automotive world, and his brand – founded in 2011 – has made a name for itself as a provider of genuinely credible motoring-themed watches in a world of often-underwhelming corporate partnerships. Price’s boyish enthusiasm for the genre seeps into everything Autodromo creates, as he carefully references motor racing and car culture from the 1950s to the 1980s. The Group B series, a run of 39mm titanium-and-steel bracelet watches running Japanese Miyota automatic calibres, is his homage to the steroidal, boxy, turbocharged monsters of the same name that raced between 1982 and 1986.

Shop the full watch range at autodromo.com

Shinola

In 2012, Shinola brought the focus back to American watchmaking, marking the first year of its founding by opening a watchmaking factory in Detroit, the first in the US in almost 50 years. Over the ensuing years, the Detroit-based brand has drawn on this heritage with the Great Americans series of watches, with each limited-edition model paying tribute to an individual who has shaped American history – such as Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe (the first Native American to win gold, in 1912), artist Georgia O’Keeffe, and baseball player Jackie Robinson.Now it’s the turn of Black American inventor Elijah McCoy to take a place in horological history – a timely move for an individual whose name is synonymous with perfection (the phrase ‘the real McCoy’ is said to derive from one of his much-copied inventions that meant steam-powered trains didn’t need to stop during a journey).

Writer: Hannah Silver

shinola.com

Brew Watches

Combining a love of coffee with a fondness for watches can come across as something of a scattergun association, but Brew Watches, founded by New Yorker Jonathan Ferrer in 2015, has succeeded regardless. The quirky, asymmetric dial design that has become its signature blend, if you will, plays a part, but so have the company’s attention to detail and ability to iterate on its two main styles. The most recent spin on the Metric is a case in point; not everyone’s cup of, er, coffee, perhaps, but a strikingly different aesthetic. Remarkably, the forged carbon found in its 36mm case was the preserve of only the most expensive watchmakers when Ferrer started out; now it’s available in a meca-quartz hybrid chronograph for less than £400.

brew-watches.com

Cornell Watch Company

Aiming to evoke something of that golden era of American watchmaking, Cornell Watch Company brought out its first watch in 2024, the 1870 CE. It’s a direct homage to the pocket watches of the railroad age; the original Cornell was founded in 1870 in Chicago but saw its operations curtailed almost immediately by the great fire of 1871. Today’s revival is also based in Chicago, but founder John Warren has partnered with RGM Watches of Pennsylvania (one of America’s better-established firms, with substantial manufacturing capabilities) to build the case, regulate the movement and assemble the finished watch. The movement itself comes from respected Swiss independent watch brand Schwarz Etienne, adjusted and tested by RGM in Pennsylvania. Perhaps the 1870 CE’s trump card is its grand feu enamel dial, an elegant finish that contrasts with the thermally blued steel hands.

cornellwatchcompany.com

JN Shapiro

Unveiled in 2023, the Resurgence is the crowning achievement to date of young artisan brand JN Shapiro, which first attracted the attention of serious collectors with its ‘infinity weave’ engine-turned dials in 2018. A commitment to this traditional, time-consuming and expert decorative art pervades the hand-wound, 38mm Resurgence – even its caseband is fully decorated with a mesmerising barleycorn texture – but the company has come a long way in a very short time. It now makes the entire movement for the Resurgence, except jewels and springs, in its California workshop, a truly remarkable achievement. The calibre is offered in three configurations according to taste, each of which can be paired with one of six dial and case combinations; regardless of which you choose, the hand-finishing is a rival for any Swiss equivalent.

Resurgence, from $70,000 to $85,000, from jnshapirowatches.com

Oak & Oscar

Another Chicago-based brand, Oak & Oscar, majors in sensible, stylish tool watches like the Olmsted, a 38mm field watch, and the Humboldt, a clean, contemporary take on a classic GMT. Its latest creation is the Atwood, a hand-wound flyback chronograph in stainless steel with a top-grade Sellita movement. At a glance, the styling takes its cues from 1960s and 1970s sports watches, with the sub-dial sectors picked out in orange and classic ‘panda’ configuration – but on closer examination the brand’s contemporary sans serif typography and unusual (for a chronograph) sandwich dial construction (where one layer sits beneath the dial, with stencil cutouts to reveal the numerals) show a personality that sets it aside from the average offering.

The Atwood, from £1,960 to £2,120, from oakandoscar.com

Timex x The James Brand

While names such as Elgin and Waltham are the stuff of history books, Timex is the US watchmaker that has, in fact, kept on ticking. It’s still the brand you go to for affordable watches with a distinctly American feel, and while for decades now its bread-and-butter has been quartz-powered watches, it retains a small selection of automatics for customers who want that cult-classic name, no-frills appearance and nostalgic sensibility, but aren’t prepared to wear something that doesn’t whirr with tiny springs and wheels. Watch geeks, in other words. The latest offering, a titanium automatic with a GMT function, is a collaboration with outdoor gear specialists The James Brand. Flashes of acid yellow stand out against a matte dial and monochrome 24-hour bezel to give it a modern, metropolitan feel.

More from Timex at amazon.co.uk/Watches-Timex

Weiss

Founded in south California – which influenced Weiss’ desire to make a simple, functional, distinctly American dive watch alongside other staples – Weiss is now based in Nashville, Tennessee. It focuses on those horological archetypes – dive watches, field watches – while trying to bring something of its own to the genre, be it a fiery orange dial described as ‘Tennessee tangerine’ or this ‘Agave’-dialled diver, the first designed in the company’s current location. With a no-nonsense steel case, 300m water-resistance and a rotating bezel, it’s a well-worn format, but elevated by the eggshell-finish green dial and retro numerals. Thankfully, the move inland hasn’t harmed the brand’s knack for making a solid diver.

weisswatchcompany.com