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During these past few weeks, eyeing my wrist has been pleasurable – and relaxing. I’ve been wearing a Waldan Heritage Professional watch with an off-white dial, and this 40mm watch’s clean time-only face requests very little from my brain. I’m lulled by its familiar, soft color and plainspoken display, which immediately registers the hour, minutes and seconds…and then seems to back off.

In a world where we all carry the most accurate pocket watches ever made (smartphones), there is no urgency to spend thousands of dollars on a timepiece. So to the broader marketplace, we hear you. But we also want you to be able to join in on the fun, so I have compiled yet another list of watches under $1000 USD that I believe will also get the nod from watch snobs.

The story of Waldan Watches is one of passion and, initially, survival. Oscar Waldan was a Polish boy in his late teens when World War II broke out. When the war began, Oscar was arrested and sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany, where he ended up meeting a watchmaker named Manek who took him under his wing and made Oscar an apprentice. As Andrew Waldan, son of Oscar Waldan and CEO and Head of Design at Waldan Watches, tells it, Manek taught Oscar the basics of watchmaking—a skill that deemed Oscar useful at the camp and ultimately allowed him to survive the war.

Discovering the next generation of watchmakers in new places is an important way to add much-needed talent and new creative viewpoints to the field. The Horological Society of New York, America's oldest watchmaking guild, is adding to its program of financial aid for those who want to study the craft. HSNY recently named two new scholarships in its growing roster: The Benjamin Banneker Scholarship for Black Watchmaking Students and the Oscar Waldan Scholarship for Jewish Watchmaking Students. HODINKEE recently spoke with Aldis Hodge and Andrew Waldan, two industry leaders behind the scholarships.

The revival of heritage watch brands is always exciting, but for U.S.-based watch collectors, the revival of classical American watchmakers is all the more so. As much is true for New York-based Waldan Watches, which in 2016 transferred leadership from the man who founded it in 1979, Oscar Waldan, to his up-and-coming son, Andrew Waldan. In its path forward, the brand is making the transition back to its American roots with the introduction of the new Heritage Collection.

"These watches are only the beginning," he says of the American Made line he launched to commemorate his father's legacy.

One of the first names I remember hearing when I started covering watches in 2005 was that of Oscar Waldan, who passed away in 2018. The owner and operator of the New York-based Waldan International brand, which he founded in 1979, Oscar had an amazing life story and a prolific career in watches, a good deal of it overlapping with the Quartz Crisis. In fact, his fortunes in watches were forged by that crisis in an unexpected way: He saw value in mechanical watches at a time when many others didn't.

During a digital launch just a few weeks ago, Andrew Waldan said he wanted to remain true to his father’s vision, but recognized he need to answer today’s consumer demands. Andrew took over the family business – which he grew up in – in 2017, when his father’s health began failing. In 2018, following his father’s death, Andrew took over the ownership and reigns of the brand – working to revitalize it via a rebranding of the name, adding e-commerce and establishing a stronger digital presence. He also set his sights on the product.

The groundwork that laid the foundation for the Waldan International watch brand goes back to the late 1970s during a period when founder Oscar Waldan supplied retailers in the United States with in-house-branded timepieces.

The story of Waldan Watches is an inspiring one. I’ve followed the progress of the company since the early days of International Watch, and with the re-birth of Waldan Watches underway, led by its new-generation leader Andrew Waldan, it’s time to review the Waldan story and introduce its latest collection.

Nobody knows when Oscar Waldan’s 100th birthday will take place. In fact, it may have passed. Such uncertainty about time is ironic for a man whom some regard as an unsung master American watchmaker of the 20th century.

Unless you’re a trained professional, it wouldn’t be considered wise to take apart a watch just to put it back together again. However, decades ago, a young Oscar Waldan, of Waldan Watches, secretly did just that with his father’s pocket watch simply to locate and diagram how the pieces fit together.

Watch!, the official magazine of CBS, recently partnered with Waldan International, one of the world's top Swiss watch makers, to auction off hand-made timepieces to benefit two non-profits. A silent auction held during the magazine's 10-year anniversary on Feb. 9 raised $10,000 in proceeds for the Museum of Tolerance and Team Rubicon Global.

Waldan International was founded by Oscar Waldan, who spent his formative years in Nazi concentration camps. While in these concentration camps Mr. Waldan was able to develop a friendship with a watchmaker who sparked his interest in watchmaking.