Patina Co. makes wristwatches named after the years they belong to. Twenty-one years, seven decades, 1920 through 1989.
Why a year instead of a model name
Most watches are named after nothing. A code. A letter and four digits somebody signed off in a meeting, which you will look up once and never remember.
A year is different. You already have one. The year you were born, the year you met someone, the year everything changed. Ask a man what watch he wears and he tells you a brand. Ask someone wearing a 1963 and you get a story.
How we build them
We study what a decade actually did to a watch. Not the nostalgia of it — the specifics. How wide the numerals ran. Where the crown sat. How far the hands lifted off the dial, and how thin they were drawn.
Then we build a watch that belongs to that year, and put the year on the box. These are new watches. The design is old, the movement is not, and we would rather say so plainly than dress it up as an antique.
What the decades look like
- The twenties and thirties — small, rectangular, formal. Roman numerals, thin blued hands, a case that disappears under a cuff.
- The forties — plainer and more useful. Numerals built to be read at a glance.
- The fifties and sixties — the elegant middle. Slim round cases, applied markers, restraint everywhere.
- The seventies and eighties — louder. Wider cases, coloured dials, a bit of nerve.
Line seven decades up side by side and you are looking at an argument about taste that ran for most of a century.
Understated, deliberately
Nothing we make shouts. No logo across the dial, no slab of steel the size of a coaster. These sit under a shirt cuff and turn a plain white tee into a decision. Nobody says nice watch. They say you look well put together, and they cannot quite work out why.
Why they are not expensive
Ours sit under $70, and that is the point. A watch should be something you put on for a Tuesday, not something you insure and leave in a drawer. We would rather you owned three decades than one investment.
What we are not
We are an independent maker. We are not an authorised dealer, agent or repairer for any watch manufacturer, and we are not connected to any existing brand. We do not sell antiques, we do not issue certificates, and we do not do valuations. If you want a watch appraised, an independent horologist is the right person for that — not us.
Where we are
Patina Co.
1470 West Street, Wilson, WY 83014, United States
Email: support@bypatina.co
Telephone: +1 307 269 6835
Monday to Friday, 9:00 to 17:00. A person replies inside 48 hours.
Returns are handled from the United Kingdom, Spain and the United States, so wherever you are, you post to the nearest one. Details on our Return Policy.
Start somewhere
Pick a decade you like the look of and work outwards. Enter the archive.