After working for a time as a school principal, Joshua Shapiro decided to return to his roots — namely, machining things by hand. He crafted his first watch dial in 2011 and was immediately hooked. Today, Shapiro and 14 employees make stunning hand-guillochéd dress watches in California that retail for tens of thousands of dollars under his eponymous brand, J.N. Shapiro.
Incredibly painstaking to make, these watches are produced using 19th-century rose engine machines and lots of sweat equity. Pieces such as the Resurgence retail starting at $70,000, making them virtually inaccessible to all but the most deep-pocketed collectors. Now, however, J.N. Shapiro is offering a new collection, the Infinity Series Pure, that offers the same exquisite engine-turned dials for $26,000, or roughly a third the cost of the Resurgence.
While $26,000 is still nothing to scoff at, there’s a value play present here that’s unique in watchmaking more generally, and American watchmaking in particular: By sourcing the model’s movement form Swiss company La Joux-Perret and the 37mm steel case from the Alternative Horological Alliance (AHA), Shapiro and company are able to focus on creating their guilloché dials, thus bringing down unit cost while still offering an incredibly refined product with handmade touches.
Available with a blackened zirconium dial with white-gold hands or a frosted silver dial with rose-gold hands, each features Shapiro’s signature Infinity Weave pattern produced on century-old rose engines and straight-line machines. This pattern — which consists of one basket wave embedded within another — is incredibly difficult to execute and results in a mesmerizing texture that seems to continue for, well, infinity. The hand-engraved, engine-turned pattern also extends to the caseback.
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Taking a closer look at the Infinity Series Pure’s dial, one is immediately struck by its aesthetic depth. The Infinity Weave pattern is overlaid with a circular brushed plate that features intricate Arabic and dot indices reminiscent of those from 18th and 19th-century pocket watches, while the beautiful handset’s hollow tips allow for a view of the dial beneath. Both dial variants are equally striking, with the blackened zirconium skewing a bit more contemporary. Simple black or brown leather straps with tone-on-tone stitching complete the look, while the enclosed caseback — secured via four screws — features the infinity symbol in the center, matched by another on the dial above 6 o’clock. Measuring 37mm in diameter, it’s the brand’s most compact watch yet, and has a subtle look due to its stainless steel case that belies the labor-intensive production process.
While it may not have the resoundingly all-American-made, customizable quality of the Resurgence, the Infinity Series Pure allows a wider pool of collectors access to what J.N. Shapiro is offering: a distinct take on traditional European watchmaking with a decidedly Californian bent.
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