When Two American Originals Collide: The Imogene + Willie x Weiss Watch Co. 38mm Automatic 002
There is a peculiar loneliness to genuine American-made watchmaking. Walk into any watch retailer in the country and you'll find wall-to-wall Swiss precision, Japanese reliability, and German engineering. The "Made in USA" label that once defined the railroad era of American timekeeping has become so rare as to be almost mythological. That makes what Weiss Watch Company is doing out of Nashville not just admirable — it makes it nearly singular. And when the brand joins forces with fellow Nashville institution Imogene + Willie, the result is something that goes well beyond a limited-edition timepiece. It becomes a statement about craft, place, and what American manufacturing could look like when pride is treated as a specification.
Due to a lack of infrastructure and ever-increasing production costs, the United States just doesn't have the same kind of watchmaking tradition as Switzerland or even Japan. That's the cold reality any domestic watchmaker has to reckon with before cutting the first part. And that makes Weiss, purveyor of field watches and more, a diamond in the rough, as the brand is one of the few that offers watches with American-made movements — meaning not just "assembled" in the USA. That distinction matters enormously to anyone who cares about provenance. Slapping an American flag on a watch case built around a Swiss movement is a marketing exercise. Building the movement itself on American soil is a different kind of ambition entirely.
The Man Behind the Movement: Cameron Weiss and the Revival of American Horology
The story of Weiss Watch Company is, at its core, the story of one man's stubborn refusal to accept that something extraordinary couldn't be done here. Cameron Weiss, an entrepreneurial WOSTEP-trained watchmaker who had worked for Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin, launched Weiss Watch Company in 2013. Those are not modest credentials. WOSTEP — the Watchmaking School of Technology and Training in Neuchâtel, Switzerland — is one of the most rigorous watchmaking programs in the world, and Audemars Piguet and Vacheron Constantin represent the absolute apex of Swiss haute horlogerie. Weiss walked away from all of that and came home.
The initial 10 pieces of his first watch, the original Standard Issue Field Watch, were hand-finished and assembled in a makeshift workshop, in a walk-in closet at his home. That origin story — cramped, unglamorous, and relentlessly hands-on — is part of what gives Weiss its credibility. There was no venture capital play, no celebrity endorsement campaign, no pre-orders funding a manufacturing run outsourced to Asia. There was a trained watchmaker in a closet, doing the work.
Founded and operated by Cameron Weiss, a Swiss-trained and certified American watchmaker, Weiss Watch Company is committed to sourcing the finest materials domestically, reviving a legacy that has been dormant in the United States for decades. Over time, the company moved from Los Angeles to Nashville, a relocation that wasn't just geographic. When The Manual first covered Weiss, the company was still based in Los Angeles; these days Cameron Weiss runs the operation out of Nashville, which is a serious transition. Nashville has become something of a hub for American craft manufacturing, and Weiss fits right into that ethos.
What really sets Weiss apart is its commitment to transparency and tradition. The company introduced its own American-made movement — the Caliber 1003 — which is mostly crafted in-house using U.S.-machined parts, a rarity in the industry. Founder Cameron Weiss trained in Switzerland and brought that expertise back to America. Each watch takes over 60 hours to complete, and you can feel the craftsmanship. That investment of time per piece explains the price point and justifies every cent of it.
Why This Collaboration Is Different
Imogene + Willie is not a watch brand. It's a Nashville-based denim company — and one of the most respected in the country — founded with the mission of making exceptional American jeans in the old way: cut, sewn, and finished in the USA. In 2009 they set up shop in Nashville, Tennessee, forever on the quest to make the perfect jeans, made in the USA. The sensibility of the two brands aligns at something deeper than product category. Both are obsessed with domestic sourcing, both treat craft as a moral position, and both have built loyal followings by refusing to cut corners for margin's sake.
The Imogene + Willie x Weiss Watch Co. 38mm Automatic 002 is the second collaboration between the two brands, and it raises the stakes considerably. Even for this distinctly American outfit, the collaboration is particularly steeped in Americana. Field watches simply do not get more American than this one. That's a bold claim in a market saturated with patriotic branding, but in this case the Americana is structural, not decorative.
