1776 Atelier

1776 Atelier was founded in Texas by Jason Lu, a former senior technology executive who oversaw some of the world's largest precision manufacturing operations before turning that expertise toward fine watchmaking. Lu's path into the craft began as a collector, but collecting alone wasn't enough — he taught himself to disassemble, regulate, and rebuild vintage and modern movements, expanding into pocket-watch restoration and even marriage-watch conversions. That self-directed apprenticeship eventually took him to Glashütte, Germany, where he trained alongside and befriended some of the industry's most respected — and notoriously private — master artisans, relationships that continue to inform his design and finishing decisions today. Lu founded 1776 Atelier on a direct challenge to industry convention: that genuine hand-finishing should not be reserved exclusively for watches costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. The brand's name deliberately echoes America's declaration of independence, framed as a parallel declaration of excellence in horology — built on American soil, but explicitly not confined by geography in its claim to high-horology standards.

1776 Atelier designs its movements from the ground up rather than modifying existing calibres, with proprietary bridge architecture across two in-house movements, Caliber 621.1788 and Caliber 430.1803, each built from more than 70% American-made parts. Every gear is cut in-house, and every component — from setting levers and mainspring barrels to jewel sinks — is individually finished, with some parts snailed and others given a circular satiné finish depending on the design; no off-the-shelf parts are used anywhere in the movement, which is entirely finished and regulated at the Texas atelier. Hand-executed finishing techniques include anglage (hand beveling), hand skeletonization using saws and files, black polishing, solarization grinding on 75-year-old machines, hand engraving, perlage, circular satin finishing, and thermal bluing — the full repertoire of traditional haute horlogerie decoration, applied by hand rather than machine wherever the technique allows.

The collection includes the Montpelier, the Mount Vernon (also offered in Meteorite and Aventurine dial executions), The Monticello, the Sagamore Hill Collection, and New Glory, a collaboration with artist Scott LoBaido. Customization runs from semi-bespoke options selectable at order — on the Mount Vernon, a tiered hand-engraving program spanning the no-charge Modern Scroll, the $300 Teutonic Scroll, and the $600 American Gun Scroll, plus a $3,000 fully hand-engraved American Gun Scroll case cut directly into solid steel with no CNC or laser involvement, requiring nearly a full week of an engraver's time per case — to crown and ratchet-wheel options (a signature logo-and-13-star motif, a skeletonized ratchet wheel, or double or triple snailing on an 80-year-old lathe) and a choice of yellow gold, rose gold, white rhodium, or black rhodium galvanic plating. Beyond these semi-bespoke options, 1776 Atelier offers fully bespoke commissions — including custom bridge configurations and, for the right project, an entirely unique movement design — for collectors seeking a piece that exists nowhere else.