The Challenges of Small-Scale Manufacturing

The wait is finally over! The 4th annual military watches have arrived, and on today’s episode, we discuss how, even when 90 percent of things are running smoothly, bumps in the road can still happen. Sometimes we make mistakes, and mistakes are okay as long as we take ownership of them and fix the issue.
Our goal this year was to have all of the 50 military edition watches already manufactured and ready to ship by the time they went up for sale. Though everything was going well and we appeared to be on track, we were unable to accomplish this goal due to a small manufacturing mistake on our part. We are a small-scale manufacturer, so that means mistakes can happen, and some processes for quality assurance take extra time.
Don’t worry! If you’ve purchased one of the military edition watches, our goal is to have them all shipped by the end of the year. In fact, the first 20 people that purchase one will receive theirs very soon indeed, as we already have 25 completed and ready to be shipped. If you want to stay up to date on all things related to our manufacturing processes, head to vorticwatches.com and sign up for our newsletter!
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 - Intro
00:32 - Viewer Questions
01:09 - Do we modify our watches?
01:55 - Different dials require special handling
02:59 - "New" old stock vs "Used"
03:33 - What about the Military Edition watches?
04:26 - Tyler's question for R.T:
05:13 - So where DO we get our movements from?
06:28 - Our trip to NYC
06:53 - The NYC WindUp Watch Fair
07:16 - The Future of WindUp Watch Fair
07:31 - Why are watch shows reinvigorating?
08:33 - Why do we do so many events?
09:22 - Lightbulb moments
10:40 - Thank you to all our fans! You make it all worthwhile
10:55 - Updates on Colorado
12:34 - Small roadblock in production
13:26 - What's something different about the '22 Military Edition?
13:45 - What was wrong with the domed crystals?
14:56 - Why we do Quality Assurance on every watch we make.
15:56 - Will the Military Edition be done on time?
17:05 - The realities of manufacturing it all yourself
17:28 - Hand-finishing each watch is all part of the plan
18:16 - What's happening in our machine room?
19:03 - What are we making on the DMU?
19:58 - What's happening with our Swiss machine?
21:11 - Laser updates
21:19 - The engraving on our Military Editions
24:14 - Overview of what's coming up
24:55 - Wrapup and outro
Like this content? Check out our:
‣ Current inventory of one-of-a-kind watches: vorticwatches.com/watches
‣ Military Edition watch (available 11/11 each year): vorticwatches.com/military
‣ Heirloom pocket watch conversions: vorticwatches.com/convert
‣ Instagram: / vorticwatches
‣ Facebook page: / vorticwatches
‣ Twitter feed: / vorticwatches
Custer&Wolfe is a CZcams show created by the founders of Vortic Watch Company (vorticwatches.com) and produced in part by Carter&Custer agency: carterandcuster.com
We’re Building a Watch Company with Custer + Wolfe and giving you an inside look into what it takes to manufacture in America and build mechanical watches. We want to bring you along on all the successes, failures, innovations, and inventions that go into American manufacturing and watchmaking. Follow along as we restore vintage pocket watch movements and give them new life with Vortic Watch Co., and as we build a brand new watch company from scratch, focused on making high-quality American-machined watches.
Thanks so much for watching, and be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss out on any exciting updates! You can also stay in the loop & get exclusive access by signing up for our weekly newsletter at www.vorticwatches.com.
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