California’s Josh Shapiro is on a path to establish himself as a watchmaker whose name could be mentioned among the great living artisan independents of Europe.
He is following up the sell-out success of his exquisitely finished J.N. Shapiro Infinity Tantalum Limited Edition with another first, an entire watch and movement made in the United States.
Mr Shapiro credits his horological journey to the inspiration of Britain’s George Daniels, one of the most influential watchmakers of the 20th century, and mentor to a 21st century hall of famer, Roger Smith.
“While Daniels emphasised creating one timepiece at a time in one workshop using manual methods, similarly we are also proudly reinvigorating the American system of watchmaking and reviving it after the industry died in the late ‘60s. Hamilton, Waltham and Elgin had vertically integrated factories where they made everything for their watches under one roof, using automatic methods. This was unique in the watch world as the Swiss system then and now involves multiple suppliers to complete one watch. The virtues of this American system include high-quality control, versatility, and consistent uptime without supplier delays.” Mr Shapiro says.
J.N. Shapiro demonstrated the quality of its finishing with the Infinity Series, but the dream was always to build complete movements and watches in this country.
Mr Shapiro reinvested proceeds of around $1 million from the successful sale of Infinity watches into essential equipment required to make 148 out of a total of 180 components for the movement and dial of the all new Resurgence watch, which gets its name from a goal of bringing watchmaking back to the States.
“This was the dream – making a watch from scratch and everything in it,” Mr Shapiro shares.
The first prototype was started back in 2019, and used components from an old American-made Hamilton watch along with parts made in the J.N. Shapiro workshop.
But he scrapped that idea because it fell short of his original mission of making much more of the watch, so he kept investing time and money into equipment and skills until he has been able to make everything except hairsprings, mainsprings, crystals, gaskets, straps and jewels.
The watch can be made with different bridge configurations.Flat hairsprings are ordered from Switzerland, then vibrated and Breguet over-coiled at the workshop but progress is being made for jewels and hairsprings to be made in the US by the time of production.
The look of the watch is also inspired by George Daniels, with its layered guilloché dial.
Finishing of the movement includes a damaskeening pattern on the bridges, an American equivalent of Côtes de Genève stripes.
“There are people who have produced multiple pieces of guilloché, but no one has created perfectly aligned, layered guilloché like this before. This is completely new in the watchmaking world,” says Shapiro.
Completed J.N. Shapiro Resurgence watches can be ordered in a number of variations of finished dials and case materials with first deliveries promised for the end of this year.
First editions are being made in 38mm rose gold cases with a frosted silver-white dial or dark grey zirconium dial at $85,000.
There is also the option of an 18ct palladium white gold case and accents with frosted silver dial or a tantalum case with white gold accents and navy dial at $80,000.
A steel version with blued numerals and frosted silver dial or a dark zirconium case and dial with purple accents is offered at $70,000.
There are also three different bridge layouts customers can choose from.
