Waltham Watch Company

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Waltham Watch Company
legal form SA
founding 1850
resolution 1957
Seat Roxbury , Massachusetts
Waltham , Massachusetts
management David Davis, Edward Howard, Aaron Lufkin Dennison, Royal E. Robbins,
Branch Watchmaking

Waltham Watch Company factory building in the late 19th century
Newspaper advertisement from 1913

Waltham Watch Company was an American watch manufacturer. In over 100 years of existence, around 40 million wrist, grandfather and wall clocks, tachometers , compasses , time fuses and other precision instruments of the highest quality have been produced. It has no affiliation with the independent former bicycle , motorcycle and automobile manufacturers Waltham Manufacturing Company , and American Waltham Manufacturing Company and Waltham Automobile Company .

American Horology Company (1852-1853)

Aaron Lufkin Dennison had worked since 1849 to develop a watch with interchangeable parts to enable series production. For this purpose he founded in 1850 together with David Davis and Edward Howard (1813-1904) first the "Dennison, Howard & Davis Company", from which the "American Horology Company" in Roxbury , Massachusetts emerged shortly afterwards . Dennison developed the first prototype based on this concept with the brothers David S. Marsh (1827–1901) and Oliver B. Marsh. He still exists. The first clocks were completed at the end of 1852. The first 17 watches, embossed “The Warren Mfg Co”, were distributed to the company's management. The watches with the numbers 18 to 100 were minted as "Warren Boston" and another 800 as "Samuel Curtis". A smaller number called "Fellows & Schell" were sold for $ 40.00 each.

Boston Watch Company (1853-1857) and Waltham

The company name was changed in September 1853 to "Boston Watch Company". A new workshop was built in Waltham Massachusetts on the banks of the Charles River ; this workshop would grow to a huge size over time. In October 1854 the company finally moved to Waltham. The other works (1001–5000) were given the trademarks "Dennison, Howard, & Davis", "PSBartlett" and "CT Parker".

New Beginnings and American Waltham Watch Company (1857–1883)

After an initial bankruptcy, the company was auctioned off to Royal E. Robbins († 1902), who reorganized it in May 1857 as "Appleton Tracy & Co". The other works, the model 1857 (No. 5001 to 14,000), were made with this mark. In addition, the "CT Parker" brand was introduced as model 1857, of which 399 pieces were made. There were also 598 chronometers .

Edward Howard founded the Howard Watch Company in Boston (Massachusetts) after his departure .

The "Waltham Improvement Co." merged in January 1859 with the "Appleton, Tracy & Co." to form the "American Watch Company" (AWCo). In 1861, after the election of President Lincoln , the American Civil War began . The manufacture of the watches declined, but the company managed to survive thanks to strict cost-cutting measures.

Waltham then became the main supplier of railway chronometers for various North American railroad companies , and later exported them to 52 other countries around the world. On the occasion of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia , Waltham presented the first fully automatic screwdriver in 1876, winning the gold medal in the first international watch precision competition. Not only American watchmaking, but that of the whole world owes many of its inventions and developments to the first members of the Waltham Watch Company, such as Bacon, Church, Dennison, Fogg, H. Marsh, Webster and Woerd.

20th century

In 1885 the company was changed to "American Waltham Watch Co." (AWWCo). This name was retained for the next 32 years.

In 1898 the American Waltham Watch Company introduced their new Model 99 / Size 16 o'clock. A total of 500,000 watches were made.

In 1917 the name was changed again to "Waltham Watch Co." (WWCo), then in 1923 to "Waltham Watch and Clock Company" and finally in 1925 to "Waltham Watch Company" (WWC). The Canadian Pacific Railway commissioned the Waltham Watch Company to manufacture two high quality types of pocket watches. The larger item is characterized by the engraved on the work shield and beaver emblem of the Railway and is now called "CPR" type ( C anadian P acific R denotes ailway type). The second group has the lettering "CRT" ( C anadian R ailway T ime Service) engraved on the workpiece. Both types of these railroader's watches are coveted collector's items today. On December 28, 1948, the Waltham Watch Company had to declare bankruptcy.

In 1957 the Waltham Watch Company in the USA was closed. The subsidiary founded by Waltham International in Switzerland in 1954 continues to sell Swiss-made watches under the “Waltham” label.

swell

  1. ^ A b Waltham Museum: Waltham Watch Company
  2. ↑ a b Waltham Museum: Timeline
  3. ^ Waltham Museum: Families
  4. ^ Watch Wiki: American Waltham Watch Co

literature

  • Anton Kreuzer: The clock from the factory. The American Waltham Watch Company. American pocket watches volume 1 . Carinthia, Klagenfurt 1987, ISBN 3-85378-283-3 .
  • Cooksey Shugart, Richard E. Gilbert, Martha Shugart: Complete Price Guide to Watches. Cooksey Shugart, Cleveland 1998, ISBN 1-57432-064-5 .

Web links

Commons : Waltham Watch Company  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files