One of the things that gets us the most excited at the WatchTime office is the emergence of an upstart American watch brand. Some of you may recognize Vortic Watch Co. from our previous coverage of the Fort Collins, CO-based brand, but if you haven?t heard of them before, now is as good a time as any to hop on the bandwagon.
Vortic got its start on Kickstarter back in 2014 while founders RT Custer and Tyler Wolfe were still students at Penn State. The driving principle behind Vortic is bringing pocket watches from the heyday of American watch manufacturing ? Elgin, Waltham, Hamilton, you name it ? back to life and onto today’s wrists.

Custer made the jump from Happy Valley, PA to Colorado after accepting a job offer with Walmart Logistics upon graduating from Penn State in 2014. Custer worked there for two years while Wolfe made watches in the basement of a house Custer had bought. Custer bankrolled everything for those first two years until about a year ago, when they were finally selling enough watches for him to quit his day job. Ever since, it’s been what seems like a non-stop adventure for the Vortic team that now comprises of six total people plus a network of pickers ? yes, like American Pickers ? and watchmakers across the nation.
Read on for the rest of our conversation with Custer about the future of Vortic, the time he sold a watch to a TSA agent while getting searched, and the creative limitations he faces every day.
Left to Right: Tyler Wolfe a...