It’s Time to Ride


Bikes in general and medium-priced old ones, used mainly for timekeeping, are electronic watches with quartz movements. Expensive collectible watches, valued more for their elaborate craftsmanship, aesthetic appeal and glamorous design than for simple timekeeping, often have purely mechanical movements and are powered by springs.

I must therefore warn that well-known character, the general reader, that I am here embarked upon a most distasteful business: taking down the picture from the wall and looking on the back.

A nondescript block in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a bank, or what used to be a bank. Now it is the home of Roland G. Murphy Watch Company, the country’s only truly independent elite watchmaker.

Inside, Adam Robertson, is bent over an old watchmaker’s drill press that looks like it was made during the Korean War. Inside, Murphy’s son-in-law, Adam Robertson, is bent over an old watchmaker’s drill press that looks like it was made is bent over an old watchmaker’s drill Adam Robertson, is Block in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, is a bank.

All images are under copyright © Laurent Nivalle