The TALBOT makes it clear who stands behind it. Folding tradition into form with a confidence that feels both old-school and charged with new intent.
Rooted in the CHOPTANK’s design language, the TALBOT preserves its tonneau silhouette and guilloché tradition—reimagined in a smaller, time-and-date package that brings the quality of our work into full view. The 33 × 37 mm stainless steel case hugs the wrist with a crisp, rectangular tonneau silhouette softened by rounded edges and framed by a polished bezel. The TALBOT draws in fresh collectors while tipping its hat to longtime Towson fans since ’98—pushing forward without losing sight of its origins.
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Welcome to the TALBOT
Spencer Shattuck, President & Owner
When I returned to Towson Watch Company in 2021 as its new owner and brand director—after first interning here a decade earlier—I initially saw a catalog that felt sprawling. Each model had been conceived from scratch—not using templates or trends, but through real watchmaking. Different complications and purposes. Different dials and cases. Hartwig Balke and George Thomas were applying their expertise and passion across every category. And the more I understood their approach, the more I saw how the catalog could be unified—not by changing what they did, but by defining it. Giving it form. Giving it a language collectors could recognize instantly.
They weren’t iterating on a single idea. They were building a portfolio. From the HALF-SKELLY to the CHOPTANK, every watch was its own project—new case, new dial, new purpose. No recycled components. No shortcuts for the mass market.
That approach ignited my passion for independent watchmaking. When a sketch turns into a prototype, and that prototype into a handmade series of 100 watches—you’re building a product, but you’re doing it through craft. And craft needs a language: the ability to recognize the maker at a glance—and want to know the story behind it.
One of my first goals in 2021 was to find and train a new generation of watchmakers under the guidance of our founders. That’s exactly what we did. Since then, Hartwig and George have passed down their tools, techniques, relationships, and standards to a small team of young American artisans.
The TALBOT marks the beginning of Towson’s next chapter—the first model fully designed by their apprentices.
Manufacture & Materials
Every Towson Watch is designed in Baltimore by our in-house atelier. Cases, dials, and hands are manufactured to spec by long-standing partners in Pforzheim, Germany—home of our founder, Hartwig Balke.
For movements, we source proven Swiss calibers such as the ETA 2892, 2893, and 7751, which are then regulated, customized, and decorated by our watchmakers in-house. We do not use pre-assembled movements. Each caliber is disassembled, reworked, and finished to meet our aesthetic and technical standards—achieving chronometer-grade performance and visual coherence through exhibition casebacks.
From initial sketches to final QC, every component is overseen directly by our workshop. Final assembly and regulation happen under one roof, and no off-the-shelf parts or outsourced shortcuts enter the process. That’s the Towson standard—from maker to collector, start to finish.
Not just a mark—it’s the entry point into Towson’s world.
Towson Watch Company began as an American gateway to the specialty manufacturers of Pforzheim, Germany—home to our founder, Hartwig Balke, and longtime collaborator Jochen Benzinger. Together with George Thomas, a renowned U.S. restorer of historically significant timepieces, they created something rare: an American watch brand rooted in traditional craft with a distinct design language.
In the early days, there was no catalog—just two watchmakers building one-off pieces by hand. That changed in 2007 with the PRIDE II: the first model produced in a numbered series of 100 pieces per color, and the first to feature what would become our signature—the red, white, and blue TWC shield. The case itself was sculpted to match the shield, which takes its proportions from the bow of the Pride of Baltimore II, the historic schooner that inspired its name.
Since then, the shield has appeared on every model in some form. Look closely, and you’ll find the initials—TWC, HB, and GT—subtly woven into its geometry. But it wasn’t until the most recent CHOPTANK that the shield returned as a structural signature, taking center stage as the observatory subdial. The TALBOT continues that evolution, placing the shield proudly at 12 o’clock.
Heritage & Inspiration
The CHOPTANK, winding through Talbot County—land laid out under Lord Baltimore’s charter—lent its name to our previous model and grounded our watches in Maryland history. Talbot County’s rolling waterways and colonial legacy provided Hartwig Balke’s apprentices the backdrop to blend Pforzheim guilloché techniques with local spirit.
The TALBOT carries that same dual legacy: German precision shaped by Maryland heritage. Its finely turned dial, polished contours, and the logo on the dial recall a place where two traditions meet.
Evolving from the CHOPTANK’s bold geometry, the TALBOT is both a continuation and a reinvention. Balke’s apprentices refined the proportions, scaled the case for modern wearability, and sharpened the dial’s contrasts. A guilloché base is galvanically plated in either 5N gold or deep navy blue, framed by a silver chapter ring. Rhodium-diamond-cut indices and a beveled date at 6 o’clock reinforce the shield at 12 o’clock, uniting form and function in a single glance.
