The Colorado Watch Company GCT is an Ambitious American Watch
Article Summary: The Colorado Watch Company GCT is a solid military-type watch that is 85% made in America. The company has gone out of its way to make this watch as American-made as possible, using sapphire glass from New Hampshire, a case, crown, and dial made in Colorado, and movement assembled in Arizona.
R.T. Custer and Tyler Wolfe, the founders of Colorado Watch Company, share a vision of building a watch made completely in the United States, including its movement.
They began this mission after college when they founded Vortic Watch Company to restore and convert American pocket watches, like Waltham and Elgin, into wristwatches. Which is very cool in and of itself, and they could have stopped there, which probably would have been easier. But they wanted to build an all-American watch that was smaller and more affordable, using new components.
In 2023, they launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised enough money to fund prototypes and their first production run, which began shipping in 2024.
Today, the company makes two models: a Field Watch and the GCT. Not exactly dress watches, as they both look like they could be taken to war and back. But they are for sure easy on the eyes.
Let’s take a look at the GCT: It comes in four styles, the DLC Black Case with Matte Dial, DLC Black Case with Machined Dial, Steel Case with Machined Dial, and Steel Case with Matte Dial — the last of which is currently sold out.
Whichever style you choose, it’s a tough-looking watch. The case starts as a two-inch puck of solid 316L stainless steel, carved down to a 42mm wide, 13mm thick case using a CNC machine.
The exhibition case-back is recessed flush with the rest of the case, making it comfortable against the wrist. It’s also a treat to watch the movement through the case-back’s sapphire glass, which is sourced from New Hampshire — one of the few places in the United States making watch-grade sapphire glass.
The DLC version, my personal favorite, is sent to California for a process called Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) deposition, which creates an extremely hard, black matte finish. The same coating trusted in high-end industrial and firearm applications is now on your wrist.
They say it’s built to last a lifetime, and I think that’s a pretty realistic claim.
The dial is also created on the CNC machine. A custom fixture holds an aluminum plate in place while the machine slices layers into it, producing the distinctive stepped look you can see in the photos. After machining, the dial is tumbled to clean it up, then the numbers, markers, and text are applied using a Swiss pad-printing machine. Lume is applied by hand.
In most watches marketed as “American-made,” you’ll find a Swiss or Japanese movement inside. That’s largely a cost decision, as building a movement domestically would push the price out of reach for most buyers. The GCT takes a different approach, using the Americhron movement, assembled in Arizona.
At $2,195, some will call the GCT pricey. But given the craftsmanship involved and the fact that roughly 85% of it is made in America, I’d call it fair. As the company puts it, it’s built to last a lifetime — hell, maybe a couple of them.
Orders can be placed on their website. The watch ships in a USA-made waterproof Seahorse box, complete with a Cordura strap and a machined stainless steel buckle.
