The Black-Owned Company Reviving American Watchmaking

Launched this year on Juneteenth, Black- and woman-owned Lineage is creating luxury watches in downtown SD, driven by a high ideal.

“We are really committed to reinvigorating American watch-building,” co-owner Brianna Edwards says. “Most American watches these days are powered by Japanese or Swiss movements. We wanted the engineering, the parts, and the assembly to be all-American.”

She and her co-owner brother, Evan, share a long-standing tradition of gifting each other watches on big occasions like graduations and round-number birthdays. “We were always watch nerds,” Edwards, 33, says. “We were in the Gaslamp, talking about how cool it would be if we could design our own watch.”

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They began prototyping in 2021. Their watches are powered by American-made, interchangeable quick-release bands. “They’re a dressier type of everyday watch,” she says. In 2024, look for Lineage to host a pop-up shop (with an eye towards opening a brick-and-mortar) while releasing more designs, including ones for smaller wrists.