The Vortic Watch Company, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, (USA) is a rather unusual watch company: created to preserve and put again in action as many as possible of the numerous, excellently made American pocket watches, or better: their movements. In doing so, they utilise vintage technology (watch movements) and high-tech production methods such as 3D printing (cases).

During Baselworld I had the opportunity to sit down with Vortic CEO R.-T. Custler to get a first-hand introduction into the company, and discuss their: the Railroad Edition, a wristwatch conversion programme which sought (and found) a solution to give a practical new lease of life to the excellent timekeepers originally supplied to the many railroad companies in the New World. I suspect this will be particularly interesting to the horologists here. 


(from left: Vortic watches built around American movements in 16, 12 and 0 size)

Vortic started as out as a university design project, examining the usage of a metal 3D printer to create the cases. They discovered that almost "ex printer" the cases had a vintage appeal. Then the Vortic people realised that a great number of beautiful, reliable and extremely precise antique pocket watch movements lay around unused, in most cases already stripped of their precious metal cases, leaving only the movement, the dial and the hands left intact. These are parts now re-used by Vortic.


(3D printed Vortic cases, raw from the printer and finished)

Most commonly found were the three (American) movement sizes 0, 12 and 16, corresponding to 29.62, 39.78 and 43.18mm diameter, respectively, and yielding wristwatches of 36, 46 or 49.5mm. All of them were technically top notch, often surpassing contemporary Swiss movements, with technical delights such as swan-neck regulators or chatons, and beautifully decorated with striping and damascening:


(from left: Vortic watches built around American movements in 16, 12 (base: both Illinois Watch Company) and 0 size (base: Elgin))

To the extend possible, Vortic uses American made components, partly due to their desire to contribute to the rebounding American watch industry, partly due to patriotism, but to large percentage also for simply practical reasons: to have a mutual understanding and better control you want to be as close and have as tight a relationship to your suppliers as possible.

The prices Vortic charges are a function of movement quality, rarity and difficulty of production, with 12 or 16 type based watches starting at slightly below 1K US$, only the much rarer and more difficult to create 0 size wristwatches requiring a grand more as entry point.

Also starting at the 2K US$ price point is a bona fide delicacy for the connoisseur: the Vortic Railroad Edition, which features converted American precision pocket watch movements supplied to railroad companies as an essential timing tool:



The image above shows such a railroad pocket watch, here supplied by Elgin. Such watches were critical for the railroad industry to ensure safe and unobstructed transcontinental train connections, particularly to avoid collision of trains moving on the same tracks. The increasing railroad network and train schedules made it imperative that timing was consistent across trains and train companies.


(Vintage timetable of the Detroit and Mackinac Railway)

Since not only precision and accuracy, but also ease of readability were of upmost important, the enamel dials had oversized, bold numerals.

Further, of course, the movements used for railroad watches were technically amongst the finest produced in the US and featured:

• a fixed regulator (swan neck) to avoid timekeeping variation from impact
• a double roller balance wheel to avoid going out of action (overbanking)
• 19 or more jewels to reduce friction and increase consistency of the gear train (in most cases set in chatons)
• timekeeping adjustment in 5 or more positions, combined with adjustment for temperature
• (often) solid gold or gold plated gear trains to reduce the effects of magnetism as well as reduce tarnishing
• later watches had features such as magnetically resistant balance wheels, Elinvar hairsprings, adjustments for isochronism, and beautiful cap jewel covers

As mentioned on the Vortic blog, one characteristic feature of a railroad pocket watch was its time-setting mechanism which was lever-set and requires the user to remove the bezel of the watch and engage a lever to place the watch in setting mode. This tedious process of removing the bezel had a very important purpose; it ensured that the time on the watch was never accidentally changed by catching the winding knob on a pocket or any number of other unintentional situations.

With the bezel removed for setting, the setting lever can be pulled out and the watch is ready to be set:





This setting mechanism had one very practical disadvantage for using the otherwise outstanding movements for a wristwatch conversion: the lever was (too) impractical for modern use, and above all not water tight. Vortic devised a clever solution to the problem, thereby preserving much the original peculiarity of railroad watches:



In general, Vortic uses four grades of railroad movements, which differ basically in rarity and embellishment, but not in timekeeping performance (and costing between 2.5 and 4K US$, with a 'bring your own' option as well):

• "The Chicago": based on Elgin railroad grade pocket watches, the most famous being Father Time. This is the entry level railroad watch.
• "The Boston": based on a  Waltham railroad grade pocket watch such as the Vanguard - the lower mid-tier watch.
• "The Springfield" based on an Illionis railroad grade pocket watch such as the Bunn Special. This is the higher mid-tier watch.
• "Rare & Limited" version is for those who opt for a rarer railroad grade movement made by one of the other great American watch companies (e.g. Rockford, Hampden, Hamilton, Ball, or something else).

The watch I could inspect was a Springfield, with is original dial and a 3D-printed titanium case:



Particularly well preserved dial and hands:



Characteristic (and different from the other Vortic watch cases) is the notched bezel. I'll come to this in a minute.



  Beneath the 1 o'clock position the bezel allows you a glimpse at the secret which ensures that Vortic railroad watches meet (more or less) modern wearing requirements:



What Vortic did is to develop (i) a detachable (outer) bezel with a bayonet mount as we are sued from camera lenses, which leaves the watch practically sealed (note difference to the original pocket watch, where not only the bezel, but also the crystal is removed for setting)...



... and (ii) a new setting lever to fit into the new case construction (copper coloured lever is the new one):



With these developments, Custler assured me that a Vortic Railroad Edition is watertight up to 1 ATM (that is 10m, certainly not much but clearly better than being not watertight at all).

All watches are supplied with display back, and what a delight it is:



Just alone this picture makes your heart beat faster: large counterweighted screw balance, the 'double roller', swan's neck regulator, 21 beautiful rubies laid in screwed chatons, golden wheels, damascening decoration...



Naturally, at a movement diameter already exceeding 43mm, such a watch cannot be small - and of course it is not at almost 50mm case size:



Yet, it allows for a representative of admirable technical artifact (and beauty as well!) to be once again put to practical use. While design and size are clearly subject to taste (and I admit that the design are not my first love), I can certainly applaud such an initiative: Vortic uses movements which are dormant and forgotten at best, or destined to scraps in the worst case. In contrast to other conversion, Vortic retains as much of the old pieces as possible, including the dial and the hands. This is a token of respect to the historical use cases and design imperatives, which is further substantiated by the in-house developed new timesetting mechanism which again pays homage to the original one.

Whatever the scenario, the team brings back the recollection of the great achievements of the American watch industry. For that alone the company deserves accolades.

These are fun watches, but seriously made and with a very serious and performance-driven background. Chapeau!



Oh, and while we are at this fascinating topic: for those who take a romantic interest in the mechanical timekeeping aspects of antique train travel, you might want to read the fantastic article "The Lost Excitement, Pathos, and Beauty of the Railroad Timetable" published in November 2013 in The Atlantic - click here!

Thanks for reading,
Magnus