The Cleveland Railroad 016 is the 51st one-of-a-kind piece in Vortic's "Cleveland Railroad" line of the American Artisan Series. This watch contains the original movement (timepiece), dial (face), and hands from a vintage (1880’s – 1950’s) pocket watch. The American Artisan Series is a line of fully American Made wristwatches powered by restored, U.S. made pocket watch movements.

What makes the Cleveland Railroad 016 Unique: Today's Watch of the Day is our one pocket watch for the month... the Cleveland Railroad 016. They say the dial makes a watch. And now we know why. This pocket watch has the rarest, most beautiful dial we've ever seen. The Ball Watch Company in Cleveland, Ohio was known for purchasing movements from the great manufacturing companies like Hamilton, Waltham, or Illinois and then improving those already fantastic mechanisms before crafting special dials for each piece. This dial though is a masterpiece. We tried to capture it in our photography studio, but pictures just can't do this justice. We believe it was made in a similar fashion to ceramic as it looks like high end tile you might see in an antique hotel. The gold numerals were applied to the dial and stick out from the face, giving another layer of depth to an already complex surface. If you look closely, there are small gold dots as minute markers all the way around the outside. Finally, the second hand sub-dial has a mirror polish and was likely cut and polished out of the original solid design. The railroad grade movement was originally manufactured by the Hamilton Watch Company for Ball in 1947 and we believe this dial was manufactured in that same timeframe, most likely by an individual craftsman as a one-off piece.

1947

1B7827