A pair of seldom seen Waltham-Howards

[Jerry Treiman]

I just got my first consecutive serial number movement. I can't say much for the condition of either one, but I think their scarcity makes up for it. These two 21-jewel American Watch Co. grade bridge model movements - 1,025,042 & 1,025,043 were made by Waltham in the latter half of 1905 for the E.Howard Watch Co. Those are the serial numbers assigned for Howard. The partial movement on the left I have had for about 40 years; I just got the one on the right. Their Waltham serial numbers - 12,625,0xx - are incorrectly identified in the gray book as 16-size 7-jewel "Traveler" movements. All of the examples I have seen from this production group have had the Howard name ground off and the plates re-damaskeened. I speculate that when Howard was ready to market their own 12-size movement, around 1907, they removed their name from these movements and jobbed them out anonymously.

[Kent]

Very nice Jerry!

I had seen 1025043 on eBay last week and thought that it was pretty special. I'm glad to see that you got it, especially since you have 1025042.

Ed and I also have 1025048 and 1025055 listed in our database.

Nice catch,

[Jerry Treiman]

The 12-size bridge model above is just the latest Waltham-Howard I have bought, but this has been a banner year for adding examples to my research collection. The year started out with this 16-size 23-jewel bridge model. It was delivered to Keystone (Howard) in mid-1904 and still retains the Waltham style bridges but was finished at Keystone.




My second and third finds of the year were these two 3/4-plate models. The 12-size movement has seen some "history". Keystone decided not to sell it as a Howard watch, milled their name off of the train bridge, and did their best to match the Waltham-originated damaskeening visible on the rest of the plates. A subsequent owner or jobber turned the diameter of the movement down to fit in some unknown special case. Despite these unfortunate modifications it is still an example of a scarce 12-size Waltham-Howard movement. The 16-size movement fortunately only lost its case and is a fine example of this similarly scarce model. (There were only about 300 each of the 12 and 16-size 3/4 plate models with 17 jewels -- that includes open-face and hunting versions). These two are also from mid-1904.

[Jerry Treiman]

My second pair of consecutives are also Waltham-Howards (sort of). These two movements were originally made for Waltham's last contract with Keystone, but apparently were never delivered and Waltham instead finished them as Riverside-grade movements. However, they still retain the Howard-contract plate pattern, whiplash regulator and a few other details. One I have had for about a dozen years, the other just found me.