From Clinton to Hampden: A Century of American Watchmaking on The Lonely Wrist Podcast
Four generations of Chicago watchmaking
In a new episode of The Lonely Wrist, host Blake Ray sits down with Joe Wein, third-generation CEO of Hampden Watch, to talk about what it means to lead America’s oldest family-owned watch company.
The Wein family started the Clinton Watch Company in Chicago in 1922, and the family’s story runs through the Great Depression, World War II and the quartz revolution. What began in the city’s mail-order era is now a brand built on Swiss movements and personalization, still run by the same family more than a century later.
From catalog counters to the Casecap®
Joe traces the family’s roots in Chicago’s catalog era, alongside names like Montgomery Ward, Alden and Spiegel, through to the personalized watches Hampden makes today.
He shares a few family stories along the way:
-
Divers’ watches once “packed in water.”
-
The Hampden pocket watch carried by Orville Wright, now held at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum: the first watch in powered flight.
-
A family tree of watch brands, Clinton, Wolbrook and Douglas among them, started by five Wein brothers across three countries. The family later acquired Benrus.
Today the focus is the Casecap®, a patented removable caseback that lets wearers switch between a sapphire exhibition window and an engraved caseback.
“I’d rather make a watch that’s precious than a watch that’s valuable,” Joe says in the episode. “We’re not just selling watches. We’re connecting people to their stories.”
The workshop
The podcast also previews First Hand, Hampden’s watchmaking workshop in Chicago, which opened in December 2025. Guests assemble a Unitas 6498 movement, have their initials engraved on the ratchet wheel, and leave wearing the watch they built.
Joe also talks about working alongside his son, Daniel Wein, the family’s fourth generation in the business.
“My father pressured me to join the business,” Joe shares. “I didn’t pressure Daniel. But when he joined, it brought everything full circle.”
The meaning of time
Listeners also hear Joe’s own stories: the watch his father carried through World War II, engraved with his Army serial number; his early innovations in laser engraving that cut production from 24 days to five; and what a lifetime of watchmaking has taught him.
As he puts it:
“If a hundred years from now a great-grandchild is holding one of our watches and it’s precious because of what’s engraved on the back, then we’ve done our job.”
Listen now
Listen to “From Clinton to Hampden: A Century of American Watchmaking with Joe Wein” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.