Monterey Watch Co. is an independent watch studio based in Swannanoa, in Western North Carolina, led by its president and founder Tim Hermes. It began with a gift: on Christmas 2021 his wife gave him a kit to build his own watch. Then 60, a retired media executive and entrepreneur, he wanted to understand why the gears turned rather than just assemble them, so he walked into a watch shop in Arlington, Virginia, and asked for a job — spending hundreds of hours there working on movements and listening to what owners loved and feared. Monterey started in 2022 as a passion project built on that experience and on three decades in marketing.
The studio designs around what real owners need, and its line-up spans the Summit, Elite and Tribute collections at roughly $270 to $520. Divers lead the range: the 42 mm Darkfathom on a high-beat Miyota 9015, the 40.5 mm Outer Banks Diver on a Miyota 8215, the Carova, the EBC GMT Pro, and the Coral Cave and Dark Bayou on the high-beat PT5000, most of them rated to 200 m. Alongside them sit the 40 mm Celestium, the Croupier with its casino caseback, the hand-wound Highball and Kitty Hawk on the Seagull ST-3600, the Slipstream Chronograph on the Seagull ST-1901, the Commodore dress watch and the meca-quartz Moonstream, with sapphire and ceramic details throughout and an in-house engraving service.
Monterey openly rejects the "microbrand" label, preferring to describe itself as a studio, and backs its pieces with what it calls the Turkey Promise: service good enough that a customer would invite the team to Thanksgiving dinner. By its own count two thirds of its owners are buying their first mechanical watch, and its pieces are worn on all seven continents, from Antarctica to Everest Base Camp.