The timepiece itself qualifies as perhaps the only "true" USA-made field watch currently on the market. When the word "true" is doing that much work in a sentence, it's worth unpacking exactly what it means. It means the movement is American. The assembly is American. The materials are American wherever possible. And the two collaborating brands are both headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee — not a Swiss canton, not a Japanese prefecture.
Inside the Watch: Specifications That Justify the Price Tag
A Titanium Case That Hides in Plain Sight
At first glance, the 38mm Automatic 002 looks like a clean, well-executed classic field watch — and it is. But the details that don't announce themselves are the ones that earn attention. That classic polished silver case isn't made from stainless steel, as is typical of most field watches and watches in general. Rather, this one is crafted from titanium, making it lighter and stronger. Titanium is not a common material in this price category, and it makes a meaningful practical difference on the wrist. The case measures 38mm in diameter, with a 46.2mm lug-to-lug span and a thickness of 10.7mm including the crystal. These are honest field watch proportions — nothing bloated, nothing trendy.
The Movement: Finished and Assembled in Nashville
The movement is where the story gets philosophically interesting. The movement is a house-made Weiss Watch Company Caliber 2130 mechanical movement, built on a 2892A2 base that's finished and assembled by hand. The ETA 2892-A2 base is one of the most respected automatic movements in the industry — a slim, reliable, well-proven Swiss architecture that Weiss has made its own through in-house finishing and assembly. Powering the watch is the Weiss Watch Co. 2130 movement that is based on the ETA 2892-A2 automatic, which carries a power reserve of 42 hours.
The Weiss Caliber 2130 features refined details like a screw-down crown, custom date mechanism, and Incabloc shock protection, all housed in an incredibly lightweight design. The screw-down crown is a particularly important detail on a field watch — it's the difference between a watch you can take into the field with confidence and one you treat as a daily wearer only in controlled conditions. The movement is water-resistant up to 300 feet, featuring a sweeping seconds hand and a custom date wheel that complements the dial. With a 42-hour power reserve, this timepiece is built to endure.
The Weiss branding is all over the movement in the best way — including the maker's signature see-through caseback, with the Weiss name riding the rotor. That caseback isn't just a visual flourish; it's an invitation to understand the watch as an object with an interior life. Spending $3,200 on any watch should come with a window into what you're actually buying.
The Dial: Naval Brass and Hand-Applied Character
The watch features a hand-painted naval brass dial with off-white numerals, silver syringe hands, and an orange seconds hand. That orange seconds hand is a sly nod to vintage military field watch design — where high-contrast seconds indicators served a functional purpose. Naval brass as a dial material has a resonance that goes beyond aesthetics; it's a material with American military history baked into its name. The off-white numerals against the warm brass background create a quietly warm palette that photographs better in person than any stock image suggests.
The i+w x Weiss 38mm automatic 002 is a clean, classic-looking field watch with a single complication — a date window down at the 6 o'clock position. The restraint of offering only a date — no GMT hand, no chronograph sub-dials, no moonphase — is itself a design decision. Field watches earned their reputation by doing one thing perfectly. The date at six is a concession to modern utility, and its placement maintains the symmetry of the dial.
The Straps: Where Imogene + Willie Takes Over
This is where the collaboration earns its credibility beyond the watch itself. The first strap is a classic Cordura nylon fabric strap, which hearkens to the origins of the field watch. It's also incredibly tough and durable. Cordura nylon is the military-specification fabric of choice — it's what NATO straps are supposed to aspire to, used on everything from parachute harnesses to backpacks. On a field watch, it's historically correct and practically excellent.
The second strap is arguably even more spectacular, as it is crafted from high-quality Horween leather, sourced from the brand's world-famous tannery in Chicago, and hand-sewn in Nashville. Horween is not a marketing buzzword. The Horween Leather Company has been tanning leather in Chicago since 1905, and it remains one of the few American tanneries producing shell cordovan and other premium leathers that serious leather goods enthusiasts seek out specifically. This timepiece comes with both a Cordura canvas and a Horween leather strap, hand-stitched in Nashville. The hand-stitching matters — machine stitching and hand stitching aren't interchangeable on leather this good.
