Smallest American Keywinder?

[Rick Hufnagel]

Hello everyone

A bit of fun for today. This watch surfaced yesterday while looking for something else and it got me to thinking.... Is this the smallest American Keywinder?

It is a Waltham model 1873-6 exported overseas. It lives in a Dennison case marked for Alfred Bedford. The movement dates to late 1890 and the case 1890-91.



For scale, here it is next to an 18s keywinder in a typical 3oz case.


I have gone through pretty much every piece of reference material I can get my hands on and the closest thing found are 8 sized movements from Springfield (Illinois) and the 8s Walthams. Elgins smallest would be the 10s.

Aurora, Hampden, NY, Lancaster etc did not produce keywind ladies watches. (Unless I have completely overlooked something)

Since the Swiss and French put out tiny ladies keywinders into the 20th century I thought it was a bit odd not to find more 6s or even smaller ones from America. I guess everyone was enjoying their stemwinders here!

The 6 size became popular in the later half of the 1880s which was also when keywinders seem to be fizzling out in the US...

What do you think? Can anyone show another 6s or smaller American keywind watch?
Hve a good day everyone! Thanks for entertaining my madness.

 

[Fred Hansen]

Howard G-size (80 total made in KW version) comes right to mind as a near equivalent, but great topic and one that I’d never thought on previously.

 

[Robert Gift]

... The 6 size became popular in the later half of the 1880s which was also when keywinders seem to be fizzling out in the US...

Did everyone find the stem-wind a great welcome innovation to the key wind? (I did not even know key-wind existed in pocket watches.)
I'd always be misplacing the keyvheneeded. Or losing it.

 

[Rick Hufnagel]

Howard G-size

Interesting! This is a new one for me. Thanks.

In a bulletin article from January of last year, Alan Myers notes that these are equivalent to a 15 ligne movement. Using a conversion of 2.2558291 millimeters per ligne, this comes out to a little under 33.84mms.

It seems this small number of G sized keywinders had been finished from January of 1874 through October of 1876.

So with a diameter of 33.84 MMs, the G sized Howard is smaller than the Waltham.

The model 73-6 has a diameter about 35mm across the dial plate and 34.45 to the actual casing diameter.

 

[Clint Geller]

Interesting! This is a new one for me. Thanks.

In a bulletin article from January of last year, Alan Myers notes that these are equivalent to a 15 ligne movement. Using a conversion of 2.2558291 millimeters per ligne, this comes out to a little under 33.84mms.

It seems this small number of G sized keywinders had been finished from January of 1874 through October of 1876.

So with a diameter of 33.84 MMs, the G sized Howard is smaller than the Waltham.

The model 73-6 has a diameter about 35mm across the dial plate and 34.45 to the actual casing diameter.

Hi Rick,

The Howard watch factory production records indicate that at most 90 Howard Model 1874 (Series VI) movements were completed with serial numbers from 100,001 to 100,100, but with SNs 100,061 to 100,070 indicated as having been "destroyed." As for the dates in these ledgers, it has never been entirely clear what all the dates entered in the Howard watch factory production ledgers mean, or even whether all the dates entered there mean the same thing. However, in most cases I believe they likely mean the dates on which particular movements left the factory, which may or may not have been close to the dates on which they were completed. The entries for several of the Howard G Size keywind movements show an earlier date with a line drawn through it followed by a later date, which is sometimes much later. For instance, Movement SN 100,020 shows the date "September 24, 1874" together with the indication "N.Y.O." for New York Office, both lined out, and then followed by "E.H.&Co., April 1879." I interpret this to mean that the movement originally was intended to be dispatched to the NY Office on September 24, 1874, but for whatever reason (perhaps weak demand, as the country was still reeling from the financial "Panic of 1873"), was held back until April 1879. Alternatively, the movement had some kind of problem and it was set aside for several years. I believe that the designation "E.H.&Co." referred to the Boston sales office. However, all but a few of these movements show a single date in either 1874 or 1875, which I believe is when all or nearly all of them were completed. A few of these show only a single crossed out date, so these few may never have been finished at all, in which case the total production of G Size keywinds could be somewhat fewer than 90.

I have seen more than a dozen G keywind movements, but only three or four in correct cases. The dial signatures vary quite a bit on these early movements. The dial of SN 100,002 is even inscribed "Patent February 4, 1868," referring to Howard's steel safety barrel.