Meet The Designer & Craftsman That Turned A Passion For Reclaiming 1940’s Vintage & WW2 Aircraft Parts Into One Of The Most Compelling New Watch Brands.
The Story of Kingsley No.1945®
Began in Providence, Rhode Island
In the year 2010, word began to spread at local cigar shops about a pen maker creating very unusual timepieces out of the cellar of an old WW2-era foundry known as the Browne & Sharpe Co. In the cellar of this factory building he began creating watch prototypes from reclaimed WW2 aircraft materials and vintage movement parts bolted to pieces of leather straps made out of worn WW2 bomber jackets.
These ingenious timepieces were created by Ramon Kingsley, the founder and son of a military officer born during the rule of a Latin American Dictator in the 1940’s. At the age of 6, Kingsley developed an obsession with military rulers and fighter pilots and began collecting his father’s military ammunition casings and vintage airplane parts and reusing them to create makeshift toys.
This creative spirit during childhood influenced Kingsley to study industrial design in America at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. For the next decade he developed a passion for inventing and designing bullet shaped Writing Instruments, machined jewelry & accesories for iconic american brands such as A.T. Cross Company including notable brand licensing projects for luxury Italian automaker Escuderia Ferrari and many other historical American & European brands.
One day Kingsley had a dream of creating a watch worn on the wrist made from his collection of WW2 parts. Excited by his dream, Kingsley dedicated thousands of hours over the course of 5 years learning how to design and engineer watch parts that he could assemble with limited tools. His first watch prototypes began to incorporate repurposed WW2-ERA materials and design aesthetics inspired by aircraft gauges, grenades, bomber jackets, briefcases and vintage cigar boxes. The first working model was a square and round steel case similar to that of a cockpit gauge with a distinctive crown guard styled after an MK2 hand grenade lever later named the Kingsley Type 1 Grenade Watch.
Today the Kingsley workshop is a design and watchmaking lab that assembles unique experimental WW2-ERA inspired pieces. Kingsley watches are made from a unique technique of reclaiming vintage materials for design inspirations. All collections are limited production assembly runs that are individually numbered or prototype series. Each watch is fitted inside a vintage style hand finished cigar watch box. To make a Kingsley watch requires a variety of engineers, skilled craftsman and machine shops worldwide to follow all fo the intricate design and material specifications to create an experience that goes beyond the watch.
