Where Are Vaer Watches Made? A Look at the Brand and Its American Assembly

The minimum we look for with companies that we consider American watch companies is whether they assemble their watches in America. I’m here to tell you that Vaer fits the bill. The company definitely assembles most of its watches in the United States.

The company runs its assembly team in Scottsdale, Arizona, and keeps its headquarters in Venice, California. But there’s a catch worth knowing up front. Not every Vaer model gets built here. The brand assembles some watches in Switzerland or China. And as is common for most American-assembled watches, there isn’t a Vaer watch that counts as fully “Made in USA,” because the movements come from Japan or Switzerland. This isn’t a knock on the quality of their watches. This, as has been said at other times, a financial decision.

That mix is exactly why Vaer is interesting to me. It sits right on the line between “assembled in America” and “manufactured in America,” and that line is the whole point of this site. So let’s break down who started Vaer, where the watches come from, and how honest the brand is about all of it.

Who founded Vaer, and when?

Ryan Torres and Reagan Cook founded Vaer in 2016 in Venice Beach, California. The two met while working at a tech startup in Los Angeles. They bonded over surfing, snowboarding, and a shared interest in watches.

The idea started with a simple problem. Ryan surfed most mornings before work, and he wanted one watch he could wear in the ocean and then straight into the office. On a tight budget under $200, he couldn’t find anything good. The durable options looked cheap and ugly. The nice-looking ones fell apart. So he and Reagan decided to build the watch they wanted.

They kicked the idea around in 2015, spent 2016 on product development, and opened sales in early 2017. Their first watch was the C5 Classic, a clean quartz field watch. The two funded the whole thing with their own savings, and they still own the company outright today. No outside investors, no big bank loan. They even launched their first automatic watches through a crowdfunding campaign instead of giving up equity.

Where are Vaer watches made?

Vaer runs its main assembly out of Scottsdale, Arizona. That’s where the team builds the C3, C5, D4, A5, and D5 collections. The company headquarters stays in Venice, California, and Vaer ships orders out of Kansas City, Missouri.

Here’s the part a lot of write-ups skip. Vaer assembles most of its watches in Arizona, but it builds some models in Switzerland or China instead. By the brand’s own numbers, US assembly makes up about 65% of its sales by revenue. So when you buy a Vaer, you can’t just assume it came together in Arizona. Please check the specific model. To Vaer’s credit, the company tells you which watches it assembles where, and I respect that a lot. Clear disclosure is the bare minimum we ask for, and Vaer clears it.

Are Vaer watches made in the USA?

Not in the strict sense, no. Vaer watches are assembled in the USA, but they are not “Made in USA.”

The difference comes down to the watch movement. There’s no American company building watch movements at real scale right now. So Vaer buys its movements from Japan and Switzerland. Every one of Vaer’s US-assembled automatic watches, for example, runs on a Japanese movement.

The FTC, which polices “Made in USA” claims, says a product has to be “all or substantially all” American to earn that label. Vaer says many of its watches pass 60% US content once you add up assembly, straps, and other parts. That’s a lot for a watch. But a foreign movement is a big chunk of the cost, so it keeps Vaer under the line. The brand is upfront about this instead of hiding behind a flag, which is more than I can say for some “American” watch companies.

What movements does Vaer use?

Most Vaer watches use Japanese or Swiss movements. That’s true for the automatics and for a lot of the quartz models. It’s the honest reality of building an affordable watch in 2016 and beyond.

But there’s a twist that puts Vaer ahead of the pack. The brand also uses American-built quartz movements from a company called FTS, short for Fine Timepiece Solutions, based in Arizona. FTS makes a movement line called Ameriquartz. Vaer drops these US-built movements into watches like the C3 and C5 Dirty Dozen field models. That matters, because it means a handful of Vaer watches carry both a US-made movement and US assembly. Very few American brands can say that at this price.

Where Vaer fits in the American watch world

Here’s my honest take. Vaer is an assembly brand first, and there’s nothing wrong with that as long as everyone’s clear about it.

Most of the lineup lands in the “US assembly only” bucket. These are solid watches that a real American team puts together in Arizona, but they run on foreign movements. That’s the largest slice of what Vaer sells.

The Ameriquartz models are a step up. When Vaer pairs a US-built FTS movement with US assembly, that’s a stronger claim, and it’s the direction I’d love to see more of the lineup go. The watches built in Switzerland or China fall outside what I cover here, since this site is about American production, not American branding.

The bottom line

Vaer is one of the more honest names in American watchmaking, and that counts for a lot. Ryan and Reagan built the company from their own savings, kept it independent, and moved most of their assembly to Arizona even though it would have been cheaper to build overseas. No, a Vaer isn’t a fully American-made watch, and the brand doesn’t pretend it is. But the US-assembled models, and especially the ones running American Ameriquartz movements, are a real vote for bringing watch work back to this country. If you want an affordable watch with genuine American assembly behind it, Vaer belongs on your short list. Just check which model you’re buying first.

Quick Facts

Founded: 2016, in Venice Beach, California
Founders: Ryan Torres and Reagan Cook
Headquarters: Venice, California
US assembly: Scottsdale, Arizona (C3, C5, D4, A5, D5 collections)
Also assembled in: Switzerland and China (select models)
Movements: Japanese and Swiss, plus US-built Ameriquartz from FTS in some field watches
Made in USA? No. Assembled in USA, yes, for most models
Straps: Horween leather, made in the USA