WHAT WATCH

WHAT WATCH

Part four of four

WHAT WATCH

The 19th century saw many changes in the watch. By 1830 the cylinder escapement had almost completely replaced the verge escapement and the use of the chronometer escapement gave watches a precision they had not had before. The lever escapement established its supremacy in this century.

Possibly the most noticeable technical achievement was the advent of the keyless watch. The difficulty encountered when attempting to in­corporate this feature into a watch with a fusee, heralded the final demise on the Continent of the fusee, although many English makers clung to the key wound verge watch until as late as the 1880s.

WHAT WATCH

The Swiss industry began to emerge from its previous state of quies­cence to become one of the major manufacturers. With a widening market the form watch was reintroduced. Now intended primarily for use by the fair sex, these small movements were housed in finger rings, bodies of butterflies, bracelets and so forth. Although Frederic Japy had begun making watches in France by machine tools as early as 1776, it was during this century that true factory methods were generally adopted.

It seems likely that the first watches made in America were the work of Thomas Harland (1735-1807). An advertisement of 1773 declared that he made 'horizontal, repeating and plain gold watches in gold, silver, metal or covered cases', though whether he made these or simply engraved his name on imported examples is now known. His obituary states however that he made the first watch manufactured in America.

WHAT WATCH

WHAT WATCH

After his death, Luther Goddard (1762-1842) bought some watches from his estate, as well as some tools and in 1809 began making watches at Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. Many of the parts he bought from abroad but some he cast in his workshop and had the cases engraved by a local engraver. His first watches were marked 'L. Goddard'.

Two other watchmakers of repute in the first half of the century in America were the Pitkin brothers, Henry (1811-46) and James Flagg (1812-70). By 1835 they had developed a watch which they hoped could be manufactured commercially by standardizing the parts so that they were interchangeable. Even so they had to import dials, hands, hair­springs, mainsprings and jewels. The first 50 watches were marked 'Henry Pitkin' while later pieces were marked H. & J. F. Pitkin. The brothers were never successful at cheap mass production for their watches were still more expensive than imported ones.

WHAT WATCH

It was not until the 1850s that successful production of machine-made watches was achieved, principally due to the efforts of Aaron L. Den- nison and Edward Howard. Dennison was trained by James Carey of Brunswick and after working for a repairer for some years he opened his own workshop called A. L. Dennison & Company in 1856. Although the firm was at first making only boxes for the jewelry trade, by 1849 Dennison had turned his attention to the manufacture of watches and persuaded Edward Howard to give him a room in his own factory in Roxbury, Massachusetts in order to experiment with machinery for watch production.

He had little success with his first eight-day watch but by 1854 he had produced over 1,000 thirty-six hour movements with the name 'Samuel Curtis, Roxbury' engraved on the plates. Curtis had been one of Dennison's early backers. Dennison's company at this time was called the Boston Watch Company. Unfortunately the company went bankrupt in 1857 mainly due to a general recession. However they had set the trend that was to be followed by the more successful com­panies such as The American Waltham Watch Company and E. Howard and Company.

WHAT WATCH

WHAT WATCH

Firms such as Waterbury (1880-1896) and Ingersoll concentrated on the rapidly growing need for cheaper watches. These cheap watches, the products of advancing technology and acceptance of new ideas, were eventually to crush the more conservative English watch trade. The Swiss makers survived, however, by adopting and improving upon the best of the new methods of production. Many of the names appearing on watches of modern manufacture bear names of eminent makers of this century: Jurgensen, Frodsham, Bonniksen, Vacheron, Constantin - their work having been continued by their successors.

WHAT WATCH

As the century progressed, the emphasis changed, with cases becom­ing plainer. The demand was now for a technically interesting watch that was highly accurate, or for a simple inexpensive model with an adequate degree of accuracy.