[tisnatch]

A few months ago my wife bought me my first watch. It was a Kobold and it was important to me because I was born and raised in Pittsburgh. Since then I've also picked up a Detroit Watch Co 1701 from a great WUS member. And all the while I went a little overboard researching American watch companies. So, I'm sharing that research with you in the table below. My goal was to understand who in America is producing watches, not just designing them and then having them produced and assembled in other countries. Not that I don't like our friends overseas. ;-) To get on this list I had a couple rules for myself:
- The company had to manufacture parts or do final assembly in the US
- The company had to sell their watches to the public; not strictly sell on-demand or bespoke
- I didn't include kickstarter, indigogo or other pre-launch companies
- I had to find some evidence of their US manufacturing by searching the web; I may go back and send communications to companies where I couldn't verify the data easily

Here's what I have so far

Company Name	HQ	Founded	US Movement	US Case	US Assembly	Primary Movements	Price Range	Comments
Brooklyn Watches	New York, NY	2009	No	Varies	Yes	Unitas	$900 - $2000	Not to be confused with Brooklyn Watch Co.
Detroit Watch Company	Detroit, MI	2013	No	No	Yes	Miyota, Sellita	$800 - $1,300
Devon	Los Angeles, CA	2010?	Yes	?	Yes	Devon	$10,000 - $25,000	80% produced in US
Hexa	Tampa Bay, FL	2011	No	?	Yes	Time Module	$425 - $800	Manufactured by Weigand; Still in business?
Keaton P. Myrick	Sisters, OR	2009?	Yes	No	Yes	In-House	$21,500+
Kobold Expedition Tools	Pittsburgh, PA	1998	No	Yes	Yes	ETA, Ronda	$1,400 - $16,500
Lum-Tec	Mentor, OH	2007	No	Finished*	Yes	Miyota, ETA,SII,Ronda	$400 - $1,700	Owned by Weigand Custom Watch; family owners. *Case blanks forged overseas and then machined, finished and coated in the US.
Martenero	New York, NY	2014	No	No	Yes	Miyota	$500
Minuteman Watch Company	Chenoa, IL	2012	No	No	Yes	ETA	$300 - $500	Donates portion of profit to veterans charities
MKII	Wayne, PA	2002	No	?	Yes	ETA, Soprod	$900 - $2000
Montana Watch Company	Livingston, MT	1998	No	Yes	Yes	ETA	$3,200 - $26,000
MTM Special Ops	Los Angeles, CA	?	No	?	Yes	"Swiss"	$600 - $2000
Niall	Kansas City, MO	2014	No	Yes	Yes	ETA / Selitta	$4,000
RGM Watch Company	Lancaster, PA	1992	Yes	Yes	Yes	In-House, ETA	$2,300 - $95,000	Only watch company that can currently claim "Made in America"?
Rpaige	Honolulu, HI	2012	Yes	No	Yes	Various	$1,800 - $3,400	Movements from US-made pocketwatches
Shinola	Detroit, MI	2011	No	No	Yes	Argonite (Ronda)	$475 - $1,500	Owned by Bedrock (Texas); Argonite is assembled in US using Ronda (515?) components; also makes Filson watches
Smith & Bradley	Sidney, IL	2012	No	Yes	Yes	Ronda, ETA	$400 - $1100	US case manufacture confirmed via email
Thomas Gref	Tucson, AZ	?	No	?	Yes	ETA	$800 - $2,600
Throne	New York, NY	2014	No	No	Yes	Ronda	$500
Timemachinist Watch	Juneau, AK	2011	No	Yes	Yes	Miyota	$1700 - $2400	Only non-US component is the movement
Towson Watch Company	Towson, MD	2000	No	No	Yes	ETA	$2,000 - $13,500
Vortic	Fort Collins, CO	2014	Yes	Yes	Yes	Various	$1,300 - $1,600	Movements from US-made pocketwatches
Weiss Watch Company	Los Angeles, CA	2013	No	Yes	Yes	ETA	$1,000 - $1,300
Wilson Watch Works	Wilson, NC	2008	No	No	Yes	ETA, Seagull	$600 - $5,000

