Results for J.N. Shapiro

Up Close: J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series

An educator by profession, Josh Shapiro had a longtime interest in watchmaking, which sharpened into a pursuit of traditional engine turning in 2013. After several years of practice – and a roomful of guilloche machines – the self-taught guillocheur and watchmaker produced a handful of dials for American watchmaker David Walter in 2016. And last year Josh launched his own brand, J.N. Shapiro, which he now pursues full-time, while remaining a part-time vice principal at a high school in Los Angeles. His debut watch was the Infinity Series, named after the Infinity Weave, a proprietary guilloche pattern he invented. The first J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series delivered, the watch pictured here, was finished earlier this year – and is numbered “N.01”. Though Josh offers a variety of options for the case and dial colours, this watch hews closely to the prototype, with a rose gold case, silver dial, and blue hands. It’s important to note this is actually the first watch Josh sold, and consequently shows some of the inevitable inconsistencies of a watchmaker’s early work. There are a couple of stray marks and burrs on the dial, and a bit of lint, but the early work of independent watchmakers is usually inconsistent, which is part of the hand-finished charm, and also proof of how artisans evolve. Josh’s subsequent dials have improved tremendously. Josh Shapiro with one of his straight-line machines. Photo – J.N. Shapiro The Infinity Series has a simple but effect...

J.N. Shapiro Introduces the Infinity Weave Series Radiant

Introducing: J.N. Shapiro's First Complication, A Monopusher Chronograph

Made for the Boston-based independent collectors' group Escapement, the new watch sets the stage for future releases from Shapiro.

Introducing: J.N. Shapiro Infinity Series Pure

The smallest-ever watch from the brand is also a return to it's roots.

J.N. Shapiro Introduces the Infinity Series Pure

MING, Fleming, and J.N. Shapiro Form Up the Alternative Horological Alliance

Business News: Ming, Fleming, And J.N. Shapiro Form 'Alternative Horological Alliance' And Announce Their First New Product

The trio of relatively young brands plans to collaborate and work outside of traditional watchmaking structures to grow independent brands in new ways.

Introducing: Is The New J.N. Shapiro ‘Resurgence’ The First Truly American-Made Watch In Decades?

It's a bold watch and a bold claim not made lightly, but it’s an important step in bringing back American watchmaking.

Introducing the J.N. Shapiro Resurgence, bringing high-end watchmaking back to America

J.N. Shapiro Introduces the Resurgence

Having made a name for himself as a guillocheur, Joshua Shapiro has taken things a step further with the launch of the Resurgence, the most thoroughly American-made wristwatch since 1969. The Resurgence offers several features that are unique within the increasingly crowded field of high-end independent watchmaking. It is a customisable product that offers an almost unlimited number of dial, case, and movement combinations; it’s possible that no two watches will be alike. Almost every aspect of the watch, from the elaborate guilloche dial, engine-turned case, and customisable in-house movement, is surprisingly interesting and original. Initial Thoughts I first met Joshua in 2019 after the launch of the Infinity Series, and even then he was keen to discuss his vision for creating an in-house American-made movement that would live up to the quality of his guilloche work. But I must admit the Resurgence has exceeded my expectations, especially in terms of finishing. As a guilloche specialist, Joshua does not disappoint with the multi-part guilloche dial. Its construction reminds me of the dial found in the Roger W. Smith GREAT Britain, a one-off watch made in 2015 for the British government’s tourism campaign of the same name. But while the construction is similar, the Resurgence dial possesses its own aesthetic that steps out from the shadow of Swiss or British-style guilloche. At US$85,000 in gold and US$70,000 in steel, the Resurgence is priced at the upper end of the ...

J.N. Shapiro is Putting America Back on The Watchmaking Map

Introducing: The Infinity Series P.01 By J.N. Shapiro For Collective

Engine turned and other worldly.

The Business of Watches Podcast: Collective Horology CEO Asher Rapkin And Liberty Justice Center Chairman And CEO Sara Albrecht On Suing Trump Over Tariffs

This week on The Business of Watches, Collective Horology co-founder and Chief Executive Asher Rapkin joins us. He brought his lawyer.  While Collective is a Ventura, California-based retailer of independent watch brands, including Armin Strom, Czapek, Fears, Ming and J.N. Shapiro, Sara Albrecht is the chairman and CEO of The Liberty Justice Center. That's the non-profit litigation firm that led the legal fight successfully challenging President Trump's initial round of tariffs all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States. They won in a surprise decision that ruled the President didn't have the authority to impose levies that increased the cost of importing goods into the U.S., including Swiss-made watches.  The government is now in the process of refunding the approximately $166 billion businesses paid out. Asher Rapkin, co-founder and CEO of Collective Horology in Ventura, California. Of course, the Trump administration found a workaround and immediately slapped on new tariffs and, on July 24, initiated levies of 10% and 12.5% on imported goods, including Swiss-made watches. That's the day that Collective Horology and another importer (dealing in exotic spices), filed a lawsuit against the President and various bodies and individuals in the administration including U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.  Rapkin explains why his business decided to challenge the tariff laws and take on the President and his administration, while Albrecht lays out the legal...

