When the doctors told me I had bilateral epicondylitis—both elbows, at the same time—I figured it meant a few weeks of rest. It meant months.
Months of not being able to open a jar, type more than a sentence, or grip much of anything without pain. Months of sitting still and thinking too much.
When you can't use your hands, you start paying very close attention to the things that were made to be used.
I kept coming back to watches. Not as jewelry. Not as status. As tools—the kind a person reaches for without thinking, trusts without questioning, wears without worrying about scratching.
Most of what I found didn't feel that way. It felt designed for a shelf, not a wrist. Light in all the wrong ways. Beautiful, maybe—but hollow.
I wasn't after something new. I was after something that felt right—simple, honest, built with a reason behind every choice.
That's where 1903 Watch Co began. Not with a business plan. Not with a finished design. With a feeling that something was missing—and a decision, made quietly during a long recovery, to go find it.
One step at a time.
