Late last year, I had a chance to visit a truly special space in the United States: the workshop of an independent American watchmaker. Lovell Hunter showing components on a bench in his workshop. Photo Credit: Lovell Hunter's YouTube channel. I've written about Lovell Hunter before, I posted my first story about Lovell right here on Horolonomics. There, I described his career as a watchmaker for Breitling and his decisions to strike out on his own and launch an independent brand called Love Hunter Watches. Lovell and I have kept in touch since then and he periodically reaches out to share updates on the progress of his watch design as well as other updates regarding his brand.
At one point, Lovell invited me to visit his workshop, which is located in Connecticut's Naugatuck River Valley. The location couldn't be more appropriate given that "Brass City," aka Waterbury, is located on the northern portion of the valley. Brass has historically, and presently, been a popular metal for fashioning watch and clock components suck as wheels and other movement parts. While Waterbury is no longer the center of brass production in the United States, at one time convenient access to brass drew clockmakers like Terry & Andrews to the Naugatuck Valley. From this perspective, Lovell's workshop represents a rebirth of watchmaking in western Connecticut.
When I entered the lobby of Lovell's workshop, I was greeted by a replica Eiffel tower built from Legos. I'm not certain I've seen a Lego construction that large short of the sculpture-esque pieces assembled by Master Builders. It seemed fitting in many ways.
Lovell's workshop has three sections past the lobby. The first is an area for assembly, design, and photography of his work. Here you find a number of watchmaker's benches, which are the hallmark of any serious workshop. Two plates and a crown manufactured by Lovell. Perlage finishing is well excuted here and the knurling detail on the crown evokes FP Journe's crowns. Also included is bar stock from Lovell's workshop.
The next section is where Lovell has two lathes for making blank parts. This area also holds a number of machines for finishing work, including polishing and brushwork. Alongside one wall in this area is a library of books on watchmaking.
The final section of Lovell's workshop is more isolated than the others, for good reason. It is here that Lovell "makes chips," ie does precision machining of parts using relatively heavy equipment. Lovell operating his high precision mill. He has three Schaublin lathes in this part of the workshop. He previously installed some of his lathes in a basement workshop, which is a challenging feat given how heavy they are. Alongside the lathes, Lovell has two high precision milling machines. He spent a little time using one of them while I was visiting his workshop.
In addition to Lovell's continued work on his first timepiece, he is also dedicated to the transmission of watchmaking skills. I met one of his apprentices during my visit, who was clearly directly engaged in the process of machining parts. Lovell also teaches students at a number of local institutions.
Lovell is acquiring additional watchmaking skills even as he finishes his first timepiece. One day, as I was scrolling through Instagram, I saw him in a photo taken at the California workshop of legendary independent American watchmaker Josh Shapiro. There, Lovell participated in a one week workshop on finishing by watchmaker Philippe Narbel, who worked for eight years with Audemars Piguet in Switzerland.
Lovell is close to completing his first timepiece, a moment I am very much looking forward to. In the meantime, he does have a Gofundme campaign set up in case any of my readers are interested in supporting his dream of establishing an independent top-tier watchmaking brand in the United States. On the Gofundme page, you'll also find a YouTube video in which Lovell gives a guided tour of his workshop.
My book on the history of Rolex marketing is now available on Amazon! It debuted as the #1 New Release in its category. You can find it here.
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There comes a moment in the servicing of a watch that is probably easy to miss among the hundreds of steps required to remove a movement from a case, inspect the parts, repair anything amiss, lubricate all the pieces, and put the whole thing together again. A watch that Rolex's investigator bought at Beckertime for approximately $4,500. The lawsuit refers to this as "Counterfeit Watch One." That moment is when a watchmaker takes the dial and reattaches it to the movement. There is nothing particularly unique when it comes to the tools required or the tasks involved in this step. Instead, what is unique about this moment is that the watchmaker holds in their hand a mark that is not the property of the watchmaker and it is not exactly the property of the watch's owner. In the case of Vacheron Constantin, that mark is a Maltese Cross. For Audemars Piguet, it is the brand's initials. When it comes to Rolex, the mark is a widely recognized crown. If the reassembly
What it might look like if Aragon and Argon watches actually went to court over the trademark dispute. My prior post described a disappointing development for those collectors hoping to acquire an Argon Spaceone watch via the brand's Kickstarter campaign. The campaign had reached over $1 million in funding when Kickstarter's management stepped in and froze the whole thing over an "intellectual property dispute." When I posted about this development on Instagram , Hodinkee editor Tony Traina noted in the comments that another brand, Aragon watches, had filed a complaint with the US Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) back in April (thanks Tony!). Argon's account replied and indicated that they had already filed a registration for their brand name and they were retaining counsel in New York City. On Tuesday, June 27 of this week, more details were offered via a lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The case is filed on behalf
News recently broke that watch brand Rolex was on the receiving end of a €91 million fine levied by French authorities. A view of Rolex's offices in France. Source: Google Maps. Generally, the headlines ascribed this fine to Rolex's alleged practice of prohibiting online sales of its watches. However, I've looked closely at the situation and I don't think those headlines are completely accurate (although they're probably what French authorities would want you to believe). I came to this conclusion after reading a Google translation of a 134 page report issued by the French Competition Authority on December 19, 2023. Generally speaking, such documents do not make for engaging reading. However, for those who know how successful Rolex has been at maintaining a comparatively high level of corporate secrecy, the French report provides a compelling and rare insight into some specific aspects of the brand's business. It is these insights which lead me to conclu
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We also provide Legit Hacking Services such as-: Phone Hacking/Cloning Email Hacking & Password Recovery Social Media Hacking & Passowrd Recovery Deleted Files Recovery Mobil Tracking Virus detection & Elimination. e.t.c
Email-: HACKSERVICES@PYTHONAX.TECH
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