Marking a renaissance in American watchmaking, the J.N. Shapiro Resurgence watch is a beautiful interplay of horological acumen and fine finishing techniques. A historically significant watch, the Resurgence is the first timepiece in over half a century to bear the nomenclature of American-made, with the case, dial and movement all fully hand-crafted in the company’s workshop, and with even the hairspring and jewels sourced from US suppliers. Fully customisable at the behest of the client, with various dial, case and movement options, the Resurgence offers the collector a unique opportunity to acquire an exclusive bespoke timepiece that is manufactured and assembled entirely in-house within an American atelier.

With a Postgraduate and a Masters Degree in history, founder of the business Josh Shapiro is well-aware of the gap in the horological timeline of his home country. Until recently, American watchmaking has been a largely dormant industry, with no other timepiece until now meeting the strict criteria required for a fully ‘US Made’ watch since Hamilton closed its watchmaking facility in 1969. Handcrafted and meticulously decorated, the Resurgence watch not only awakens a slumbering American watch industry, it does so using an elegant blend of traditional and contemporary watchmaking, with finishing nuances once only seen on America’s great pocketwatches.

The watch resides in a 38mm case with a height of 8.7mm and is available to order in a variety of construction materials with options of 18ct rose gold, 18ct white gold, Tantalum, Stainless Steel and Dark Zirconium. Uniquely, the mid section of the casing has been meticulously decorated with guilloché, a detail that instantly elevates the character of the watch, and one which harks back to the high-end finishing once lavished upon pocket watch cases. The bezel slopes gently, and the case is fitted with a neatly tucked in crown, while notably, the curving lugs screw in from the sides and are detachable leaving the mesmerising barleycorn guilloché work on the case middle wonderfully uninterrupted.

Beneath the gently domed sapphire crystal, the dial is magnificent. Comprising of layers of incredibly slender sections onto which meticulous guilloché work is achieved, each element is seamlessly aligned to create a visually stunning surface of mesmerising flowing textures and undulations. Adding depth, a subdial for the seconds is framed within its own aperture, and is further defined by a contrasting guilloché pattern. The client can choose the type and variation of the guilloché to compose their own unique watch face with either a single pattern worked onto the various layers, or with differing motifs, including Shapiro’s own signature cross-cross Infinity Weave.

From the centre the hour and minutes hands end in curvy spade-formed tips, while the seconds hand is a delightful sturdy example, with an open counter-poise. The applied numerals are individually black polished and here too, bespoke choices are possible lending infinite uniqueness to each and every watch in the series. To finish, a plaque bearing the provenance of the watch is located just beneath the 12 o’clock.

Viewed through the sapphire crystal caseback, the manual wind in-house Resurgence movement is finished to Haute Horlogerie standards, with flawless hand anglage on the interior angles, and with meticulously hand-worked rounded spokes achieved onto the 14ct gold wheels. On the technical side, the movement has a free-sprung balance with the hairspring overcoiled in-house, and beats at 18’000 vib/h (2.5Hz) and has a power reserve of 48 hours when fully wound. In a highly unusual approach, the architecture of the movement will be dictated by the client, who can choose between three possible variations with regard to the bridge arrangement with options of flowing, geometric or more classical bridge styles. Regardless of choice, it is the finishing that is the stellar feature, and in addition to the fastidious anglage, the bridges display America’s legacy equivalent of Côtes de Genève, known as Damaskeening, while the base plate is finished with immaculate perlage.

As if stepping back to a time when the client would visit the atelier of his or her watchmaker to order their own bespoke timepiece, so too the J.N. Shapiro Resurgence represents a unique opportunity for each owner to have a myriad of choices and input in the final design of their watch. A timepiece of unparalleled uniqueness, the model will have a limited production, due to the hand crafted processes involved.