Hi TCHOU:
Welcome to the NAWCC American Pocket Watch Message Board!
You didn't give us quite enough information to go on.
The watch name "Express Monarch" was used by the
Longines Watch Co. They also furnished a few watches marked "Railway Monarch" but use of the word "Railway" on a watch (in the U.S.) was judged to be reserved for the
Hampden Watch Co. as a result of
Trade Mark Infringement Case.
Your watch sounds like a 'private label,' or 'contract,' watch. Just about all the watch companies, including the Swiss firms, would mark both the watch movements and/or the dials in just about any manner for any customer who wished to pay for the service. I don't have any exact references for the costs, but I've heard (read?) that, for some companies, if five or more watches were ordered, there was no charge for marking the movements. Specially marked dials were said to cost 25 or 50 cents each. Some watch manufacturers were more liberal. Private label watches were contracted for by a large range of companies, from Sears, Roebuck down to the smaller jewelers in the little towns.
It would be helpful if you could post a picture of the movement (the "works"), the clearer and sharper, the better, other pictures will help a little, but this is the most important. We may be able to identify it by the shape of the plates. In trying to open the watch, you might find the information in "
How To Open A Pocket Watch Case" useful.
To post an image, scroll to the top of the thread and click on "
FAQ," then scroll down to "vBulletin FAQ" and click on the "
How to post images" and follow the instructions. Note that there is no indication of attaching a file (picture) until you go to actually post your thread or your reply. The picture does not show up in the "
Instant Reply" text box in which you've written your thread or your reply, nor does the picture appear in the "
Preview"
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.
Note: The grade of a case is the quality of the materials and work that went into it. Each case grade was offered in many different engraved designs.
A short history of American watch cases, within the online article "
Decorative Aspects of American Horology," by Philip Poniz, can be viewed on
The Antiquorum Magazine website.
The history of The Dueber-Hampden Watch Co. is told in
From Springfield To Moscow: The Complete Dueber-Hampden Story by James W. Gibbs, a revised and enlarged successor to the 1954 Supplement to the
NAWCC Bulletin, Philadelphia, PA, 1986 (this should be available to members on loan by mail from the
NAWCC Library & Research Center). Briefly, John C. Dueber established a watch case company in Newport, KY in the late 1870's. In the mid-to-late 1880's he purchased a controlling interest in the Hampden Watch Co. of Springfield, MA. In
1888-1889, both operations were moved to a dual, attached set of factory buildings in Canton, OH. The Dueber Watch Case Manufacturing Co. was a separate company from the Hampden Watch Co., although the ads used the Dueber-Hampden name and that name was (and still is) in common usage, and they were housed in adjacent buildings. It stayed that way until about 1925 when the companies were merged. Hampden movements were frequently offered factory fitted into Dueber cases, such as seen in an
1908 Ad. The companies continued in business, producing both watches and cases until falling sales in the mid-1920's led to receivership in 1927. The manufacturing equipment, parts on hand and work in progress were sold to Russia. Operations ceased in 1930 when the machinery was shipped to Russia. It is believed that all factory records either went with the equipment, or were destroyed, and there are no surviving records from which to match serial numbers of watches, or cases, against models and grades.
Dueber ads from the years 1891 and 1908 can be seen at:
elginwatches.org/scans/misc_ads/m_index.html
To view, go to the Elgin Watch Collectors Site Home Page at elginwatches.org, then copy and paste the address in your browser's address bar and click on 'Go'.
Good luck,
