business. A downturn in the economy led Watson to sell
of a lifetime by offering for sale a large collection of
the fedoras he’d restored as a teenager. Still in Ohio, he
equipment, including century-old hat blocks, a crown iron
consigned a few at a local shop and put some on eBay.
machine from the 1920s, a hat tipper and many other tools of the trade to get him started. Without his help
“They sold like that,” he says, snapping his fingers. “People
and the help of another old hatter back east, it may have
started asking me, ‘Do you have more?’” Before he knew
taken Watson decades to find such treasures in antique
it, he was selling his hats all over the world.
shops. Very few, if any, manufacturers still make the specialized molds and hand-operated machines used to
Like anything Watson sets his mind to, he jumped in with
create or refurbish authentic Western hats, fedoras, derby
both feet, spending hours online trying to learn more
hats and every other type of hat a person could dream of
about millinery. He soon figured out that hatters take their
wearing.
trade and its secrets very seriously; few were willing to talk. But one hatter from Bisbee did take the time. Over
Unlike box store finds, the methods and materials Watson
the next several years, the two old souls struck up a
has always used are meant to last a lifetime. Each hat
friendship based on their love of the art.
starts out as a rough form made from one of four materials: genuine American beaver felt, European hare
That friend, Grant Sergot, gave Watson the opportunity
52
Ima g e s A Z . c o m D ecem ber 2 0 1 5
felt, Ecuadorian Cuenca or Monte Christo straw from