We all know about American Muscle Cars and many of us will attest to being Mustang, Charger, Corvette or Camaro fans but have you heard of the American Muscle Watch from Vortic? Nah… me neither until I started to pen this review and it just felt right to coin the phrase. I have not doubt that somewhere in all of us there is a burning desire to have something very special, unique, valuable and intriguing all wrapped up in just one watch ! Would you dare to imagine that a ninety something year old relic from the American Railroad era could be just that watch?

It’s not news to most of you that America used to be a world powerhouse producer of watches back in the period from around 1860 – 1950. Millions of watches were produced by the American giants of horology including Elgin, Waltham, Hamilton, Ball and the Waterbury Clock Company, that eventually produced the Timex brand. Thousands of the watches that were produced by these companies have been lost to humanity because their gold and silver cases were worth more as scrap metal than in working watches. Tens of thousands of antique pocket watch movements are sitting in buckets, bins, bed dressers and basements all over the US because they were shelled like peas from their cases and then discarded.

Thankfully a couple of young engineering students, R.T. Custer and Tyler Wolfe, began playing with the idea of 3D printing a watch case. They then landed on the idea of taking discarded American made pocket watch movements and turning them into wrist watches. This was the beginning of the Vortic Watch Company. This watch is big at 46mm in diameter. It has a very rustic charm and sits very snuggly on the wrist due to its case design. So that’s the first big hurdle overcome, it’s comfortable and looks good. However, its not a highly polished “swiss pretty boy” that is going to get you IG followers as you attempt to flex with some GTG pics!

The watch’s Ball Watch Company movement makes a noise, it tics and toks with the all the warmth of Grandma’s shrieking welcome at Sunday lunch. So it has character, but the appeal is only just starting. This is not some piece of cheap crap from a cut and shut movement shop. This is a finely tuned piece of horology. It pulses away at around -2 seconds per day, I’m so inspired by its performance.

The hands of this Vortic watch are just sexy, blue sculpted works of art sweeping across the surface of a delightfully aged gold guilloché dial. The numerals are boldly printed and you could read this in a sandstorm at midnight … almost ! And then there is the crystal, actually …. I’m not sure it is technically a crystal. It is in fact Corning Gorilla Glass. This is the stuff we see on our smart phones and laptops. It’s tough and I didn’t know it was used in watches until I started to look into the work of Vortic years back. There are so many times when you can swear that there is no “crystal” in this watch. Its truly stunning, front and back and it adds enormously to the appeal of this piece.

Now we are at the heart of this matter. This watch was made in 1927, yep that’s 3 generations ago. This piece has navigated through the Great Depression, the Second World War, the Lunar Landing, The Martin Luther King era, the Vietnam war, Korean War, 9/11 and so much more. This watch has potentialy been in an untold number of families. There is a captivating appeal to it and you absolutely can not ignore that with it comes with a heavy responsibility to preserve and maintain this masterpiece for generations more.

This watch has no limits and will not be held down, unless you are in a suit. It is easily noticed, its intriguing and it is a conversation starter. It really is a muscle watch ! It’s big, loud, audacious and totally addictive. It’s seemingly unlovable but if you get bitten by the bug you will not be flipping your Vortic… ever.