Known for founder Josh Shapiro?s remarkable engine-turned ?Infinity Weave? dials, the independent watchmaker J.N. Shapiro has now released the first entirely ?Made in America? watch since 1969. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an early prototype of the new timepiece, dubbed the Resurgence, and was unsurprisingly very impressed by the level of finishing and watchmaking.

First, let?s establish just how ?Made in America? the J.N. Shapiro Resurgence is. For the prototype that I handled and photographed, 148 of 180 components were done by the J.N. Shapiro workshop here in Los Angeles. Of the remaining 32 components, 19 are jewels that were sourced from Switzerland for the prototype but will be replaced by jewels sourced from Microlap based out of North Dakota. The prototype uses a flat hairspring sourced by Precision Engineering AG which is vibrated and Breguet over-coiled at the J.N. Shapiro workshop. For the production pieces Shapiro has acquired 28,000 feet of .035mm thick hairspring wire from Fort Wayne Metals that they will coil and heat treat at their workshop. The only non-made in America parts will be the sapphire crystal, mainspring, gaskets, and spring bars, though it?s possible Shapiro will eventually find a way to source one or more of these at some point.
The prototype you see here is done in rose gold with a frosted silver white dial but it will also be offered in white gold, Tantalum, Zirconium, and stainless steel options as well as three differ...