The Top 58 American Watch Brands Ranked (Number 8 will Shock You)

Once a year, in preparation for my baseball fantasy draft (this Sunday wish me luck), I have ranked the American watch brands. The criteria for inclusion are a) historical importance, b) cultural importance, c) general popularity, d) scientific innovation, and most importantly, e) how much do I like them.

What makes a brand American? Well, that depends. For some brands they were founded here and manufactured everything here, until they didn’t. A second group cased and timed watches in the United States but imported mostly Swiss movements. A third group also imported foreign movements and cased them in a single neighborhood in New York City. For modern brands, or brands that have survived until today, having an important part of your management in the States qualifies. The global economy dictates that most parts will be made elsewhere, that is the reality of the business. Unlike the “Swiss Made” label, the requirements for “Made in the U.S.A.” present real barriers. Besides, this isn’t a nationalistic or jingoistic exercise. Apple pie is Dutch and hot dogs are German. Our national superpower is making anything or anyone American.

Another note on rankings: unlike recency bias, I tend to skew towards historical bias. My experience is mostly with vintage watches. Remember this is about wristwatches, not pocket watches or clocks. I haven’t handled every brand on this list. I am relying often on second or third hand information. I watch videos and read blogs and forums like all of us. The opinions expressed are entirely my own and are damn near infallible. The rankings:

1. Bulova – On the radio you would a chime and the “Bulova Time”. Bulova was the first major national radio advertiser and the first ever television advertiser. They pioneered electronic movements. Accutron technology allowed NASA to send some other watches to the Moon. They were well made and stylish. Even now, owned by Citizen, they are nominally headquartered in New York. The only directive from Citizen is that Bulova must still make the Lunar Pilot cartoonishly large. In the Citizen boardroom they laugh and laugh about consumers willingly strapping large satellite dishes to their wrists in imitation of a moon watch made by Universal Geneve.

2. Hamilton – Hamilton once sold a $50k gold watch, seventy-five years ago when that was real money. From 1935 to 1970 they were consistently the most elegant and stylish American watches. They didn’t start importing Swiss movements until the 1950’s after they acquired Illinois. The Swiss movements were put in the lower priced Illinois watches because the ones from Lancaster, Pennsylvania were better. With Bulova they experimented with electronic movements. They were soooo close.

3. Elgin – Elgin was founded by proud Mid-Westerners to give that East Coast titan Waltham a run for their money. For half a century they were the most popular watches in the world’s largest market. A changing labor market and our next brand did them in.

4. Timex – Timex perfected cheap pin-pallet movements, essentially disposable watches and undercut both the dollar watch brands that couldn’t match them for quality, and the Swiss lever brands that could not beat them on price. Price won out. Are they still American? A Norwegian owns a controlling interest in a holding group based in the Netherlands who principally manufactures the watches in the Philippines. Sounds American to me.

5, Wittnauer – They may have sold more watches than any brands but Elgin and Bulova in their 1950’s heyday. They were stylish and their odd relationship with Longines ensured that quality remained high. Today they hide under the skirts of Bulova as a drop ship fashion brand.

6. Benrus – They sold a lot of watches, nice ones. They made military watches in Vietnam.

7. Gruen – I would rank them higher if I could justify it. They are the Kinks of the vintage watch world. You know they are the best, but you can’t argue with fans of the Beatles, Stones, or the Who.

8. Fossil – This should set you off. They dominated the American market in the 1990’s. Very few brands get an entire decade of market dominance, basically one tenth of the wristwatch era. You don’t have to like them, but they belong. In the time that it took you to read this paragraph someone bought a Fossil on Amazon.

(Seriously, look at the those braided straps. Who doesn’t love a braided strap?)

9. Armitron – This is a sweet family run company. They had an impressive run too.

10. Waltham – This is the most historically important watch company in world history. The most important, anywhere at any time. So, why do they rank so low? It is because they are first and foremost a pocket watch company. They barely survived labor unrest in World War I. They limped through the 1930’s when the Depression was hard on all companies. World War II had them turn production to fuses and whatnot. By the 1950’s this was a tired company. They made unstylish expensive watches. The gold plating was a little thicker on a Waltham, but it was a “grandpa” watch. Ironically, once the company was liquidated in the late 1950’s their Swiss subsidiary and its successors sold more wristwatches than the company ever had before. You can find lots of those watches out there. The name is alive again in the microbrand space.

11. Shinola – Who says that in America there are no second acts? This might be the OG American microbrand. (I know it is not now and maybe never was a microbrand.) The same folks that gave us Fossil gave us watches that we were supposed to pretend came from Detroit. But they were still kind of cool though, weren’t they?

