1910s AWWC information request. [Archive] - National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors Message Board

rrwatch

01-23-2003, 08:15 AM

From data in the Waltham serial number list, information about your watch, S/N 19,318,265, is as follows:
Size: 18
Model: 1883
Grade: Sterling
Number of jewels: 7
Made about 1914
Comments: Made to fit an open face case, movement is unadjusted.
Your case was made by the Philadelphia Watch Case Co. , and they used to term "Silverode" to denote a case made of nickel silver, an alloy that was very long wearing and that would take a high polish, but which contained no silver whatsoever.
American watch sizes were in 1/30th of an inch, starting with a 0 (zero) size being 1 and 5/30ths and going up 1/30" for each successive higher number. Thus, your 18 size movement is 1 and 23/30ths of an inch in diameter.

Ed Ueberall
NAWCC #49688

Kent

01-23-2003, 08:21 AM

MichaelJ:

According to information in "Waltham Pocket Watch Identification and Price Guide," Roy Ehrhardt, Heart of America Press, Kansas City, MO, 1976 (A new edition is still in print - see Heart of America Press (http://www.hoapress.com)), which contains a serial number vs. size/grade table, serial number 19,318,265 is an 18-size, 7-jewel, model 1883, open-face face, Sterling grade movement, built in about 1913.

Your watch would be similar to the Waltham grade No. 18 shown in a 1917 catalog at:
http://elginwatches.org/scans/sales_catalogs/1917_Oskamp-Nolting/m_pg_W3.html
(you should copy this link and paste it in your browser address bar since directly linking to this website from the NAWCC Message Board is not possible)

Only a small percentage of American watches (or Swiss watches for the North American market) were cased at the factories prior to the mid-1920's. Most watch companies just made movements in industry standard sizes. The case companies made cases in those same sizes. The practice at that time was to go to a jeweler, select the quality of the movement and then pick out the desired style and quality of case. The jeweler would then fit the movement to the case in a matter of moments.

Or, watches were sold by mail-order. Large outfits such as Sears, Roebuck & Co., Montgomery Ward, or T. Eaton (in Canada), would offer the movements in a variety of cases of different design and quality in their catalogs. Smaller mail-order retailers would case the watches, typically in a 20-year gold filled case and offer it only that way, with the buyer not having a choice of cases.

American watch case companies produced nickel cases under various trade names including, Alaska Metal, Oresilver, Silverine, Silveroi and Silverode (which is what you have). Nickel cases, sometimes referred to as nickel-silver cases, were relatively inexpensive and are durable. When polished up properly, they attain a nice luster, appearing like silver, but not quite as "white."

The book, "History of the American Watch Case," Warren H. Niebling, Whitmore Publishing, Philadelphia, PA, 1971 (available on loan by mail to members from the NAWCC Library), has a fairly good history of the Philadelphia Watch Case Co., including reproductions of over twenty photos taken inside of the factory. Briefly, quoting from page 48,

"MR. THEOPHILUS ZURBRUGG bought out the watch case company of Leichty & Le Bouba in 1884, in Philadelphia, Pa.

"About 1888 he changed the name to the Philadelphia Watch Case Co. He made various types of cases, using a crown as one trademark and an arm and hammer as another. ... The company moved to Riverside, N.J. in 1902. ...

"In 1904 this man managed a series of mergers, which brought together his own Philadelphia Watch Case Co., Bates and Bacon, Crescent and the Keystone Watch Case Co."

From page 7:
"... After a series of mergers in 1904 the name became the Keystone Watch Case Co., Riverside, N.J."

A circulating copy of this book is in the NAWCC Library. It is available on loan to members, by mail, upon the payment a modest fee.

There is an online Philadelphia Case Catalog (with Movements) (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/dynaweb/eaa/databases/ephemera/@Generic__BookTextView/39129;nh=1?DwebQuery=Philadelphia#1) (courtesy of Duke University's "Emergence of Advertising in America" website) that you can see. Some nickel cases are shown on page 8.

Kent

That guy down in Georgia :smile:

Oh - I see that Ed beat me to it.