Hello Everyone,

I am researching the United States Watch Co. in Waltham, Massachusetts - not to be confused with American Watch Co. It started in 1885/86 and was purchased by Philadelphia Watch Case Co. in 1901.

I have a database recording information on watches that I have seen in order to properly document their production.

This is what information that I am attempting to gather on each watch:

movement serial number
size
number of jewels
movement signature
type of case
single or double sunk dial
open or hunting case & serial number
dial signature
overall condition

Andy Dervan

Andy,

While we are on the subject of the United States Watch Co., I was confused by a statement concerning the history of U.S. Watch Co. in your article in the October 2004 Bulletin, which seems to conflict with a historical foreword to a reprint of the Keystone Watch Case Co. 1919 Material Catalog which I recently purchased.

On page 615 of the Bulletin, your article states:

In 1901 The Philadelphia Watch Case Co. purchased the New York Standard Watch Co., along with the United States Watch Co. of Waltham, MA . . .

The historical foreword to the reprint of the 1919 Keystone Material Catalog, authored by John Pierson states:

"During the next few years Keystone purchased and gained control of several watchcase and watch making concerns. The famous E. Howard Watch Co. of Roxbury, Massachusetts, which produced some of the finest pocket watches produced in the United States was acquired by Keystone in 1903. . . Following the purchase of Howard, Keystone began the manufacture of high quality pocket watches bearing the name "Howard Watch Company." These watches were manufactured in Waltham, Massachusetts in a factory purchased from the United States Watch Company which went out of business at that time."

Pierson's account seems to disagree substantially with the account in your article.
I also know for a fact that New York Standard was one of the companies acquired by Keystone Watch Case Co., because there are parts for New York Standard watches listed in the 1919 Keystone material catalog.

You also neglected to credit all your sources including Lindell's pictures and other information.

Do you have an explanation for any of this?

In my research into the Howard Watch Co. from around this time I have come across the following information (paraphrased from "Waltham Industries" by Sanderson (1957), Niebling's "History of the American Watch Case" and other sources). A lot of this action swirls around one Theophilus Zurbrugg. --

1) Theophilus Zurbrugg of Riverside, New Jersey owned the Philadelphia Watch Case Company. After he purchased several other factories, including Crescent, Bates & Bacon (B&B) and Keystone the Keystone Watch Case Company name prevailed for the company, hence the sometimes confusion of these company names. In fact, Zurbrugg maintained these company names separately and thus kept the appearance of competition between casemakers while, in fact, they were mostly his. This was the great case company conglomerate that John C. Dueber was famously fighting.

2) In May 1901 Zurbrugg with others incorporated in New Jersey as the United States Watch Company, and acquired the Jersey City and Waltham plants.

3) In February 1903 Zurbrugg bought the watch business of the E.Howard Watch Company.

4) In March 1903 the E. Howard Watch Co. (owned by Zurbrugg) bought the land and buildings from the United States Watch Company (controlled by Zurbrugg) and promptly leased them to the Keystone Watch Case Company (also a Zurbrugg company). Before the lease expired they were bought by Zurbrugg's Keystone Company. It seems that both U.S. Watch Company (Waltham) and E.Howard Watch Company (Keystone) movements were made at this factory.

Thanks Jerry, for finally laying out the entire chronology. I will try to update "The Bridges of Middlesex County" to get it right.

The other interesting piece of information to come to light relatively recently is the slow dissipation of the E. Howard & Co. Watch business. Although they sold the rights to the Howard name to Zurbrugg, they continued to finish watches for quite a few years. Apparently some production continued at the clock company up into the 20's.

Hello Ed,

Regarding E. Howard watches & Philadelphia Watch Co. - I have not had the opportunity to research that piece yet, so I am confused as you. I used to think Edmund Samuelson's book "Waltham Industries" was really accurate, but I found many inaccuracies when I researched Waltham Clock Co.

The Waltham city newspapers are a wonderful source of information, because they closely followed activities both in Waltham and around the country. They are on microfilm; it is a bit tedious trying to go through so many pages, but you encover alot really interesting tidbits and watch factory activities.

Leslie Nesky did a magnificant job reading and abstracting acticles from the newspapers 1900-1902. The newspapers documented the sale and renovation of the factory.

Back to United States Watch Co. - I believe many of their watches (labelled U.S. Watch Co.) were made after the 1901 purchase.

Philadephia Watch Case Co. wanted the Howard name and reputation as their premium (high end) line to go along with U.S. Watch (mid) and NY Standard Watch as (low end) watches.

I will try to correct errors in the near future.

Andy Dervan

Everyone,

Locating U.S. Watch examples - I follow e'bay very closely, check out all watch sites that come across and watch auctions, and browse the mart rooms. I have purchased 1 early production and 2 later production watches as examples.

U.S. Watch appears to have made low to middle level watches and I have seen some many in very poor condition (chipped dials, movements only, and improperly recased movements.

Jerry Treiman put in contact with a gentleman in CA Lee Thompson that is collecting data on watches. We have started sharing infomation.

Appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions.

Andy Dervan

Wasnt the company originally started by Dennison, who had been involved in a number of companies since his split with the Waltham company in 1862?

His original design was of a the president watch and other watches that didn't fit into conventional cases. For this reason, despite their being high grade watches, they were unsuccessful with jewelers and the public. The other owners were dissatisfied and insisted on more conventional designs. He left the company in the early nineties (I believe it may have started in the late eighteen eighties), at which point, watch quality deteriorated substantially.

The book on Watch companies by Crossman, has this information (plus information about lots of companies), which was written approximately contemporaneously for the Jeweler's Circular and published as a book.