Business News: Independent Watch Retailer Collective Horology Sues Trump And Administration Over New Tariffs

Independent watch retailer Collective Horology LLC filed legal action against President Donald Trump, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and a host of other government officials and departments, alleging the administration's new tariff duties are "unlawful," lack congressional approval, and harm American business. The Ventura, California company, in a lawsuit filed in the United States Court of International Trade on July 24, alleges Trump and his deputies, in imposing tariffs of 10% and 12.5% on goods imported into the U.S. under Section 301 of the Trade Act,  exceeded the President's authority to unilaterally levy such measures. The lawsuit represents the most aggressive response yet by the watch industry that has been financially kneecapped by the levies that have exacerbated an economically challenging environment that includes a strong Swiss franc against the U.S. dollar and record precious metals prices, a key input in luxury watchmaking. Many of the most high-profile watch brands raised prices in response, while retailers have taken a hit on margins. Collective Horology co-founder and CEO Asher Rapkin. Photo courtesy Collective Horology.  Founded in 2018, Collective sells independent watch brands including Armin Strom, Czapek, Fears, U.S.-based J.N. Shapiro and Ming, among others. The company has paid more than $160,000 in tariff duties under various schemes imposed by the Trump White House and U.S. Trade Representative Greer, says co-founder and Chief Exe...

Introducing - 1776 Atelier Celebrates Independence of the United States and Watchmaking with the Liberty 250

The resurgence of watchmaking in the United States is real. But not through what it used to be in the past, when American watches were produced in large quantities on an industrial scale. Should we complain? Absolutely not. Thanks to names such as RGM (a veteran compared to the rest), J.N. Shapiro or Keaton Myrick, […]

SJX Podcast: American Independents

This weekend, the United States marks its 250th Independence Day — the perfect opportunity to reflect on recent American contributions to the field of horology. On episode 43 of the SJX Podcast, SJX and Brandon discuss the latest entry in this field — the Liberty 250 from 1776 Atelier — and break down the claim that 90% of its components are manufactured in the US. The conversation also discusses RGM and J.N. Shapiro — brands that have contributed substantially to contemporary American watchmaking. Finally, to look into the future we go back to school by visiting the Watch Technology Institute in Seattle — the last remaining full-time public watchmaking programme in the US capable of granting a major certification. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.  

I’ve Seen the Future of American Watchmaking

American watchmaking seems to be on the rebound, though it bears repeating that the number of brands doing substantial work within the 50 states remains low. On the eve of the nation’s 250th birthday, we examine another aspect of the domestic watch industry: the state of its watchmaking training system. To bring this topic into focus, we visited the Watch Technology Institute (WTI) at North Seattle College (NSC) — the last remaining full-time public watchmaking programme in the US capable of granting a major certification. The Watch Technology Institute at North Seattle College. Image – WTI The state of watch education in the United States The United States was once a watchmaking powerhouse that forced a massive shift toward industrialised watchmaking in Switzerland. But the domestic industry faltered as consumer tastes shifted to favour wristwatches, and the nation’s industrialists effectively gave up on watchmaking to focus on other markets. That explains why most American watchmakers today are oriented toward the service and maintenance of Swiss-made watches. There’s been a renewed emphasis in recent years on making complete watches in the US — J.N. Shapiro’s Resurgence is a representative example — but the needs and trends of the broader market help explain America’s increasingly consolidated training landscape. Understanding WTI and SAWTA The history of WTI dates to the post-war era, when a large number of vocational schools were opened in the US to ...

The ABCs of Time - The Top Five Countries Where Watchmaking Reigns Supreme

There was a time when America was one of the dominant horological countries, from the mid-19th to the early 20th century. That’s no longer the case, of course, but there’s been a small yet impressive comeback in the high-end space from RGM Watch Company, J.N. Shapiro and Keaton P. Myrick, among others. Switzerland is synonymous […]

The Top Watches of 2025 - Over 15 Watches Mentioned Across Multiple Ca

The year has come and gone and it's time for us to recap our favorite watches of 2025. Here we list over 25 of our favorites across a variety of categories. Watches mentioned include: echo/neutra, Beaubleu, Breitling, Rolex, Zenith, Cartier, J.N. Shapiro, Krayon, and more!

