21. The Vortic Watch Company Puts the Beauty of an American Pocket Watch on Your Wrist

In looking for words to describe what the Vortic Watch Company does in taking vintage American pocket watch movements and making them into one-of-a-kind, American-crafted wrist watches, some have called “upcycling” to mind. But the Vortic process is much more. It has been a path of research and development, engineering, trial and error, and a demonstration and appreciation of the very best in the traditions of American engineering.  Today On the Dogwatch we have the opportunity to talk with R.T. Custer who, along with his partner Tyler Wolfe, founded and developed Vortic. We talk with RT about the origin of Vortic, how they source and repair movements, the process of designing and manufacturing their watch cases, as well as their Military Edition that helps support the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative. We also get to hear some of RT’s thoughts on the future of the company.On this episode our feature is the Veterans Watchmaker Initiative, a school that teaches the highly skilled craft of watchmaking to some of our war veterans to provide career training. Given community support, this school is free for those veterans selected to participate. You can support this initiative either by purchasing one of the Vortic Military Edition watches on Veterans day–if you can get one–or by donating directly.