E
EDITOR’S NOTE
CRAIG HESTER
[email protected]
DOING IT RIGHT IN THE USA!
A few months back, Tim Temple (owner of Talk About Watches) sionals who are over-the-top committed to doing this right and
and I had a chance to visit the FTS/Ameriquartz facility in Fountain making it work long term. I stress this next point all the time. I am
Hills, Arizona. FTS is Fine Timepiece Solutions and they are lead- NOT a watchmaker. That isn’t the skill set I bring to this industry. I
ing the charge to bring movement manufacturing back to America. design and market watches and I understand them better than the
average person I am sure. But I am no expert on what makes one
Tim was there to do a short documentary film on the com-
pany and take professional pics. I went along for the ride because movement technically better or lesser than another.
our company. and Vostok-Europe, have been thinking seriously
about whether we want to invest in American-made movements for enthusiasm and thought that went into the experiment that is Fine
a future watch or watches. And I will never pass up the chance to Timepiece Solutions. There is no man behind the curtain. There is
tour pretty much any serious watch manufacturing facility. no wise old man. There are just a bunch of folks who want to build
quality mechanisms again in the USA and I for one think they are
I don’t know what I was expecting and I will be honest, my
That said, it doesn’t take an expert of ANY kind to see the
initial expectations weren’t that high. I had been pretty much like going to be a proverbial force to be reckoned with.
“yeah, yeah, yeah, a bunch of folks are claiming they can do this,
and do it right, in the USA again. I want to see some meat on that company. And, for sure, there is more to come from them. As one
plate.” of the owners says, I do believe you “haven’t seen anything yet.”
Be sure and check out my cover story about this fascinating
Well, it would be an understatement to say I was pleasantly
surprised. The facility is world-class -- a sinfully overused term but
appropriate here -- and the principles in the project are profes-
4 | AboutTime Magazine
Craig Hester,
Editor