Capital Sunglasses - Handmade from Wood in the USA

My involvement with Upton USA watches (website is in development) and collaboration with Product M has made me fascinated with locally sourced, domestically manufactured products. I strongly believe that companies breaking the mold of low cost, high volume overseas manufacturing are going to be become more and more ubiquitous.

One such company that is participating in this revolution is called Capital. Capital produces hand made wood sunglasses all in the USA. The woods they use are all sourced from the US and maintain their original color finish. The styles are vintage inspired with a contemporary upgrade and each pair of sunglasses is slightly unique because of the nature of the woods they use. Below is a small sampling of their designs. Take a look at their website for more information.

Upton Watches Update

Upton Watches is in full swing, and we have progressed into the prototyping phase. We are currently working with Mark McJunkin in Atlanta, Georgia for this facet of the watch expedition. Mark McJunkin was an Industrial Design professor of mine at Georgia Tech, and he is the CEO of the design and manufacturing firm Product M.

Recently with Product M, Mark has focused more on domestic prototyping and manufacturing with his CNC mill. In addition to operating his firm, Mark continues to teach at Georgia Tech.

During this juncture in the project, we are evolving our design so it can be beautifully and efficiently manufacturable. Mark and I are collaborating on the design for manufacturing phase. We are refraining from displaying our finalized design until we have physical, operational watches. Below are a few sneak peaks of Mark's shop in Atlanta and his process of outputting watches. 

Mark at the helm

The HAAS CNC mill

Cutting out a watch case

Metal carnage

Breaking of Metal for Upton Watches

The Upton Watch team has milled our first test piece in Atlanta, Georgia. We are still finalizing the design and graphics but are still on the path for creating an American constructed watch with a Swiss movement.

Aligning with the machined look of the watch, we will be experimenting with milling out the dial as well. The above render is an example of how it would look. 

Upton Watch First Test from Benjamin Denzinger on Vimeo.

Upton Watch Face Renders

The Upton Watch brand is progressing and manufacturing is currently being organized. I'm working with two different face designs for the first round of watch prototypes. One face has a beige background with a brown band to achieve an antique type of feel (aligning with the Upton brand). The other face is completely blacked out.

I'm experimenting with different accent colors on the antique face related to jewel tones. Please leave any feedback possible. Feedback is essential to our development process and allows users to interact with the design of the Upton product. Click thumbnails for larger images

Brown Band / Beige Face / Blue Accents

Brown Band / Beige Face / Dark Green Accents

Brown Band / Beige Face / Red Accents

Brown Band / Beige Face / Orange Accents

Brown Band / Beige Face / Light Green Accents

Brown Band / Beige Face / Yellow Accents

 

Black Band / Black Face / Black Accents

Upton Watch Progress

The Upton watch project has been progressing. The other partners on the project and I have been finalizing the design and working on sourcing the parts. We are still aiming for the a Swiss movement for the watch with the cases manufactured in the US. The assembly would be in the US as well. Below is one of the initial test renders of the case without the face. Stay tuned for updates. 

Upton Watches

ETA Swiss made movement sample

Recently, I was contracted out to help develop a new watch brand. I am in charge of designing the watch and the graphics for the face. I am also involved in organizing manufacturing and sourcing for the watches. It is something that is very exciting for me because I have always wanted to design a watch. 

The goal of the brand is to develop a high quality, stylized watch with a Swiss movement that is manufactured in America. We are aiming to have the cases milled out here in the US and the watches assembled here as well.

We are choosing a Swiss movement because Switzerland has been the leader in developing watch movements for centuries and the Swiss name is synonymous with quality. With that in mind, we want the rest of the watch to exemplify the spirit of American manufacturing. As everybody knows, domestic manufacturing has been on the downturn for quite some time now. The Upton name was developed to symbolize the re-ignition of the New Deal Era spirit of American manufacturing.

We are also aiming to set our price point lower than most other watches with Swiss movements. We have an exciting challenge ahead of us and I am going to keep updates on our progress. Keep an eye out for renders of the watches and a website/blog. Thanks for the support and please feel free to ask any questions.