united states watch co. [Archive] - National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors Message Board

Kent

06-24-2005, 12:31 PM

Hi Scott:

Welcome to the NAWCC Pocket Watch Message Board!

The following is based upon information in the December 1999 issue of the NAWCC Bulletin, which in itself draws upon other sources:
The United States Watch Company of Waltham began on the basis of the existing watch industry in Waltham, MA. The first of the principles was Charles V. Woerd, formerly the Superintendent of the American Waltham Watch Co. In 1882, he joined the Nutting brothers, owners of a small watch machinery and tool company on Crescent St. in Waltham, Massachusets. Together, they created the Waltham Watch Tool Co. After several years, Woerd won over his partners to the idea of expanding the operation and concentrating on watch making. E.C. Hammer supplied the financing and the United States Watch Co. of Waltham, hereafter referred to simply as USWC, was formed in 1884. A Boston businessman, T. B. Eaton, became a stockholder and was elected President of the company while Mr. Hammer became the Treasurer. A new factory was built, with a planned capacity of 50 watches per day. "The directors attempted to name the company the 'Waltham Watch Company' but because of a suit filed by the American Watch Company, use of the name Waltham was forbidden." One result of the suit was that the USWC had to add the phrase “A New Watch Company at Waltham” to its movements and, possibly, to its advertising. Production continued until USWC ceased operations just after the turn of the century. In the Spring of 1901, USWC was purchased by the Philadelphia Watch Case Co. During its period of operation, watches were built having serial numbers up to approximately 890,000. However, its believed that quite a bit fewer watch movements were actually produced. The Philadelphia Watch Case Co. merged with the Keystone Watch Case Co., and others, in 1904, with the Keystone name prevailing. Thus Keystone gained control of the plant and used it to begin making their “E. Howard Watch Co.” brand of watch in 1905.

Illustrations and descriptions of a number of USWC movements, and material, may be seen in “History and Products of the United States Watch Company Waltham, Mass.,” Greg Frauenhoff, Sedalia, CO, 2003 (available at this Link To Greg’s Books (http://hometown.aol.com/gfrauen10/books.html))

Illustrations and descriptions of some USWC movements may be seen in an 1895 ad at:
elginwatches.org/scans/non_elgin_ads/1895/m_U_S_@_Waltham.html
To view, go to the Elgin Watch Collectors Site Home Page at elginwatches.com, then copy and paste the address in your browser's address bar and click on 'Go'.

It would be helpful if you could post a picture of the movement (the "works"), the clearer and sharper, the better. We may be able to tell you a little about it if we can see what it looks like.

For an open-face, screw back & bezel cased watch you can get good results by placing the movement on a flatbed scanner. A hunting-case movement, or an open-face movement in a hinged case would have to be removed from the case for this to work. Otherwise, it’ll have to be a digital camera, or a scan of a photograph.

Larry Jones has written up a useful article on Image Posting (http://www.larjones.com/data/imagehelp.html), which may be helpful.

Currently, Tom Chaudoir, the NAWCC Message Board Administrator, is recommending that those who do not have web space in which to post pictures register for a free account at flickr.com (http://flickr.com/register.gne). Their menu-driven procedure for loading pictures is about as easy as it gets. Once you enlarge the picture, using flickr's magnifying glass icon, scroll down below the picture to find the field labeled "1. Grab the photo's URL:" The link in that field is the one to post on the NAWCC Pocket Watch Message Board.

If you have a problem posting the picture(s), you can attach it (them) to an e-mail to me (you can get my email address by clicking on my name in the upper left-hand corner of this post and viewing my Public Profile) and I'll post it (them) for you.

Its also helpful if you can post all the markings that are on the movement (the "works") in case they can't be seen in the picture(s).

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 (even then, uncased movements were furnished to the trade at least until the 1960's). Most watch companies just made movements (the "works") 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.

If you can tell us about (or post a picture of) the trade marks or names stamped into the inside back of the case, we may be able to tell you a little about the case material and its manufacturer.

Good luck,