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 These two movements were originally made for Waltham's last contract with Keystone, but apparently were never delivered and Waltham instead finished them as Riverside-grade movements.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.

 

[Jerry Treiman]

I just completed my third pair of consecutive Waltham-Howards. This time it is the mate to the bridge model shown in post #3. 1,000,039 (posted above) came to be in a non-original case, so I was pleased to find 1,000,040 in its original case. Both have the same dial. I believe that these are from the second contract with Waltham and, although many were cased and sold by Hayden W. Wheeler, some were apparently cased by Keystone. Perhaps the Keystone casing was done to later remaining stock?

 

[Jerry Treiman]

It has been a while since I visited this thread. My Waltham-Howard research led me to complete another consecutive pair about a year ago, but these are not identical twins. Both of these movements were received by Howard early in 1904, possibly on the same day. They are both recorded in the handwritten ledger as having 21 jewels.


However, H834035 has 23 jewels, different winding wheels and a different (later style) dial. It also has the latest sales date recorded in the ledger (May 9th, 1904). Everything points to -035 being finished and sold later than -036.


It is the differences that teach us more than the similarities, and I have learned more from this pair than any of the others.