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Page 2 of 2
 Bozeman’s watches all have distinctive names that emphasize a Montana
grounding. The company’s first project was the big as-all-outdoors
Smokejumper, a hearty chronograph with an airy elegance and a handsome
leather strap that begs to be broken in and burnished. “We make our
straps completely different than the rest of the industry,” Wardle
notes. “We use a triple-layer strap of saddle leather; it looks like a
saddle, especially when you give it some wear and beat the hell out of
it.”
Wardle is a big man of easy enthusiasms. It takes only a
moment to realize how entrenched his affections are for Montana and the
watch concern he planted here. “I fell in love with the mountains,” he
reflects. “In 1988, when I drove into downtown Bozeman, it was as dead
as a doornail. But I saw that it’s got everything a town needs. Bozeman
is my peaceful place. As far as making watches, well, obviously, I
didn’t come out here for technological reasons, because most of the
real talent is on the East Coast—Pennsylvania, New York, Rhode Island.
But I felt like if I was going to design, engineer, and manufacture
watches, I’d do it in a place that I loved.
“From about 1850
to about 1950,” lectures Wardle, continuing to conflate watch history
and his own interests, “the U.S. watchmakers had a great position in
the watch industry. By about 1970, the U.S. Watchmaking industry was on
the way out. I was a collector, and the first watches I ever loved were
American. I used to search out American-made watches in flea markets
and estate sales. It was sad to look around and say, ‘There’s no one in
this country that makes anything here anymore.’ That’s why I wanted to
start the company. I figured there was somebody out there who wanted
something that wasn’t mass-produced, that was made with a little bit of
heart and soul. In my opinion, we’re creating a timeless watch,
something that will be worn in a hundred years. Someone will have one
of these and say, ‘I got this from my grandpa.’”
Bozeman
watches are substantial and stylish timepieces that are also perfect to
buckle on while riding or working a ranch. “‘Rugged, refined, and rare’
is our tagline,” Wardle elaborates. “Rugged and refined, because you
can wear it at the opera or the rodeo. And rare, because we don’t make
a whole lot of pieces.”
The
Smokejumper is named after the elite airborne forest firefighters. Upon
closer examination, I point out what I think of as a design flourish.
That, apparently, was not the intention. “OK,” he says with a sigh,
“This one has a few romantic errors. When we do our watches, we have to
create all of this from scratch. Not only the case, but our pushers,
our crown, our hands, as you can see, are unique to us. Now, in our
ignorance, we didn’t specify [what hands to use] on the Smokejumper, so
the watch has flat hands instead of hands that curve to the dial, which
don’t reflect as well. It’s kind of like having a double-headed penny.”
(An attractive Smokejumper flourish: The hands on its subsidiary dials
are red, a departure from the rest of the watch and from standard
chronograph style.)
There’s something else singular about the
Bozeman’s watches. “For every model, we donate to an associated
charity,” Wardle says. “Sidewinder was a nickname in the Old West for
someone with a severely bad attitude, who’d rather win an argument the
old-fashioned way. People think [the name refers to] the snake, but we
try to explain to them it’s more about gunfighting. For the Sidewinder,
we contribute to the Predator Conservation Alliance. The mountain lion,
the wolf, the coyote, those animals you hear in the dead of night,
they’re a big part of Montana’s ecosystem.” In 2006, Bozeman Watch
Company gave more than $25,000 to charity from watch sales.
As
the day winds down, it’s appropriate that we end on an upcoming watch,
the Cutthroat, which combines several of Wardle’s obsessions.
“Everybody hated that name to start, but I pushed it on ’em because
it’s the only trout native to Montana,” he says. “Rainbows and browns
were introduced from Romania and Germany and are the predominant game
fish. Everybody who fishes here is happy when they get a rainbow or a
brown. But they’re happiest when they get a cutthroat, because they’re
so rare...” His reverie—piling all of his bliss into a single
focus—touches on what Wardle, and Bozeman Watch Company, are all about.
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