American-designed mechanical watch

There aren't a lot of American companies *** watches these days -- RGM, Kobold, Bathys; a handful of others. So let's welcome new San Francisco brand Xetum -- the brainchild of founder, Jeff Kuo. Note that ETA has five movement grades (base, standard, elabore, top, and chronometer, where chrometer is top plus COSC testing) so this is a expensive and nicely decorated movement.He's started a new company with two original-design, Swiss-movement watches: the Tyndall (pictured), and Stinson. Jeff kindly agreed to loan us a Tyndall for review, so let's dive into something quite rare: a brand-new, American-designed mechanical watch.The movement is the high-end ETA 2895, Elabore grade. It's phenomenal to see a 289x on a watch under $2,000.Assembled in Switzerland.316L stainless steel case with hidden lugs, screw-down crown, and exhibition caseback.Sapphire crystal, anti-reflective coated.Nicely sized at 40mm by 11mm.Water resistant to 100m (330ft).Hours, minutes, subseconds, and date.Superluminova on hour and minute hands, and on the 3, 6, 9, and 12.Available from their website for $1,395.Please read on for the full review. Two things really impress me about this watch: the details and the price. As I mentioned before, the materials and movement are expensive, so I was looking to see if they had to cut corners elsewhere. Not only did they not cut corners, but they went much further than I expected. For example, their website is hosted on a eco-friendly web hosting service, the leather bands are vegetable-tanned, the cork lining the band is renewable from Italy, and they work with CarbonFund.org to offset their operations. Even the presentation box is carved rubberwood, saved from slash and burn.