But unlike his Swiss peers, Murphy has had to navigate a barren landscape: “It’s always been harder for me because on this side of the ocean, I’m not surrounded by all of the allied industries that most of the other independents have. They have everything at their fingertips.”
Murphy understood the uphill battle of lacking local manufacturing supplies from his vocational training days in Lancaster and the esteemed halls of WOSTEP in Switzerland in the 1980s, to the years in technical roles with SMH (later the Swatch Group) developing watches for Hamilton.
As fate would have it
Despite maintaining, “my plan was never to get rich; it was just to make a living at what I love doing”, Murphy’s dedication has driven RGM from a personal pursuit to a respectable operation, boasting a full-fledged workshop with an 11-strong team producing under 300 watches a year.
The business has expanded from servicing and restoring, acquiring house specialities such as rose-engine guilloché, to gradually enhancing manufacturing capabilities to craft new and custom watches, incorporating Swiss movements, restored vintage calibres, and complications.
Murphy’s ambitions didn’t stop there. In 2000, he took the plunge to create RGM’s in-house movements. Turn the century back, and the mere concept of American haute horlogerie was virtually non-existent, let alone a future promising prospective patrons. It was a gamble few would have dared take.
Furthermore, Murphy’s progress was hindered by countless manufacturing obstacles that came from treading unchartered territory. Nevertheless, after seven long years of development, RGM finally introduced its first in-house Calibre 801, fit for dual use in pocket and wristwatches.
Extending American history
Thoughtfully designed and engineered for modern utility, this manual-wound time-only movement is a marriage of features inspired by antique pocket watches from bygone hero brands Keystone-Howard and Illinois. It transformed Murphy into America’s proud answer to the world’s elite watchmakers.