Atelier Wen Launches the Inflection, a Bold New Watch with a Tantalum Case and Bracelet

Sometimes a watch comes along that feels like a culmination of something. The Atelier Wen Inflection, for anyone who has been following the brand or had a conversation with founder Robin Tallendier in the last few years, will likely have more than a whiff of that. After years of teases, hints, and lots of evidence of lofty ambitions, Atelier Wen’s full tantalum integrated bracelet sports watch is finally here.  I don’t think it’s overstating to say that the use of tantalum in watchmaking has been a bit of an obsession for the Atelier Wen team. The metal, in a lot of ways, feels like one of the last remaining frontiers of high end watchmaking. It’s rarely used because it’s so difficult to work with, but has a bunch of desirable qualities that make it highly sought after by collectors. The color, for one, is unlike any other metal, often exhibiting a hint of a blue tint. It’s also heavy and dense, resulting in a completely unique wearing experience that, if you like a heftier watch on your wrist, is kind of addictive. We’ve begun to see more brands experiment with tantalum in their watches in recent years, including J.N. Shapiro and Audemars Piguet, and even more have used it as an accent in some way.  But regular production tantalum watches are incredibly rare, and according to Atelier Wen, the Inflection is the first serially produced tantalum watch with a full tantalum bracelet. It’s been in the works at Atelier Wen since at least 2022, and follows the l...

Craft, Precision, and the Future of American Watchmaking: an Interview with Josh Shapiro

To pursue the level of watchmaking American independent brand J.N. Shapiro has, you need more than a bit of talent and a dash of ambition. Even if you manage to master the skills required to craft the impressively detailed neo-vintage watches J.N. Shapiro makes, having a unique enough take on a traditional aesthetic and the business savvy to compete on the world’s stage of independent watchmaking is another story altogether. It demands a near-monastic lifestyle to pull off. J.N. Shapiro’s founder and visionary, Josh Shapiro, hasn’t just answered the call – he’s actually making it work.  More remarkable still, Shapiro produces his premier line of watches, the Resurgence, entirely in the United States and almost entirely in-house. Notably, “in-house” is used in the literal sense here, meaning under one roof – a very different thing from what that term has come to mean as a shadowy marketing tool that tends to gloss over some subcontracting and outside manufacturing. Every component in the Resurgence, save for jewels and springs, is entirely produced and finished by Shapiro and his team in California.  While a watch of the Resurgence’s caliber being produced both in-house and domestically is as impressive as it is unexpected, there’s more at play here than just an inflated sense of national pride. Bootstrapping high-level American watchmaking and parts manufacturing certainly benefits Shapiro’s operation first and foremost, but it’s also part of a la...

Editorial: Why American Watchmaking is More Exciting Now than it Has Been in Years

American watchmaking is having a moment. And if there’s any day that’s worth celebrating, it’s the Fourth of July. Happy birthday, America, hope you like Damaskeening! Just in the last month or so, we’ve seen a new release from J.N. Shapiro that could point to an entirely new and more accessible concept for the brand. Cornell Watch Co. revealed their new Lozier, with a case, dial, crown, and handset machined in the United States. Colorado Watch Company, the Fort Collins, CO based brand making cases and dials in-house with movements assembled in the United States, just shipped their first batches of new watches to customers after extensive prototyping. And Keaton Myrick, who makes watches completely by hand in vanishingly small runs in Oregon and somehow has flown under the worldwide watch community’s radar for years, just saw a fantastic result in a public sale via Phillips that went for just over the high estimate. And it’s not just that there’s a lot of activity. The watches mentioned above are all, actually, very very good, and show that American watchmakers and brands can succeed in multiple ways, using different models. Myrick and Shapiro operate at the very highest end of the spectrum, while Colorado Watch Company has the ethos of a microbrand (the project was funded via Kickstarter, just like their sister brand, Vortic). The Cornell model, though, is probably the most interesting to me. The majority of the watch is manufactured in the United States, bu...

Massena LAB and Raúl Pagès Unveil the Noctograph, their Third Collaboration

Massena LAB has announced their latest limited edition, a third collaboration with independent watchmaker Raúl Pagès. The new Noctograph also represents the first release from Massena LAB since it was revealed that the brand would now be part of the Alternative Horological Alliance (AHA), a group founded last year by Ming, Fleming, and J.N. Shapiro (the alliance also added Fears at the same time as Massena LAB). The Noctograph, then, is a watch that celebrates independence as well as collaboration in a way that Massena LAB has been doing since the brand’s inception, and makes them a natural fit with their new AHA partners.  If you’ve followed Massena LAB since William Massena launched the project, you’ve probably gotten a sense of his taste. The brands he likes, the watches he collects, and so on. Massena LAB is essentially a vehicle for Massena and his collaborators to put a new spin on the ideas and watches that have shaped his taste over decades. Sometimes those watches are somewhat straightforward reissues of classics that are just slightly tweaked, and sometimes they are more imaginative and high concept. But they always showcase some very specific hallmarks and design cues, sharing inspiration from watches of the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, and allow Massena an opportunity for storytelling and sharing watch history through a watch’s design.  So it’s interesting that one of Massena’s key partners over these past few years has been an indie watchmaker who is v...

Photographer Atom Moore Debuts “Second Nature”

Taking photos of watches is hard. I’ve been trying for months to get better at it, and only occasionally do I end up with a photo that I think “works” in any meaningful way. The degree of difficulty in shooting these little objects is kind of off the charts. They are, of course, reflection machines, with light bouncing off of cases and crystals in ways that, for an amateur, can be difficult to control. And as any watch lover knows, the magic of this stuff is in the details, and it just takes a lot of skill to capture things that are so vanishingly small. So, I have a lot of respect and admiration for my colleagues and peers who make something so difficult look relatively straightforward. Atom Moore, for as long as I’ve been in the hobby, has been near the top of my and many other’s lists of top watch photographers in the game. His approach is completely unlike any other watch photographer I’m aware of, and the results, as they say, speak for themselves.  Atom, by now, has dedicated his career almost exclusively to watches. He’s been at it since 2015, and has worked with brands like Grand Seiko, Autodromo, and J.N. Shapiro. While some of his work with brands is what many of us in the industry would call “product photography,” it tends to be executed at a higher level. His photos for J.N. Shapiro’s Resurgence launch are a great example – the crisp macros reveal all of the detail you’d hope to see in Shapiro’s immaculately finished cases, dials, and...

H. Moser and Studio Underd0g Partner on an Unlikely Collaboration

If you had any doubts that the collaboration frenzy that has gripped the watch world has cooled, the first day of Geneva Watch Days may have gone a long way toward silencing that particular intrusive thought. Not only did we see a formal alliance between Ming, Fleming, and J.N. Shapiro that we told you about yesterday, but Moser, one of our favorite high end independents, and Studio Underd0g, one of our favorite affordable independents, joined forces in an unexpected way. The Endeavour Perpetual Calendar Passion Fruit and the Studio Underd0g Passion Fruit 03Series play to each brand’s unique strengths, and reveal that while it might seem like an odd match on paper, these brands really do have a lot in common.  Let’s look at the perpetual calendar first. The stainless steel Endeavour case measures 42mm in diameter and is a very wearable 12.8mm tall. The dial has a blissful, tropical quality to it, dominated by a solid gold base dial and a lacquered purple surround. It runs, of course, on the HMC manufacture caliber 800, which is simply one of the best perpetual calendar movements in the game, providing more information at a glance you are likely to realize at first.  The Passion Fruit 03Series chronograph could be the Endeavour’s twin separated at birth – it makes use of the same color combinations but transposes them to a chronograph layout. It bears a lot of similarities to the original Studio Underd0g chronos, and the “passion fruit” theme feels like someth...

Watch Spotting At The 96th Annual Academy Awards

We indulged in a little Oscars celebrity watch spotting, and Hollywood did not disappoint. A Le Mans Daytona, a J.N. Shapiro Resurgence, a diamond set RM 07-02, and a pink TAG Heuer Plasma on Ken.

Guilloche for Beginners: A Photo Essay

Tucked away on a wooded island in the Pacific Northwest lies one of the most important horological workshops in the United States. Known as Memoria Technica, the workshop is owned by Brittany Nicole “Nico” Cox, a renowned conservator of mechanical objects. I was first introduced to Nico in 2019 by Joshua Shapiro, the California-based watchmaker and guillocheur behind J.N. Shapiro. Joshua and I happened to visit Nico’s workshop on a day when she was teaching a beginner’s course on the art of guilloche. Since that encounter, I’d always had it in mind to return and take her class, but life (and a global pandemic) got in the way until I was finally able to secure a spot in her July class this year. But what is guilloche? Within the context of decorative techniques, guilloche, also known as engine turning, occupies a niche all its own. Characterised by intricate, recurring, and overlapping patterns, guilloche techniques have been used to decorate some of the most coveted objects in history. Meet your instructor In the rarified world of antiquarian horology, Nico is practically a household name – a bit like Beyonce. Nico specialises in the conservation and restoration of all types of mechanical objects, from watches and clocks to music boxes and automata. Having trained as a conservator at the Museum Speelklok in the Netherlands, which houses one of the world’s largest collections of mechanical musical objects, Nico is especially passionate about automata. Not onl...

Introducing: American Indie Watchmaker Josh Shapiro Tantalizes Collectors With A New American-Made Limited Edition

According to Shapiro, it's the first time ever that tantalum has been used outside of Switzerland to construct a watch case.

Happenings: Joshua Shapiro Returns To Lecture At The Horological Society Of New York

The famous engine turner will discuss the history of American watchmaking.

HODINKEE Radio: Episode 70: Our 2019 Gift Guide & Joshua Shapiro's Handmade Watches

Still got gifts to buy? We've got you covered.