Towson Watch Company · The Potomac Collection

Railroad time

Hand-wound watches drawn from the American railroad pocket watch, built on the caliber George Thomas rebuilt a thousand times, in a case Hartwig Balke engineered and Ickler makes in Pforzheim.

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Benzinger POTOMAC $6,000 · POTOMAC and BAY PILOT by request

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Railroad time The case The collection today One caliber, five characters Every reference All collections

The POTOMAC

Railroad time, worn on the wrist

The POTOMAC is named for the river and drawn from the American railroad pocket watch. Towson's workshop stood beside the B&O Warehouse in Baltimore, home of the Baltimore & Ohio, the nation's first common-carrier railroad.

Rail workers could not reach into a pocket to check the time, so the pocket watch moved to the wrist. Hartwig Balke wanted the POTOMAC to carry that step: a 42 mm polished case, small seconds at six, and numerals he took from an American pocket-watch dial.

Inside is the Unitas 6498, a hand-wound caliber first made for pocket watches. George Thomas and his apprentices built about 1,000 of them between 2005 and 2015, each one decorated, oiled and regulated to his standard. You wind it in the morning and watch it run through the sapphire back.

Movement

Unitas 6498 manual-wind, 17 jewels, about 46-hour reserve, adjusted in five positions

Case

Polished steel, 42 mm, sapphire front and back, 50 m

Edition

100 numbered pieces per dial color

POTOMAC PO250-B with black dial and gold numerals

POTOMAC PO250-B, black dial.

The case

Hartwig's engineering, Ickler's steel

The Potomac case belongs to Towson alone. Hartwig Balke engineered it in Maryland, and Ickler, the family case maker in Pforzheim, has made Towson's cases since 2000.

Balke came to watches from engineering: blowout prevention and filtration systems for oil rigs, then a German hoist maker he brought to Baltimore in 1989. He draws a case the way he would a machine. On the Potomac case the bezel screws down and the back is threaded, so bezel, mid-case and back can each be refinished or replaced on its own. The lugs are fixed, with screw-in bars.

Every part is drawn in Maryland and machined, finished and engraved in Pforzheim, with the two shops working together from prototype to final surface. Balke comes from Pforzheim. “George and I often say that we collect artists,” he says. The same case held the first cardboard dial of the MARTIN M-130.

Engineering

Hartwig Balke

Case

Ickler, Pforzheim, Towson's case maker since 2000

Assembly and regulation

George Thomas and the watchmakers he trained, in Maryland

Benzinger POTOMAC in the polished Potomac case

Benzinger POTOMAC in the Potomac case.

The collection today

Four ways to wear it

The Benzinger POTOMAC is available now. POTOMAC and BAY PILOT are available by request: speak with us and we will tell you what can be built. Each watch is numbered, assembled and regulated in Maryland, and carries a two-year warranty.

Ref. PO250-SS · Sterling silver dial

Benzinger POTOMAC

Silver dial cut by hand by Jochen Benzinger on a rose engine. 100 numbered pieces. Available now.

42 mm · Unitas 6498-1 · Hand-wound

$6,000

View the reference →

Ref. PO250-B · Black dial

POTOMAC

Series Two in black, with gold numerals and cathedral hands. Available by request.

42 mm · Unitas 6498 · Hand-wound

By request

View the reference →

Ref. PO250-S · Silver dial

POTOMAC

Pearl-white dial with gold numerals and gold hands. Available by request.

42 mm · Unitas 6498 · Hand-wound

By request

View the reference →

Ref. BP250 · Luminous dial

BAY PILOT

The POTOMAC as a harbor pilot's instrument, with luminous numerals and an oversized crown. Available by request.

42 mm · Unitas 6498 · Hand-wound

By request

View the reference →

Numbered

Your serial is engraved on the caseback.

Built in Maryland

Assembled, regulated and tested by our watchmakers.

Two-year warranty

From the date of purchase, with service in Baltimore.

Insured delivery

FedEx, signature required. Returns within 14 days of delivery.

The line grows

One caliber, five characters

Every Potomac watch keeps the 42 mm case and the 6498. What changes is the dial, the bezel and the job the watch is given.

POTOMAC

The base edition. Series One dials came from a Swiss partner and carry INTL at six on a matte, blasted surface. Series Two dials were made in the USA, smooth and glossy, under a domed sapphire.

BAY PILOT

Named for the Baltimore harbor pilots who bring ships into port. Balke gave it its own bezel, Super-LumiNova numerals and hands, an oversized crown and a steel bracelet. 100 pieces.

SAGAMORE

Made with Sagamore Farms, the Maryland Thoroughbred farm. Its red triple-diamond emblem sits at three on an off-white dial. 100 pieces, retired.

Benzinger POTOMAC

The same watch with a sterling silver dial engine-turned by Jochen Benzinger in Pforzheim, a swan-neck regulator and 24k gold in the bridge engraving.

The Skelly watches

Open up the POTOMAC's 6498 and you arrive at the FULL-SKELLY and HALF-SKELLY, cut and engraved by Benzinger. They belong to the Towson × Benzinger collection.

The line

Every reference

Five references share one case and one caliber. PO is the POTOMAC, BP the BAY PILOT, SA the SAGAMORE. The letter after the dash is the dial: S silver, B black, SS sterling silver.

POTOMAC

The base edition in silver and black. 100 numbered pieces per dial color.

Limited editions

The POTOMAC given a job and a partner. 100 pieces each.