Native American Watches

The inevitable adoption and adaptation of the western watch by Native American Indians progressed throughout the second half of the twentieth century turning a mundane band into an elaborate piece of jewelry. Often worn as a replacement to the beloved bracelet, artisans of Native American watches continue to focus their attention on beautifying the bands and face by encompassing earth and metal tones with naturally occurring semi-precious stones and shell. Divided into three general categories, Native American watchbands usually consist of one of three materials including expandable and set metals, leather, and beads.

The most common form of the metal watchband and the one most highly revered by Native American jewelers contain sterling silver, a metal tribes such as the Navajo, Hopi and Zuni have been working with for the past 150 years. Depending on the tribe or individuals expertise, one can expect to find bands of turquoise, coral, black onyx, opal, or lapis inlayed through beautiful channel work, designed with needlework mosaics, or the Hopi style of overlaying silver with silver. No matter your taste, metal watchbands provide a plethora of styles and designs visually palpable to all lovers of Native American watches.

Earlier variations of different forms of jewelry such as bracelets and belts provided the stepping-stone to working with and designing leather bands for modern watches. Although the majority of leather bands range from a light brown to black, leather straps may be dyed to suit the wearers taste. Whether adorned with silver and stones or left simplistically plain, the leather wristband provides comfort without losing luster.

Unlike metal bands, which use the silver to embrace the stones, beaded bands act as the backbone of support to the watch, while displaying the beauty of the beads. Whether of shell or stone, beaded bands can vary from a lower number of strands with larger stones to support the watch to a multi-strand of smaller beads. The beautiful blue and greenish hues of turquoise accented with genuine red coral provide a stunning support and accent for a watch, while presenting the wearer an aurora of confidence.