Both straps are distinct and really alter the watch's vibe, offering plenty of versatility. Swapping the Cordura for the Horween — or vice versa — genuinely changes the character of what's on your wrist. The canvas version reads as pure tool watch, ready for the trail or the job site. The Horween leather version has the warm, aging patina potential that makes a watch feel like it's been earned.
The Packaging: Americana Down to the Box
The commitment to domestic sourcing doesn't end when the watch is cased. Each watch comes packaged in a custom i+w pouch constructed from Mt. Vernon Mills canvas, with an individually numbered certificate of authenticity, all housed inside a custom Weiss red oak wooden box. Mt. Vernon Mills is a South Carolina textile manufacturer — one of the oldest and most respected fabric producers in the American South. Red oak is as American as the hills of Appalachia. This is not a brand slapping a flag on a box made in Guangdong. Every element of the presentation is deliberate and domestic.
Even for this distinctly American brand, this may be the most Americana-imbued timepiece Weiss has ever built. That's saying something for a company whose entire identity is built on making American watches. The collaboration with Imogene + Willie hasn't just added decorative Americana — it has sourced Americana from the ground up.
The Broader Picture: American Watchmaking's Long Comeback
The History That Was Lost
To understand what Weiss is doing, it helps to understand what was destroyed. American watchmaking is a label much rarer to find on products now than it was 100 years ago, and that is especially true when it comes to watches. Once a bustling industry in the U.S.A., watchmaking largely migrated away from its traditional American hubs in the early 20th century to countries like Switzerland and Japan. The names that defined American horology — Waltham, Elgin, Illinois — were the same names that supplied the military watches worn in the First and Second World Wars.
The A-11 and its counterparts were made for the US military in WW2 by American companies Waltham, Elgin and Bulova, and it's been called "the watch that won the war." Those brands are largely gone from serious watchmaking, absorbed into holding companies, repositioned as fashion labels, or discontinued entirely. Hamilton's roots run deep in American watchmaking history. Founded in 1892 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Hamilton quickly established itself as a leader in precision timekeeping, supplying highly accurate railroad watches and later becoming the official timepiece provider for the U.S. military. But while Hamilton started in Lancaster, Pennsylvania back in 1892 and their Khaki Field collection carries that military heritage forward, Hamilton now produces in Switzerland. The American brand exists now as a name attached to Swiss watches. No judgment — the Khaki Field Mechanical remains one of the best buys in the category — but it's not the same thing as an American-made watch.
The Quiet Revival
American watchmaking, once dominant, declined as production shifted to Switzerland and Japan. A quiet revival is underway, led by diverse U.S. brands blending domestic manufacturing, assembly, and imported components. The distinction between those approaches matters. Assembly in the USA using imported movements and cases means something different than movement-making on American soil. Weiss occupies the harder, more expensive end of that spectrum.
With limited releases, direct-to-consumer sales, and a focus on small-batch production, Weiss is proving that watchmaking in the U.S. is alive and well. The direct-to-consumer model is essential to making the economics work. Cut out a retailer taking 40 to 50 percent margin, and suddenly a $3,200 watch built by one watchmaker in Nashville becomes viable. The brand's American Issue Field Watches are handcrafted individually by one watchmaker from start to finish in the USA, with each timepiece featuring the Weiss Caliber 1003, their American-made movement manufactured and assembled in their Los Angeles studio. The studio has since relocated to Nashville, but the ethos is identical.
In 2008, after years of painstaking labor, RGM's Murphy made the first high-grade mechanical movement made in the U.S.A. in over 40 years, Caliber 801, whose components are all made by local suppliers. RGM and Weiss represent different ends of the American watchmaking revival — RGM ultra-exclusive, Weiss more accessible — but together they demonstrate that the knowledge and infrastructure, while fragile, are not entirely gone.
The Price, the Scarcity, and What It Means
The Imogene + Willie x Weiss Watch Co. 38mm Automatic 002 launched on Imogene + Willie's site with a $3,200 price tag. Unfortunately, it looks like it may have already sold out, and, as a limited edition, it's doubtful that it will return. Selling out almost immediately is not surprising. This is the kind of watch that appeals simultaneously to watch collectors, Americana enthusiasts, denim-heads who follow Imogene + Willie closely, and anyone who has been waiting for a field watch they can buy with a clean domestic conscience.
