Watch Description
What makes the Lancaster 099 unique:
The Lancaster 099 offers a truly distinct visual experience, led by a silver-tone dial etched with a stunning floral-bouquet style engraving at center. Look closer, and you’ll spot the soft speckling that tells the story of its age—balanced by sharp dot-style minute markers around the edge. What makes this dial especially unique is the orientation of its numerals, which rotate as you travel around the dial—a subtle but fascinating design detail that plays with perception. Blued steel kite-style hands complete the composition with sleek contrast, their geometry echoing the elegance of the dial itself.
At its heart is a 17-jewel movement from the Hamilton Watch Company, originally manufactured in 1923. Through the open caseback, you’ll find polished steel gears, sweeping Geneva stripes, and gold-plated accents—each a tribute to early 20th-century American engineering. The bridge bears the “Hamilton Watch Co., Lancaster, PA” engraving, grounding this piece in its Pennsylvania heritage.
We’ve paired this movement with a machined stainless steel case from our American Artisan Series, complete with a smooth steel bezel and a knurled machined-steel crown. The deep navy leather strap—with its subtle grain and white contrast stitching—ties together the cool-toned palette, offering a clean and refined finish that complements the engraved dial beautifully.
In 1923—the year this movement was crafted—Yankee Stadium opened in New York City. Known as “The House That Ruth Built,” it quickly became an icon of American culture and resilience. Just like this watch, it was built with purpose, precision, and timeless appeal.
Movement Manufacturer Information
The movement inside of this watch was made by Hamilton Watch Company. We call this model "The Lancaster" because the company was located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Hamilton is named after famous Pennsylvanian Alexander Hamilton and is the result of multiple re-organizations of attempted watch companies in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1892, Hamilton had a reputation for superior quality and maintained half of the railroad watch market share during some of the most prolific years of American railroad history. During World War II, Hamilton was integral to the production of accurate timepieces for the Military. Deemed "the watch that won the war," the company established an employee-run newsletter so that employees turned soldiers could keep up with life at the factory. While the original factory still stands as luxury apartments, the company stopped producing watches in the US in 1969. Hamilton now produces watches in Switzerland and is owned by the Swatch Group.
Legal Disclaimer: All product and company names, logos, brands, and other trademarks featured or referred to within Vortic's products and services are the property of their respective intellectual property rights holders, if any. Those intellectual property rights holders, other than Vortic, LLC, are not affiliated with Vortic, LLC, our products, or our website. They do not sponsor or endorse our materials.
Watch Specifications
- Manufacturer: Vortic Watch Company
- Model Year: 2025
- Warranty: Full 1-Year Warranty
- Case Dimensions:
- Diameter: 45mm
- Thickness: 12mm
- Lug to Lug: 50mm
- Lug Width: 22mm
- Case Material: Machined Stainless Steel
- Crown/Hardware: Stainless Steel
- Water Resistance: 1 ATM
- Crystals: Sapphire
- Case Back: Stainless Steel
- Strap: Leather
Movement
- Manufacturer: Hamilton Watch Company
- Serial Number: 3200493
- Manufacture Year: 1923
- Function: Manual Wind
- Jewels: 17 Jewels
- Hands: Original
- Size: 12s
- Power Reserve: ~36 Hours
What makes the Lancaster 099 unique:
The Lancaster 099 offers a truly distinct visual experience, led by a silver-tone dial etched with a stunning floral-bouquet style engraving at center. Look closer, and you’ll spot the soft speckling that tells the story of its age—balanced by sharp dot-style minute markers around the edge. What makes this dial especially unique is the orientation of its numerals, which rotate as you travel around the dial—a subtle but fascinating design detail that plays with perception. Blued steel kite-style hands complete the composition with sleek contrast, their geometry echoing the elegance of the dial itself.
At its heart is a 17-jewel movement from the Hamilton Watch Company, originally manufactured in 1923. Through the open caseback, you’ll find polished steel gears, sweeping Geneva stripes, and gold-plated accents—each a tribute to early 20th-century American engineering. The bridge bears the “Hamilton Watch Co., Lancaster, PA” engraving, grounding this piece in its Pennsylvania heritage.
We’ve paired this movement with a machined stainless steel case from our American Artisan Series, complete with a smooth steel bezel and a knurled machined-steel crown. The deep navy leather strap—with its subtle grain and white contrast stitching—ties together the cool-toned palette, offering a clean and refined finish that complements the engraved dial beautifully.
In 1923—the year this movement was crafted—Yankee Stadium opened in New York City. Known as “The House That Ruth Built,” it quickly became an icon of American culture and resilience. Just like this watch, it was built with purpose, precision, and timeless appeal.
Let customers speak for us
The Movement
The engine that powers this watch is an antique American pocket watch movement. All the gears and springs that make it tell time are roughly 100 years old on average. We call these watches the American Artisan Series because we're celebrating the history and legacy of the artisan watchmakers who built this engineering marvel a century ago in the United States.
The Story
Today most pocket watches are scrapped for the gold or silver of the case (the outside of the antique timepiece), leaving the inside (what we call the "movement") as trash.
We take pride in upcycling these pieces of American history by salvaging as many as we can, then preserving them inside our wristwatches.
Our expert team of watchmakers restores the antique movement and then we manufacture a custom wristwatch case here in Fort Collins, Colorado.
The Strap
We partnered with Worn & Wound to produce a custom set of straps for our American Artisan Series watches. We now have 15 different colors to choose from including our two Horween Shell Cordovan options. These straps are made in the USA and are based on the Windup Model 2 Premium strap that Worn and Wound offers.
