Teddy Baldassarre
The Quintessential American-Made Watch Movement in a Smaller Case: Int
RGM Watch Company, named for the initials of its founder, independent watchmaker Roland G. Murphy, is the first American watch company to serially produce a mechanical watch movement since 1969 — the year that Lancaster, PA-based Hamilton pulled up stakes for its current HQ in Switzerland. Murphy, formerly Hamilton’s Technical Manager, founded his own eponymous company in Lancaster County, a historical hotbed of watchmaking, in 1992. His fledgling firm made the watch industry, and the worldwide watch-enthusiast community, take notice when it created, essentially from scratch, the groundbreaking Caliber 801 in 2007 — a horological milestone that no other watchmaker in the United States had achieved in nearly 40 years. Since then, Caliber 801 has come to define RGM’s distinctive and still very exclusive product family — the brand still makes only around 300 pieces annually — along with its dedication to classically vintage aesthetics, which evoke the bygone days when America reigned supreme as a watchmaking nation. Up until now, however, the smallest RGM watch you could get that housed the Caliber 801 movement, 90 percent of which is made in the U.S.A. and finished and assembled in Lancaster County, was 42mm — not huge, but still a bit intimidating for some would-be owners as case sizes continue to trend smaller. This week, RGM answers that constituency's prayers with the release of the Caliber 801/40 model, whose 40mm stainless steel case represents, accor...