In the case of US movements and cases I marked these fields "Yes" if the company offered the option, not necessarily if they included a US movement or case in every watch they sold. Price ranges are approximate as of April 2015. As for cases, this is a grey zone. It turns out that some companies have their cases molded/forged off-shore and then do the final machining/finishing and coating in the US. I'm not sure it's the best criteria to have in the chart so take it for what it's worth. It's hard to tell from publicly available information how much of the case work is done in the US.

There are some US-based companies that I found that I didn't include on this list. I didn't include them because I couldn't find enough evidence of US-based manufacture or assembly.

• Equipe
• MTM Special Ops
• Bozeman Watch Company
• Android
• Deep Blue
• Xetum
• Torgoen
• Stanton Watch Company
• Hager
• Refined Hardware
• ... and any "old" company that is now just a US brand (e.g. Hamilton, Ball)

If I missed a company please post it in the comments and I'll research it then update the list. If you have any more info to fill in the gaps where there's a question mark please let me know.

 

[Watchbreath]

At 3950, me thinks Niall is a short timer.

 

[Ed.YANG]

I thought MTM Special Ops is based in France?

 

[wsfarrell]

Great resource, thanks!

 

[yankeexpress]

Why not include kickstarter companies?

 

[FW271]

Why not include kickstarter companies?

Why not?

 

[G. I.]

Why not include kickstarter companies?

Are there not China made kickstarter watches?

 

[little big feather]

Good info., thanks....|>..|>

 

[tisnatch]

@yankeexpress The short answer is time. I just didn't feel motivated enough to sort through all the startups on kickstarter, indigogo and any other crowdfunding site. Plus, many of them won't reach their funding goals and those that do haven't yet produced a product. So I figured I would start with established companies where people could, today, go buy a watch. But yeah, it would actually be pretty cool to have a list of those startups. Are you volunteering?

Also, added MKII, MTM and Hexa.

 

[sleepyhead123]

Very useful and well organized information.

I wasn't aware Shinola was in house. That's interesting.

 

[Quartersawn]

At 3950, me thinks Niall is a short timer.

The design doesn't really float my boat but it has Gorilla Glass. Who can say no to something called Gorilla Glass?

 

[Ajax_Drakos]

Very useful and well organized information.

I wasn't aware Shinola was in house. That's interesting.

I thought they used Swiss Ronda movements that were assembled in the U.S.?

This is a great list, by the way.

 

[Ace McLoud]

What's this? A well-researched list, mercifully short on speculation and conjecture?

Refreshingly rare around these parts. Thanks for your efforts.

I suspect this is a work-in-progress though!

 

[zachste]

Bernhardt is also based in the US

 

[gouverneur]

Great, great list, thanks for putting this together. Really enjoyed learning about lesser known brands like K. Myrick.

 

[hanshananigan]

Thanks, this is great! May I suggest another column for fully "Made in America?" Apparently RGM is still the only one who can claim that designation. The others get, at least, some movement parts from elsewhere.

 

[tisnatch]

@sleepyhead123 To my knowledge Shinola imports all the parts from Ronda and then does the movement assembly in the US. They then call that their Argonite movement.

 

[tisnatch]

@zachste Thanks for the tip! I emailed them to find out if they do their assembly in the US.

@hanshananigan I added it to the RGM line in the comments field. Given that none of the other watch makers can claim this, as far as I know, it felt a little weird giving one of the companies their very own column.

 

[systemcrasher]

soooo you wouldn't consider Harry Winston a US watch company?

 

[hanshananigan]

soooo you wouldn't consider Harry Winston a US watch company?

Although the HQ is in NYC, it it now owned by Swatch Group. I believe their timepieces have been made in Switzerlard for quite some time. Kinda like Fossil, who is HQ'ed here but makes watches abroad.