As the Bozeman Watch Company celebrated the anniversary of their first year in business on the 7^th of December, company CEO Christopher Wardle was notably absent from the festivities.  Wardle was drawn away from the good cheer and congratulatory mood around 11 East Main Street by a much more important and somber anniversary – that of the 1941 bombing of Pearl Harbor.  Attending the ceremonies at the invitation of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association (PHSA), Wardle was in Hawaii to honor the sacrifices of all those who served that fateful day 65 years ago.

            For Wardle, an individual with a strong interest in history and World War II, honoring the fallen, and the survivors, above the sunken USS Arizona was a profoundly powerful experience.  “To share the dais with the very men and women who’ve dedicated their lives to the freedom of this country – three distinct generations of the defenders of the United States – was simply overwhelming.”  It was a moving culmination to a journey begun three years ago, when Wardle read Tom Brokaw’s epic, The Greatest Generation.

            That book – a reflection on those who lived and fought in what we all hope was the last global conflict – led to Wardle’s development of a timepiece designed to pay homage to the state of Montana – one of the only American states to not have a naval battleship named in her honor.  The eventual development of the Bozeman Watch Company’s USS Montana led to the company’s discovery of the PHSA and finally to Wardle’s presence at the memorial at Pearl Harbor.

            Continuing the tradition of partnering not-for-profit organizations with each of the timepieces in the Montana Class Watch Collection, the PHSA was gifted the value of one of the BWC’s soon-to-be-released USS Montana automatics.  This money, US$7,100, will be used to further the groups educational outreach programs, bringing veterans into elementary and secondary schools to teach new generations of Americans about the days of World War II and the sacrifice of the individuals that banded together to fight for freedom.

            “While the USS Montana was a tribute to this great state, the BWC’s involvement with the Pearl Harbor Survivor Association is really a tribute to all those who’ve sacrificed for the freedoms we appreciate here in America. Without such freedom this venture – the Bozeman Watch Company – might never have come together. This is just our way of saying thank you.”