News · Bernhardt Watch Company
Bernhardt puts restored 1920s American pocket-watch movements on the wrist, one of each
Bernhardt's Manifest series rehouses restored Illinois, Hamilton and E. Howard pocket-watch movements in 45mm steel cases with pivoting lugs, US$1,499, one of each.
Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 13 August 2026
The movement inside a Bernhardt Manifest came out of an American pocket watch built in the 1920s or early 1930s, which means there is exactly one of each. Bernhardt buys the old watches, pulls the movements, restores them and builds a wrist case around what comes back. The first five went on sale last week, direct from the brand, at US$1,499 each.
Old American pocket watches are not hard to find. Dealer trays, the back of a family drawer. Almost nobody wears one, because it is a pocket watch. The names sort out what you are getting: the Conductor runs a Hamilton, the Foundry an Illinois, the Statesman an E. Howard.
A Hamilton, an Illinois and an E. Howard
The Foundry 4397 has an aged ivory dial signed Illinois, with a railroad minute track and small seconds at six. Behind it sits a 21-jewel Illinois calibre from the 1920s, given striped finishing, gold-toned hardware and polished wheels, with a sapphire exhibition back so you can look at the lot.
The Conductor 2949 runs a Hamilton Grade 912, a 12-size, 17-jewel, pendant-set calibre with nickel three-quarter-plate construction from the early 1930s, carrying broad diagonal damaskeening and gold-toned train wheels. The Statesman 5228 uses an E. Howard Series 15 bridge movement, striped bridges over an exposed gear train, with "PAT'D '21" stamped into it. Bernhardt dates that one to the early 1920s from surviving examples.
Three of the biggest names American watchmaking ever had, and not one of them makes a movement today. Hamilton belongs to the Swatch Group now and runs Swiss calibres. Illinois and E. Howard, in the form that made them famous, are gone.
45mm, and the lugs pivot
The cases are 316L stainless, 45mm across and about 12mm thick, sapphire front and back. 45mm is normally where the conversation about wearability stops. Bernhardt's answer is articulated lugs that pivot, so the strap wraps the wrist instead of bridging over it. On a wrist that would otherwise fight a case this wide, that is the difference between wearable and comical.
The 12mm is the more surprising number. Pocket-watch movements are wide and fairly flat, so the bulk goes out sideways rather than up, and that is the only reason a conversion like this sits anywhere near the wrist.
The dials came in with the movements
The Conductor keeps its warm parchment surface, gilt Arabic numerals and ornamental flourishes. The Statesman has elongated black Arabics and recessed small seconds, the Foundry an ivory field and blued hands. Nothing has been reprinted, and all three carry a century of patina, which is the part nobody can fake and the part that makes each watch different from the next.
Straps are leather-lined and textured, black on the Conductor and the Foundry, deep green on the Statesman, with an etched Bernhardt buckle. Assembly and finishing happen in-house in the USA.
US$1,499 for a hand-wound watch is a lot of money next to a new Swiss automatic. For a restored 1920s American movement, cased in steel and sapphire by the people who restored it, it reads rather differently. Bernhardt can only build as many as it can find movements for.
