Need any info on Waltham

[Barry G]

The serial number of your watch dates it to about 1905, and the Waltham Serial Number and Grade List indicates that it is an 18 size, Model #1883 [named after the first year of production], Grade No. 81, with 15 jewels.

My records also indicate that the watch was meant to fit into a hunting case [i.e., it should have a front cover]. If it doesn't have a front cover, and if the winding stem is at the 3:00 position instead of the 12:00, the watch has likely been recased somewhere along the line.

Regards,

Barry

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My Online Pocket Watch Collection (http://barrygoldberg.net/watches.htm)

[Tom McIntyre]

Can you tell us what it says on the barrel bridge. That is the piece of metal that says American Waltham Watch Co. There is something small written by the edge near the balance wheel.

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Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP Candidate
Tommy the JOAT's Web (http://www.AWCo.org)

[Tom McIntyre]

OK I see it now 15 jewels along the center edge and safety pinion next to the balance cock.


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Tom McIntyre
NAWCC 2nd VP Candidate
Tommy the JOAT's Web (http://www.AWCo.org)

[Kent]

agentvic:

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.

Sliverode is the tradename by which the Philadelphia Watch Case Co. identified their nickel cases. 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."

Kent :smile: