• Richard Childress Congressional Sportsman Foundation Oct 12, 2011
•  Art, Wine and Watches – Liberty Hotel, Boston – November 15th, 2011
•  DSC  Dallas – January 5th – 8th, 2012
•  SCI Houston – January 13th – 15th, 2012
•  SCI Las Vegas – February 1st – 4th, 2012

1925 Custom Engraved Timepiece Front Detail

MWC: How did you find out about the Montana Watch Company?

SB: Stopped by the booth at the Safari Club of Dallas show in 2008.

MWC: What interested you in our company?

SB:The one of a kind watch and the art work, but more importantly the look of a classic watch, the attention to detail.

MWC: Is buying American made important to you?

SB:Yes, however I realize the components are manufactured in Europe(Switzerland, Germany) and assembled in America, one watch at a time. Not an assembly line production.

MWC: Do you consider yourself a watch collector?

SB: No, I am not a watch collector, I have several watches, but I do not consider myself a collector.

MWC:What made you decide to order your watch?  Can you tell us about the process you went through in order to customize it exactly how you want it?

"Babe"

SB: I had a Labrador that I had personally trained and was my best friend. She went everywhere with me and was truly an incredible animal. I knew there would come a day when I had to say goodbye, however I wanted to remember her and the idea of a watch intrigued me. My wife for our 38th anniversary commissioned an artist to do a portrait of “Babe”…..he absolutely captured the expression I remember, her intensity the look I had seen so many times while we were hunting….that is the art that was used for my watch. I met Catherine at the Dallas Safari Club show and ordered a watch, unfortunately the market and economy tanked and I felt I needed to back off….so I canceled the order in 2008. In November of 2010, I had to say goodbye to “Babe”…..I ordered the watch at the Dallas Safari Club show in Jan. 2011.

Babe Barley by Bob Bertram

The process of building the watch was very easy….I talked and e-mailed Catherine and Jeffrey. The artist, Bob Bertram (www.betramgallery.com)sent pictures that he had worked with on painting the portrait and Jeffrey and Catherine went to work with their artist  to replicate and create another piece of art. After several discussions and many e-mails with concept and proto-types we arrived at how the watch should look ….the finished product is an heirloom piece that will be passed on to my son.

MWC: Would you recommend us to family or friends?

SB:I would certainly recommend Jeffrey and the Montana Watch Company to do a special piece…..Catherine was very helpful and we enjoyed touring the company and observing Jeffrey at work when we were there in June……

MWC: Anything else you would like to share?

1925 Custom Engraved Timepiece Back Detail

SB:I was fortunate to have the dog of a lifetime and Montana Watch Company created a piece that is very special to me. Most people admire the finished product , but have no idea of the memories it brings to me.

Over the last few years Jeffrey started running his own cattle and now runs his with Farrell.  Jeffrey has completely embraced the rancher life and spends almost all of his spare time either with Farrell working on the ranch or making plans on how to manage cows, hay and bulls.

A couple of months ago Jeffrey decided to make a hand tooled belt with matching buckle for Farrell.  It was the perfect gift for him as his old belt was worn out and many of the holes in the belt had blended together.  He had his brand engraved into the buckle along with his initials.  I have never seen Farrell so touched as I had when Jeffrey gave him the belt.

We all love Farrell and the rest of his family.

When we arrived Seth was still setting up so we dove in and starting helping setting up his paintings. 

Throughout the night Seth shared his brand new watch which was our interpretation of the Goldfish painting that was in above photograph.Another one of Seth’s brand new paintings.  If you would like to see the progression of the Mercedes you can become a fan of his on FB and see it from sketch to finish.

It was great to meet Seth and see his work in person.  We will be a part of his next show at the Liberty in November.

Jeffrey created the Montana Watch Company out of his love for vintage timepieces.  He is drawn to the design elements that are prevalent during different eras.  Before he decides to create a new timepiece he researches resources looking at watches that strike him for one reason or another.  In this case he has pulled inspiration from watches manufactured in the 1920′s when a transition in style occurred.  The 1920′s started a period where watch design followed form rather than function.  Up until that time function paid a more important role in design.  A design shift moved away from wire lugs into a more substantial lug bringing another element to watch design.  The unique aspect of the Model 1920 are the hinged lugs.  This design presents a variety of challenges and here is how Paul and Jeffrey are dealing with the problem of creating square lugs and adhering them to the round case.

Model 1920 Lug Design

The sketch of the lug design that Paul has drawn shows the radius of the cut out.  Each of the lugs starts out as a round piece of bar stock.  Each edge is then squared off and then the top and bottom radius is put into it. In order for this design to work the tolerances have to be minimal.

1920 Lug Machining

Model 1920 Concentricity Check

Once the lugs are machined they go through a concentricity check, which is basically a sophisticated automotive gap tool.  The tolerances are checked and if one doesn’t meet the strict specifications it has to be discarded.

1920 Lugs awaiting final operation

This photograph shows how each lug is cut from the round piece of stock metal.  Once the lugs are parted off they will be inserted into square holes which have been milled into the sides of the case.  A final process of vacuum brazing ensures invisible seems from the lug to the case.  Vacuum brazing is a metal-joining process whereby a filler metal is heated above and distributed between two close fitting parts by capillary action.  The filler metal is brought to slightly above its melting temperature and then flows over the base metal.  It is then cooled to join the workpieces together.  It is similar to soldering.

Check back in a couple of days and watch a video of machining the case.

Preliminary sketch of the Model 1920

For the first time ever we are sharing the creative process of designing and building a new model at the Montana Watch Company.  Over the next few posts you will see the entire process of designing and manufacturing a watch here in the USA.

Jeffrey recently created this sketch of the brand new Model 1920 that will be released in August.  He painstakenly chooses a font for the numbers and individually places them on the dial until he thinks that are in the exact spot.  Once he is satisfied with the dial design he sends it out to the dial manufacturer, here in America, and they create the pieces for him to work with.  Once he is happy with the design of the case and lugs he starts to work with our engineer/machinist Paul which is perhaps the hardest part of creating a new watch.  Each case and lug system comes with a unique set of problems to be solved, in this case they had to figure out how to manufacture a square lug from a round piece of stock and fit the lug onto a round watch seamlessly. The first prototype is being manufactured as I write this brief introduction.  Follow this post and see a video of the cases being manufactured in Manhattan, MT in a few days.

Every couple of years Jeffrey introduces a new watch model because he loves the design of different eras and enjoys creating a new piece with his spin on the era.  Many of our clients are collectors and enjoy collecting watches from different time periods.  He also loves the challenge of creating something from scratch and solving the various technical problems that inevitably occur when designing a case.

More to come…..

If you would like to be a part of that mailing list please send a note to Catherine at info@montanawatch.com, or leave a comment here, so you can be informed of our upcoming projects and events.