A Very Lucky Find ...

[Jerry Treiman]

As many of you know, I have been researching Waltham-Howard watches for a number of years and am working (with Carl Goetz) on a comprehensive article for the Bulletin. Very briefly, during the period from late 1902 through 1905 Waltham produced movements with the Howard name on them, at first for the original E. Howard & Co. and later for Keystone. Keystone continued to show some of these in their catalogs and advertisements until at least 1907. The first of the movements manufactured for Keystone were delivered in 1904 and included this 17-jewel 3/4-plate 16-size movement. It utilized a new plate design that Waltham later used for their Equity watches and some gilt export models. I was delighted to find this watch on eBay about five years ago. It came to me cased in a Keystone J. Boss case with no specific Howard markings, but it looked original. It is one of about 14 that we have recorded as seen (out of 300 made).

[Jerry Treiman]

During the years that I have been researching the Waltham-Howard production I have kept my eye on empty wooden Howard boxes that occasionally show up hoping to find boxes that accompanied Waltham-Howard movements so that I can harvest serial numbers and case numbers. Just recently such a box showed up on eBay and I eagerly checked the serial number on the card to see if it was one of the 14 recorded examples. Not only was it one that we have recorded -- it was from the one I bought five years ago. I was thrilled to be able to reunite the watch and it's box after who knows how long. It was gratifying to find documentation, too, that my case was original to this movement.

An important side lesson is that one should be very hesitant to ever re-case watches which came cased from the factory -- you never know when such documentation might appear to demonstrate the originality of an uncertain case, or put the lie to your "as-original" recase. A few years ago an original gold case was tragically separated from one of these for melt because the seller of the movement thought a Howard signature in the case was necessary for it to be original. A number of NAWCC members have been doing casing research and the possibility of detecting inappropriate re-cases is growing.

[richiec]

Jerry, fantastic find, thanks for sharing.

[terry hall]

Great story there Jerry... reunited !!! Congrats! one just never knows! :D

[Kent]

I love it!

Thanks for sharing the story and the pictures,

[Tom McIntyre]

The cards are just as important as the rest of the parts in this story. I have seen a number of these "non-standard" cards and had thought they were likely to be simple forgeries created to improve the watch for sale.

Of course, the nice engraving and all the patent dates could only appear on these warranty/threat cards at a later date than this watch.

One of my sad instances of box and watch is a pretty scarce No. 2 adjusted to 5 positions, with its original box that demonstrates that the case (originally gold) was scrapped and replaced.

[Robert Sweet]

Just recently such a box showed up on eBay and I eagerly checked the serial number on the card to see if it was one of the 14 recorded examples. Not only was it one that we have recorded -- it was from the one I bought five years ago. I was thrilled to be able to reunite the watch and it's box after who knows how long.

Jerry,

Great find and nice box. This shows the power of Ebay.

Robert

[Veritas]

Nice find Jerry.Persitence pays off.
I wonder what the odds are of having that happen again to you?
Hope you bought a lottery ticket that day.:)

[Larry S]

As hard as these watches are to find, it's above unbelievable that you've found the original box/documentation to complete the package. Nice find Jerrry.

Larry

[crsides]

Great find Jerry. What a thrill.

On a prior thread on consecutive # watches, it was mentioned that the smaller the population, the more likely you were to find consecutive numbers ; and this would apply to matching boxes with watches as well.

Of course, you first have to find TWO of these relatively rare items.


Charlie