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For more than twenty-five years, Towson Watch Company has designed and built mechanical watches by hand in Maryland — components produced by family-operated workshops in Pforzheim, Germany, assembled and regulated one at a time, in editions of just one hundred, then retired for good. Few watches in the world are made this deliberately. Fewer still are made here.
The Potomac, the CHOPTANK, the Mission series, the STARMARK — each one draws from a specific network: Pforzheim ateliers for cases and dials, Swiss calibers at the mechanical core, and American hands for decoration, regulation, and final assembly. Hartwig Balke and George Thomas built this operation in Maryland because the collectors were here — people who buy directly from a maker and know exactly what they own. Baltimore Watch Company has strengthened that foundation. The partnerships abroad remain. What changes from reference to reference is what gets built on top.
That choice determines everything downstream. Rebuilding lets our watchmakers true every component, decorate the movement with perlage and blued screws, and regulate each watch to chronometer-grade accuracy. The movement is finished because it will be seen — each Towson Watch is fitted with an exhibition caseback.
The components behind every Towson Watch come from three family workshops in Pforzheim: Ickler, Cador, and Benzinger — longtime friends and associates of Hartwig Balke. In a sense, they sent Hartwig to Maryland. They had built some of the finest watchmaking component infrastructure in Europe; the American market for what they made was largely untapped. Hartwig came to build it. George Thomas, a master watchmaker trained in Prague, Vienna, and Zurich, joined him and did the watchmaking. That combination — Pforzheim components, American assembly and regulation — is what a Towson Watch has always been.
Antonio Vestpoint trained at the bench under Hartwig Balke — Hartwig’s apprentice during Spencer Shattuck’s ownership of Towson Watch Company. He is now at Baltimore Watch Company, a few miles away, with Allan Tsao and Eugene alongside him. The watchmaking that always happened in Maryland is still happening in Maryland — with more people, more bench experience, and a more established operation behind it. This is not a vendor arrangement. It is how the craft moves forward.
Towson Watch Company has never followed another brand’s design direction. Each model is drawn from its own set of ideas — limited to one hundred pieces, retired permanently when the edition is complete. The catalog evolves one model at a time. These watches are collected across the country and around the world, bought directly from the brand by people who went looking.
The founders came to Maryland to build something that didn’t exist yet. The apprentice Hartwig trained is now running a bench a few miles away. The Pforzheim workshops that supplied the first watches still supply them today. A Towson Watch has been aboard a NASA mission, opened Lincoln’s pocket watch at the Smithsonian, and landed in the hands of collectors across the country who found the brand without a retail layer pointing them to it. Twenty-five years in, nothing about how these watches are made has been simplified. That is not a common thing to be able to say. It is, in fact, the whole point.
Towson Watch Company began with two German-trained craftsmen who met by chance in an Annapolis pub — and resolved to build mechanical watches in America at a time when almost no one else would.
A certified master horologist trained in Prague, Vienna, and Zurich, George has built tourbillons and restored some of the oldest watches in the world. He regulates and assembles by hand, and sets the standard every Towson movement is measured against.
An engineer from Pforzheim — Germany's historic city of watchmaking — Hartwig shapes Towson's design and technical direction. His lifelong relationships with the city's family ateliers still supply the brand's cases, dials, and components today.
In 2021, Spencer Shattuck took full ownership of Towson Watch Company, moving the brand direct-to-consumer and overseeing all operations — from product development and production to sales and the owner experience.
Under Spencer's ownership, Towson moved to a fully direct model — no retail layer, no trade accounts. Product development, production coordination, and the owner experience are all managed in-house. The handcrafted standard established in 1998 is the only benchmark that counts.
Each Towson Watch passes through several workshops across two continents — every one chosen for the craft it brings.
Family workshops in founder Hartwig Balke's hometown produce the cases, dials, and components to Towson's exact specifications — the rare European relationships that have defined the brand since 1998.
Towson collaborates with fellow American watchmakers — among them Roland Murphy of RGM, whose mechanical architecture underpins the STARMARK, a collaborative American moonphase.
Led by Allan Tsao, Baltimore Watch Company handles assembly, regulation, service, and long-term care for Towson Watches. Eugene and Antonio work at the bench. Antonio trained under Hartwig Balke and George Thomas and holds that standard in everything he does.
Each model is limited to one hundred pieces, then retired for good — once a reference is gone, it is never built again. There is no retail layer between the workshop and the collector. Explore the collections, or speak with us about a commission.