Watch Description
The Springfield Railroad 031 is the 31st one-of-a-kind piece in Vortic's "Springfield Railroad " line of the American Artisan Series. This watch contains the original movement (timepiece), dial (face), and hands from a vintage (1880’s – 1950’s) pocket watch. The American Artisan Series is a line of fully American Made wristwatches powered by restored, U.S. made pocket watch movements.
What makes the Springfield Railroad 031 Unique: For today’s release we have an incredibly special and rare release, the Springfield Railroad 031. We get a lot of requests to bring back our Railroad Edition watches and today we get are lucky to bring you one of these amazing pieces. This watch has been meticulously fine-tuned with a custom lever set, by our incredibly talented machinists and watchmakers to fit this movement and help with the setting feature underneath the bezel. As we continue to improve our manufacturing processes and create more levers for these Railroad movements, we hope to continue to release more of these watches on a regular basis. The Santa Fe Special was a high-end movement from the Illinois Watch Company, named after the Santa Fe Railroad line that ran from Kansas to New Mexico, and was one of the larger stretches of the American Railroad. This dial is very unique and rare, featuring all 60-minute indicators, including red accents at the hour marks. The gothic style numerals bring a nice amount of flare and contrast nicely against this bright white face. We wanted to give this watch a special case to add to the look and decided to pre-patina this bronze for a wonderfully aged and vintage look. A merlot strap and nickel-plated crown add to the details and help accentuate the look and feel of the case. This movement is so mesmerizing that you will have to remove the watch in order to show it off through our custom case back. This dual-colored build plate is absolutely stunning, with intricately designed etching all throughout, as well as rose-gold gears beneath and a brass balance wheel. Adorned with 21 spectacular jewels, screw set with stainless steel hardware. The Santa Fe Watch Company was founded in Topeka, Kansas in 1913 and was manufactured by the Illinois Watch Company. The watches were sold by catalog only, via mail order service. They were mostly all Railroad grade 16 size watches, lever set. However, they also made some smaller 12 size versions as well for a short period of time. This watch represents a truly special piece of American history and we couldn’t be more proud to have the opportunity to bring it back to life and release it.
1916
3042104
Movement Manufacturer Information
The movement inside of this watch was made by Illinois Watch Company. We call this model "The Springfield" because the company was located in Springfield, Illinois.
Originally called the Springfield Watch Company, Illinois came to Springfield, Illinois in 1869 while the "modern" watch industry was fairly new but highly promising. City officials felt that the addition of industry to the city of Springfield would be excellent for the city's growth. However, after a series of failures and re-brandings, the company had a slow start until 1903 when they decided to manufacture high-quality watches only. Eventually making some of the most beautiful watches of their time, the company sold to Hamilton in 1927. Hamilton continued producing watches under the Illinois name for some time, but the original Springfield factory no longer stands.
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: 2021
- Warranty: Full 1-Year Warranty
- Case Diameter: 49mm
- Case Material: Machined Bronze
- Crown/Hardware: Nickel Plated
- Water Resistance: 1 ATM
- Crystals: Sapphire
- Case Back: Stainless Steel
- Strap: Leather
Movement
- Manufacturer: Illinois Watch Company
- Serial Number:
- Manufacture Year:
- Function: Manual Wind, Lever-Set
- Jewels: 21 Jewels
- Hands: Original
- Size: 16s
- Power Reserve: ~36 Hours
The Springfield Railroad 031 is the 31st one-of-a-kind piece in Vortic's "Springfield Railroad " line of the American Artisan Series. This watch contains the original movement (timepiece), dial (face), and hands from a vintage (1880’s – 1950’s) pocket watch. The American Artisan Series is a line of fully American Made wristwatches powered by restored, U.S. made pocket watch movements.
What makes the Springfield Railroad 031 Unique: For today’s release we have an incredibly special and rare release, the Springfield Railroad 031. We get a lot of requests to bring back our Railroad Edition watches and today we get are lucky to bring you one of these amazing pieces. This watch has been meticulously fine-tuned with a custom lever set, by our incredibly talented machinists and watchmakers to fit this movement and help with the setting feature underneath the bezel. As we continue to improve our manufacturing processes and create more levers for these Railroad movements, we hope to continue to release more of these watches on a regular basis. The Santa Fe Special was a high-end movement from the Illinois Watch Company, named after the Santa Fe Railroad line that ran from Kansas to New Mexico, and was one of the larger stretches of the American Railroad. This dial is very unique and rare, featuring all 60-minute indicators, including red accents at the hour marks. The gothic style numerals bring a nice amount of flare and contrast nicely against this bright white face. We wanted to give this watch a special case to add to the look and decided to pre-patina this bronze for a wonderfully aged and vintage look. A merlot strap and nickel-plated crown add to the details and help accentuate the look and feel of the case. This movement is so mesmerizing that you will have to remove the watch in order to show it off through our custom case back. This dual-colored build plate is absolutely stunning, with intricately designed etching all throughout, as well as rose-gold gears beneath and a brass balance wheel. Adorned with 21 spectacular jewels, screw set with stainless steel hardware. The Santa Fe Watch Company was founded in Topeka, Kansas in 1913 and was manufactured by the Illinois Watch Company. The watches were sold by catalog only, via mail order service. They were mostly all Railroad grade 16 size watches, lever set. However, they also made some smaller 12 size versions as well for a short period of time. This watch represents a truly special piece of American history and we couldn’t be more proud to have the opportunity to bring it back to life and release it.
1916
3042104
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.