The R.T. Custer Vortic Building at the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative
Your Watch of the Week is below, but first, here are some pictures from the new building at the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative in Odessa, Delaware. We attended a grand opening and ribbon cutting on Friday - the R.T. Custer Vortic Service Center building is complete! It is now being outfitted with inventory, parts, and tools. Soon, the world-class team of watchmakers will begin servicing watches in the first building with our name on it!
In other (hopefully equally) exciting news, our Watch of the Day comes back Monday, March 15th! This means FIVE watches every week and not just one!
The veteran watchmakers at the new service center will restore all the Hamilton 4992B movements for the 2021 Military Edition watches. We found this amazing image of all the parts in that movement for you to see just how much work it takes to restore - just one -much less 49 more!
We also just did an amazing photoshoot for the next Military Edition at a local shooting range. It was a blast.
We can't wait to share more of the powerful shots (and video) soon!
For this Springfield 364, we embraced the rustic look of the dial and matched it to the rest of the watch. The machined bronze case has already started to patina in a unique way. It's accented with an oxblood cordovan strap and knurled nickel crown.
The movement was originally manufactured in Springfield, Illinois in 1923. When you see the character of a dial like this that is almost 100 years old, you know it has a lot of stories to tell.
The Illinois Watch Company was founded in 1870. By 1873, the company sold approximately 10,000 movements and established a corporate headquarters in New York City.
The first Yankee Stadium was built in 1923 in The Bronx at the same time this pocket watch was manufactured. We like to think maybe that stadium played a part in this watch's unique story.
We are working very hard to scale up our production and make more watches. We appreciate you giving us some time to catch up, and we can't wait to have more inventory. Unfortunately, we need more time... (no pun intended).
The Watch of the Day program (5 watches per week) is expected to come back March 15th! We'll keep you posted, and we'll keep making at least one watch weekly!
