About Us
Humble beginnings...
Timeworn was founded in 2019 with the original goal of researching and selling vintage watches. With lifelong interests in horology and military history, it didn't take long for the iconic watches of World War II to become our main interest. As time went on, we embarked upon the journey to create our very own line of authentic reproductions of the watches worn by Allied service members during the Second World War down to the correct packaging. After many years of research, we ran a successful launch of watches in 2022. Now, we have expanded into several additional models with plans for more.
Dependability...
When America entered the war, its forces needed timepieces they could rely upon on across land, sea, and air in every type of climate. Although watches had seen combat during World War One, warfare had changed dramatically, as did the need for reliable timekeeping in austere environments.
The Army's Ordnance Department and the Navy's Bureau of Aeronautics responded by writing and enforcing specifications up to and including accuracy requirements, durability testing, provisions for field repair, and maintenance. The result was a class of watch built to survive cold, heat, damp, and hard use while still reliably keeping time.
Waltham, Elgin, Bulova, and Hamilton held the contracts. The watches went to pilots and navigators, but also to Seabees, nurses, motor pool mechanics, Wacs, and infantrymen, tankers, clerks, and every manner of job in every branch requiring precision.
Originality...
Handling these watches for a living teaches you things a catalogue cannot.
Which manufacturers had the best movements, which cases wear well and which do not, how a dial was actually printed and aged, and where a design or technical decision was considered and when it was simply wartime expedience.
It also teaches you how few good originals are left, what they cost, and how there is much more demand than remaining supply.
Where it all began...
In early 2020, we began asking whether these watches could be built again properly. Not as tributes or reinterpretations, but as reproductions: correct to the pattern, hand-wound as the originals were, made to be worn rather than stored in a drawer.
In September 2022, funded by 153 backers on Kickstarter, the first line launched.
We now build six: the Army Air Forces A-11, the Royal Canadian Air Force 6B/150 with its A-11 reversed dial, the Royal Air Force Mk.VIII, the US Navy's FSSC R88-W-800, and the Ordnance Department 10609 and 10617 models in enlisted and officer grades. Each is drawn from the Waltham originals, down to the case pattern, the dial printing, the hand geometry, and the packaging, which we copied from surviving examples after many years of research and collecting.
Honesty over profits...
Reproductions harm the collector market when they are not marked, because a watch that is honestly sold today can become a problem in thirty years, when it surfaces at an estate sale and nobody in the room knows its history. Having spent several years in that market, we would rather not make it harder for the people still in it.
Our watches are new and they are marked under our trade name, Whitman. Nobody will ever have to guess, but they will see our product and know it's a quality timepiece.
Hands on...
Our watches are designed, tested, and assembled by true enthusiasts with skin in the game. We are a microbrand - not one of the big guys. Customer service is not just our priority but our privilege.