Waldan is an American watch brand with an incredible backstory, founded in 1979 in New York City by Oscar Waldan, a holocaust survivor who learned the art of watchmaking while imprisoned in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp during WWII. His creations were sold through esteemed retailers such as Tiffany & Co., Tourneau, and Wempe, and Waldan is notably said to be part of the reason why Rolex adopted the Zenith El Primero movement in its Daytona, the El Primero being a favoured base calibre for Oscar’s own watches.

Just as in men’s fashion, the watch world experiences aesthetic cycles. Watch insiders might notice an abundance of new blue-faced watches across various brands, while other years might see the release of interesting new shapes, or perhaps new dive watches. While we won’t delve into the micro-trends, one enduring macro trend is an overarching nod to elegant dress watches.

"Made in America" is a label that is 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, which still import oodles of watches to the States every year. However, American watchmaking has been seeing a slow, somewhat quiet renaissance over the past couple decades as a new generation of trailblazing entrepreneurs, from all across the U.S., strive to bring the horological trade back to these shores.