At $3,200, it isn't an impulse buy — and it isn't trying to be. This is a small-batch, made-in-USA automatic aimed at people who care where their things come from and how they're put together. That's a real market, and it's growing. The same consumer who pays a premium for American-made denim, American-tanned leather, and American-distilled whiskey is exactly the person who eventually asks why his watch has a Swiss label when everything else he owns was made here.
The $3,200 figure also puts the watch in an interesting competitive position. It's more than a Hamilton Khaki Field Automatic, which you can find for around $650. It's less than a Rolex Explorer, which it superficially resembles in spirit if not in horological pedigree. What you're paying for is not just the object but the model — the demonstration that watches can be made this way in this country, by this person, right now.
Field Watch DNA and the Genre's Enduring Appeal
The field watch as a category has never really gone out of style, because its design premises are as sound today as they were in 1940. As the vintage reissue market matures, some trends have begun to emerge, from chronographs and dive watches at vintage sizes to issued military field watches resurrected for modern audiences. A military connection was always a compelling hook, but mix it with some history and the natural charm of such items and it's easy to understand why vintage-inspired field watches have been coming back strong.
Though the Khaki Field Mechanical has only officially existed since 2017, the series is the current evolution of watches that Hamilton and other brands have produced since World War I. Aside from its power source and case size, the American mil-spec field watch has remained relatively unchanged for nearly a century. That is a testament to how well-resolved the design was from the beginning — a legible dial, robust case, serviceable strap, and enough water resistance to survive rain and river crossings. The Weiss x Imogene + Willie 002 doesn't reinvent that formula. It perfects it with materials and manufacturing that the original GI-issue watches could never have offered.
The 38mm case diameter is worth dwelling on. This reissue size is perfectly sized for modern tastes at 38mm. After years of watch industry inflation — 42mm, 44mm, 47mm cases that looked more like hockey pucks than timepieces — the market has corrected back toward wearable sizes. At 38mm with a titanium case and slim 10.7mm profile, the 002 will disappear under a cuff and read as elegant rather than tactical. That versatility is precisely what a field watch was always supposed to provide.
Two Nashville Brands, One Shared Philosophy
What makes the Imogene + Willie and Weiss partnership feel earned rather than manufactured is that both brands share a philosophy before they share a product. Both operate in categories where the default choice is foreign-made and cheaper. Both have built communities of customers willing to pay more for something made better, closer to home. Both treat the biography of a product — where it was made, by whom, from what — as part of its value.
Imogene + Willie has been making jeans in Nashville since 2009. Their denim is cut and sewn in-house, using selvedge fabric and traditional construction methods that most fashion brands abandoned decades ago in favor of offshore production. Cameron Weiss has been building watches in America since 2013, one movement at a time, in a workshop where the same hands that design the watch build it. Knowing Cameron personally built each watch is part of what makes it special. His mission to revive American watchmaking is the foundation of the brand.
That personal accountability is increasingly rare in any category. It's nearly unheard of in watches, where the modern production pipeline can route a single timepiece through a dozen countries before it reaches a retailer. A numbered certificate of authenticity means something different when the number corresponds to one specific watch built by one specific person in one specific workshop in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Verdict: A Time Capsule of American Making
The Imogene + Willie x Weiss Watch Co. 38mm Automatic 002 is, by any rigorous measure, perhaps the only "true" USA-made field watch currently on the market. That alone makes it historically significant. But it's also, by the evidence of its specifications and its sourcing, a genuinely excellent watch — titanium-cased, hand-assembled, Horween-strapped, and packaged in American canvas and red oak. It sells for $3,200, which is real money. It sold out almost immediately, which tells you everything about whether the market for serious American-made watches exists.
For everyone who missed the drop, the watch serves a different function: proof of concept. Proof that the infrastructure for real domestic watchmaking hasn't entirely collapsed. Proof that two craft brands working in different categories can collaborate in a way that adds up to more than the sum of its parts. Proof that field watches — those honest, functional, historically loaded pieces of wrist equipment — are still the purest expression of what a watch is supposed to do. And proof, finally, that "Made in USA" on a watch dial can mean exactly what it says.
