Manufacturing excellence has long been a cornerstone for Ritchie, dating back to our founding in 1850. Today, our wide array of high-precision products is available to retailers in 57 countries, through a network of 142 distributors. Ritchie Navigation also offers a wealth of products and services for OEMs, available via our headquarters and through 76 authorized service stations worldwide. Key attributes of our product line include:

Superior compass fluid for clarity and response.

Since all our compasses are built with ultra lightweight assemblies, no artificial dampening or heavy fluid is needed. The very low viscosity of highly refined Ritchie Dampening Fluid allows the dial to move smoothly within the bowl — lock onto magnetic north faster than competing compasses — and produce brilliant optical clarity. Our vacuum-drawn filling process also helps to eliminate formation of bubbles within the assembly.

Hand-balanced for optimum performance.

The components of every Ritchie dial assembly include the pivot and jewel, the gimbal system, powerful directive force magnets, extremely lightweight dials and a counterbalance tab. Our technicians hand-balance the entire assembly before it is placed into the bowl, to ensure optimum performance and accuracy. These intricate adjustments are made with the lightweight counterbalance tab, located just below the dial, which also provides additional stability to the entire assembly.

Precision machining for meticulous QC.

All of today’s advances in computer-aided design/machining can’t replace the value of personal craftsmanship. At Ritchie Navigation, our inhouse machine shop technicians manufacture and finish many of the metal assemblies that go into every compass. This capability is also critical for
prototyping and tooling of new compass designs. The phrase “quality control” is more than a buzzword at Ritchie. Our unwavering QC mission also includes painstaking evaluation of vendor components before they find their way into a Ritchie device. Further ensuring that every compass we make will provide years of accuracy and dependability.