All we've ever wanted is a fair shot at creating a successful business. We know from experience that it's incredibly difficult, but we're okay with that because we live in a country where opportunity is endless. Producing exceptional products with great value is the cornerstone of American manufacturing, and we want to perpetuate that legacy.
Unfortunately, we've hit a major hurdle. A massive watch conglomerate (the SWATCH Group, worth many billions of dollars) is trying to put us out of business, and we need your help. We've started a "Go Fund Me" page to help support a legal defense and would be deeply grateful if you share our story.
Please donate to our cause at this link:
We believe that a huge foreign corporation shouldn't be able to put a small American company out of business for no good reason. We think all small businesses owners in our country would agree. This legal case sets a precedent for upcycling and we want to make sure that the treasures that tell the story of our past aren't thrown in a trash can and forgotten. We need to protect our right to preserve American history.
When we started Vortic, our only goal was to make exceptional wristwatches made entirely in the United States. It's easier said than done, but I'm amazed, every day, by what we've accomplished. We have an advanced CNC machine shop, a team of skilled individuals to build a highly technical product, and we've amassed a collection of specialized tools and equipment necessary for our craft. We've also manufactured hundreds of unique parts and developed proprietary techniques and tools to make fine, 100% American made mechanical watches.
Building watches in the States is significantly more difficult than overseas due to a lack of industry specific resources, expertise, etc. Everything here is more expensive because nothing is specialized for our industry. We've essentially lost the skill and the mentors in this country even though we used to be the number one watchmaking country in the world. The United States basically invented the process of manufacturing highly precise, yet affordable watches during our industrial revolution a century ago.
Our idea was to restore the amazing pocket watch mechanisms that were manufactured here 100 years ago and to preserve our country's watchmaking legacy while creating a new chapter of horological innovation. We learned that many individuals commonly scrap pocket watch cases for the precious metal, leaving the original, antique, mechanism orphaned. We made it our mission to preserve these movements and make them relevant in a new and creative way. Converting pocket watches to wristwatches is certainly not a new practice, but it has taken on new meaning in modern times. While starting this business has proven to be nearly impossible, our 5 years of blood, sweat, and tears have conceived a legitimate watch manufacturing company.
However, one of the original great American watch companies, Hamilton, who we thought would love and appreciate our company’s mission, has taken offense to what we do. The Hamilton brand was purchased by the SWATCH group and has maintained the original trademark through the years. Even though the Hamilton movements we use are 100+ years old, have a completely different style, are US made instead of Swiss made, are housed in a significantly different case from the modern Hamilton brand, and even though we are not competing in the same category, they are suing us. Obviously it's their right to protect their trademark, but given their behavior, we believe that they don't care about the trademark and simply want to shut us, and the entire concept of upcycling an antique pocket watch, down.
Between 3 and 4 years ago, Hamilton expressed concern with what we do. In good faith, we removed all Hamilton products from our website, stopped talking about them, stopped advertising them, and for all intents and purposes removed them from our lineup. We never intended to misuse their trademark and we didn't think we were. Their concern was that customers would be confused as to whether the watch was a genuine Hamilton watch or a Vortic watch. They also seemed to be confused as to whether we were producing modern replicas of old Hamilton watches or dials.
To be clear, we restore genuine, antique Hamilton pocket watch movements to as close to original as possible with genuine Hamilton parts. Then, we build a wristwatch around that movement using our custom engineering systems. This is exactly how pocket watches were built in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Watchmakers would install a Hamilton movement inside of a pocket watch case which a different company made.
We thought we were doing everything correctly and legally, but if not, we wanted to make absolutely sure due to our immense respect for their brand. We assumed that if we removed any confusion that they would see we're honoring and preserving their antique pieces and creating additional awareness for their brand.
So, we began to ask what we could do to make this right, correct this clear misunderstanding, and clear things up, so we could be friends. We talked to a bunch of lawyers, created a prominent disclaimer on our website and packaging, ensured that our customers were properly educated about what they were buying, modified the text on the back of the watch to remove any confusion, and made it clear that we weren't affiliated with Hamilton, or any other antique brand, in any way.
We thought all of this work in good faith would show them our good intentions. Instead, it seems that the only thing they wanted to do was put us out of business. We have continuously given concessions and tried to negotiate, which is an incredibly expensive process, over the past 3 years and have received all but crickets in response. Never in our wildest dreams did we think that something this small would escalate to this level of magnitude. Think about it. Here we are, 5 people, making a few hundred watches per year, trying to settle a simple misunderstanding with a brand that, in our opinion, should LOVE what we do, and we end up in Federal Court in New York City instead.
The money spent by both sides far exceeds the revenue from the Vortic watches sold containing a Hamilton movement in the first place! We call them “The Lancaster” by the way since the original movements were manufactured in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
We’re trying to shed light on a forgotten American industry, and this company who claims to be extending an American tradition is trying to stop us for no good reason. The SWATCH Group won't even touch a watch that they made more than 10 years ago for service or repair. For reference, we won’t touch anything made LESS than 60 years ago.
All of this leads us to believe that they never wanted to settle. They just felt threatened by us and wanted us gone. Meanwhile, our resources are dwindling and an even more expensive trial is on the horizon.
We fully respect their right to protect their trademark, but we thought that once they fully understood what we were doing that they'd be happy to figure out an amicable solution. Being a company that originated in the United States, we thought they'd be excited to find a mutually beneficial solution with an American company attempting to honor their work. Instead, they elected to pursue an expensive lawsuit.
Long story short, we believe that the law is on our side. However, to go to trial and find out if we're right is a process that we currently can’t finance. Is that what justice looks like? This thing you've put your entire being into is being stolen by a few individuals who don't even care. They don't have time for the story or the history and they don't care what the law says or what's right. All they seem to care about is winning.
Unfortunately if they win, and we lose, we don’t just lose our company, we lose our livelihood. We have a growing family of employees who all also have growing families. We have two new babies coming to our team family just in the next few months. We’re here trying to be good examples of entrepreneurs and trying to have fun growing our small business, and none of that seems to matter to this massive corporate behemoth.
All we want is the opportunity to run our business and work hard to be successful like any other company. But, when a massive foreign conglomerate steps in and says they don't like what you're doing, their bank account is all it takes to squash you like a bug. How many other companies have been in this situation before and how many companies' legitimate up-cycled products could be banned based on the precedent set by this trial?
Some direct examples of an up-cycled product are customized Harley-Davidson motorcycles and the guys on the History channel making custom Ford and Chevy hotrods. I also found, through my own personal research, similar legal cases like “Lexmark v Impressions” and “Nitro Leisure Products v Acushnet Company.” In both cases, a small company refurbished a larger company’s product after it was discarded, kept the original brand name on it, and was sued for doing so. The small company won both battles (one making it all the way to the Supreme Court) "so long as the customer wasn’t confused.” Namely, the small company made sure to educate the consumer, all was well from a legal standpoint.
If we don't stand up to companies with evil intentions, and we let them win, it's a sad day for everyone in the United States. If that's all it takes to put a small company out of business then why would anyone start one in the first place? We never wanted this situation to become public out of respect for the Hamilton brand and the legal process, but we’re unfortunately out of options. Our back is against the wall, and without some help, we'll just be another casualty of corporate bullying.
The best way to help is to share our story and tell the world. Consumers and Americans have a voice and a choice in the modern era, and that voice can be used to stop injustices like this from happening. We hope our collective voices will inspire the individuals that are attacking us to do what's right, and hopefully, we can make it through this.
