About Lakefork
Built in McCall, Idaho
Lakefork Watch Co. is a small independent watch company based in McCall, Idaho, founded by Mike Kenley.
Lakefork didn't begin with a business plan to create another watch brand. It grew from an interest in mechanical watches, learning how they work, and eventually wanting to make something that couldn't simply be bought off the shelf.
What started with assembling and modifying watches gradually became designing dials, experimenting with materials and finishes, engraving components, refinishing cases, regulating movements, and developing the equipment and processes needed to do more of the work in-house.
Today, Lakefork watches are built in small numbers at my workshop in McCall.
Made Here Means Something
Not every component in a Lakefork watch is made in Idaho. Cases, movements, crystals, hands and other components come from specialized manufacturers around the world.
What happens here is the part I can put my own hands on.
I design and fabricate my dials, engrave and finish components, prepare and finish cases where required, assemble the watches, regulate the movements, perform final inspection, and develop each Lakefork design from prototype through the finished watch.
That distinction matters to me.
“Handcrafted in McCall, Idaho USA” isn't intended to hide where the components come from. It's meant to tell you where the watch became a Lakefork.
A Different Kind of Microbrand
Lakefork is intentionally small.
There isn't a production line or a warehouse full of finished watches. Limited Editions may involve processes that simply wouldn't make sense at large production volumes, while Standard Editions allow me to offer Lakefork designs on a more regular basis.
Neither is intended to compete on volume.
I'd rather make fewer watches, continue improving the craft, and have the freedom to experiment with materials, dial-making and finishing than turn Lakefork into another catalog of factory-produced watches with a different logo on the dial.
About the Watch Builder
I'm Mike Kenley, founder and watch builder behind Lakefork.
I'm a self-taught watch builder—not a traditionally trained watchmaker—and I think it's important to be straightforward about that distinction.
My background is in construction and design, and I've spent most of my working life making things. I started in the trades and eventually moved into design, where much of my career has involved figuring out how things are put together, solving problems, and turning drawings and ideas into physical objects. Watch building became another expression of that same instinct—only at a considerably smaller scale.
I'm also a TWBC Certified Watch Builder, with specialties in General Watch Building, Custom Dials and Laser Engraving.
View Certification- TWBC #129
Lakefork is the result of several years of learning, experimenting, making mistakes, improving processes and slowly putting together a workshop capable of producing the watches I wanted to make.
I'm still learning. I expect I always will be.
That's part of the reason I enjoy doing this.
Why Lakefork?
The name comes from Lake Fork, Idaho, just outside McCall, the place I call home and where the watches are made.
The mountains, working history and straightforward character of this part of Idaho influence the brand more than any particular design theme. Lakefork watches aren't intended to imitate a lifestyle or manufacture a heritage that doesn't exist.
We're building that history now.