12. Nodus – I can’t possibly make a comment on every brand, can I? No, I can’t. But I like Nodus. The evolution of this and others down this list has been invigorating to the American watch industry. It is like good design and decent specs will sell.

13. Lorier – Good design and decent specs.

14. Weiss – A company that migrated from California to Tennessee. California is Paradise Lost, Nashville’s gain. Weiss is a good place to note that American microbrands seem to focus on field watches rather than dive watches. No, not exclusively, but as an emphasis. Weiss makes field watches that I would not take into the field lest some terrible fate befall one.

15. Brew – They don’t look like anyone else,

16. Straton – except maybe Straton. Only one is coffee themed.

17. Helbros – Our first mail order brand. Structurally, they functioned like Benrus, only cheaper. But they were better than:

18. Clinton – One of three brands owned by the Wein siblings (Marathon and Cardinal, both in Canada, the 51^st state). Clinton is still around as a private label brand.

19. Illinois – Really a pocket watch company and then part of Hamilton.

20. Vaer – The ones that I have seen in person look better than the renders.

21. Autodromo

22. Traska

23. Welsbro

24. RGM – Probably too bespoke for this list.

25. Invicta – We get to claim them now. Take that Switzerland! Florida Man needs a Florida Watch. It must be emphasized: these are really popular.

(What we lost.)

26. Aragon – Once an Invicta wearer stops getting into roid rage induced bar fights and settles down with his “old lady” he needs a classier Florida watch. It is a niche market, but Aragon has it covered.

27. Vero – Some of these are quite cool.

28. Dumoreau

29. Islander – If a mensch was a watch.

30. Jack Mason – I have the Deep Ellum Blues.

31. Croton – I am wearing one now. Not a fan of the current iteration.

32. Wakmann

33. Ball – I always get into arguments about Ball. People think that I “hate” on them or underrate them. I don’t. They were a pocket watch brand. It was a bit of a scam, but they convinced the railroad industry that their requirements were necessary for safety (not true, but whatever). They were a Cleveland, Ohio jewelry store. Most of their pocket watches were made by Hamilton and Illinois. They made very few wristwatches in the decades after pocket watches fell out of favor. They really weren’t known outside of railroad workers until they were bought and relaunched. The are a Hong Kong consortium that makes watches (or at least the required percentage of value) in Switzerland and keeps a corporate presence in the United States. American? Sure, by the loosest definition. Their gimmick now is tritium tubes.

34. Gotham/Gothic – Not the same company but I bet you can’t tell them apart. New York jobbers.

35. Bertucci – Quartz field watches. Americans are always in the “field.”

36. DuFrane

37. Lum-tec – The name says it all.

38. Monta

39. Oak and Oscar

40. Tsao – For all you Baltimorons out there.

41. Towson Watch Company/Cincinnati Watch Company/Detroit Watch Company – Calling something the “X Watch Company” sounds too cute. It is like “Ye Olde” anything. They all take chances with design. Not sure that it all works but I like the spirit.

42. Sheffield – Good cheap watches and now alive again.

43. Westclox – These are our “Dollar Watch” brands. They were super cheap pin pallets.

44. Ingersoll – Really not American after Timex (Waterbury) sold them in 1930. The Mickey Mouse watch.

45. Ingraham

46. New Haven – Once the largest clock manufacturer in the world. The world. Their watches were dreadful.

47. Seth Thomas – Your grandmother had a Seth Thomas mantle clock. You weren’t allowed to touch it. When she died your aunt sold it at a garage sale for $5.

48. Devon Works – Not for all tastes.

49. Sangin Instruments

50. MkII – Did I mention field watches?

51. Hampden – Really a pocket watch brand, and then Clinton in disguise.

52. Rensie

53. Hilton

(“Behind every Hilton watch dial you’ll find one of the greatest miracles of art and science…” What a load…)

54. Hallmark – Assembled some Waltham watches from parts after Waltham’s bankruptcy. You can pick up some of their own too.

55. Berman – New York jobber, they made many brands.

56. Baylor– Jewelry store brand, but a good one.

57. Tradition/Orvin/Dorset/Andre Bouchard – The store brands of Sears (x2), Montgomery Ward, and Kmart. The Sears watches can be pretty good. We all know that Sears started out as a watch company before department stores and catalogs, thought so.

58. Stauer – Someone has to be last. Stauer is deserving. If I have missed anyone, just slot it above Stauer.

(What can I say, it was part of my “journey”.)