Jessica

ps. possibly I'm off about what Crossman says...this is how I remember it...

The United States Watch Co.of Waltham was a development of the tool company that Charles Vander Woerd went to when he left Waltham. Their first product was designed by Woerd and was the odd 16 size "dome model." Woerd died shortly after this effort and long before the "President" and other more popular lines were developed.

Dennison was instrumental in the establishment of the Tremont Watch Co. and later arranged the sale of the machinery to the English. He stayed in England to found the Dennison Watch Case Co.

Yes. Vanderwoerd had left the company and was in california at the time of his death. The watches made for some time after he left were not so good, but the company then produced a high grade watch for railroad use, The President. However, there seems to be some disagreement about the quality of other watches, esp. compared to Howard watches.

Frauenhoff's compilation seems to be the clearest exposition of the facts given by various authors about the disposition of the company, which, along with the Suffolk/Columbia and Howard companies, were acquired by Keystone. Watches continued to be sold with the US of Waltham name for some years after 1901. The "Betsy Ross" model was advertised as late as 1908, but this seems to be the last reference to the company's watches.

Jessica, the book "Timing A Century" by Charles Moore is an excellent book of the history of the Waltham Watch Co.
Harold

Thanks, Harold! I've seen the name of the book, never known what it was about. It's strange: the bookstores on the book-finding services don't describe the contents of the book at all.


Jessica

"Timing A Century" by Moore is an excellent reference, but it is not a book that someone would sit down and read. It is a business analysis of American Watch Co.

The book is fairly rare and probably will be expensive to obtain > $ 100.

Andy Dervan

I have a serial number for you from a watch I sold off some time back. If you want pics let me know and I will email them to you.

404001
18s
11-15
U.S. Watch Co., Waltham, Mass.
Premier GF case.
HC #54289
SS dial
United States Watch Co. on dial
SW LS
Nickle damasceened movement, fairly clean, winds, sets and runs. Ornately engraved case with a couple of spots showing base metal. Two hairlines running from top to bottom.

Jack

Here is a serial number for you

72357

7-11 j(guess)

U.S. Watch Co. Waltham, Mass

This was the first watch I ever bought on line. I would think it is a cheap watch...still I like it very much,this watch lead me to all of you at chapter 185.

I would guess this is a pretty low serial number...it is in a hunter case. Pendent/crown at 3.00 oclock.

For the record...yes I paid too much for it

Check out the company Decision Resources at this url:

http://www.dresources.com/aboutus.asp

Their corporate headquarters are on the old Howard Clock Co. site, and they seem to have some interest in its history as quoted below:

Our Corporate Headquarters


The Howard Clock Building, Charles Street, Waltham


1884-1896
In 1884, Charles vanderWoerd, the former mechanical superintendent of the Waltham Watch Company, enlisted the support of E.C. Hammer to form the United States Watch Company. In 1886, this company purchased three acres of land on Charles Street in Waltham and erected the first wing of a factory. To raise capital, the land and building were sold in June 1895 to the executors for the estate of E.C. Hammer. By 1896, the company had produced about 900,000 watches.

1901
The United States Watch Company was reincorporated in 1901 by Theophilus Zurbrugg of the Keystone Watch Case Company and Walter W. Hastings of the New York Standard Watch Company. The Suffolk Watch Company of Waltham was purchased and its equipment and personnel were transferred to the Charles Street factory, which was expanded with two additional wings.

1903-1910
Rights to use the "Howard" name in the manufacture of watches were transferred from E. Howard and Company of Boston to E. Howard Watch Company, which was incorporated with Zurbrugg as president. The E. Howard Watch Company was dissolved in 1910, and the Charles Street plant was operated under the E. Howard Watch Works name.

1910-1930
E. Howard Watch Works continued with moderate success into the late 1920s, when increased competition forced it to cease manufacturing watch movements. In 1930 the land and buildings of the Charles Street factory were sold to the E. Howard Clock Company, the business started in 1842 by Edward Howard in Roxbury. The Howard Watch companies produced about 1,500,000 watches during their 30-year existence.

1930-1934
The E. Howard Clock Company produced Howard clocks, supplied repair parts for Howard watches, and made instrument parts on a contract basis. The Howard Clock Products Company was incorporated in 1934 and leased the Charles Street factory from E. Howard Clock Company.

1935-1976
Howard Clock Products built a successful business, concentrating on precision machine components, screw making products, gear pinions, repair parts for Howard clocks, and complete clocks of the original Howard design. Bomb fuses were a significant product during the Vietnam War years.

1977-1983
In 1977, Howard Clock Products was sold to E. Richard Beckman, who was later convicted of arson for setting fire to the Charles Street factory to collect insurance. After the fire, Ira B. Gordon of Waltham helped rescue the firm by purchasing the real estate and providing needed finances. Replicas of mid-1800 Howard clocks were produced at Charles Street. Steve Abrams purchased the company from the estate of Ira Gordon in 1983.

1986-2000
In 1986, Abrams sold the Howard Clock assets to Alan Ritsko. Under the E. Howard and Company name, Ritsko made wall clocks with the original Howard designs. In 1988, this business relocated to Hanover, Massachusetts, and in 1993 it was sold to Alan McCormack and relocated to LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Howard Precision Products, formed by Abrams in 1986, manufactured precision parts for the timing industry in the Charles Street factory until 2000.

2000
In 2000, National Development purchased the Charles Street factory from the Gordon family and entered into a long-term lease to renovate and expand the facility to serve as the headquarters of Decision Resources, Inc.

This is a great photo of the watchcase company being built in Riverside NJ. "circa 1907 from a glass plate by J.L. Daniels

http://www.riversidenjhistory.com/PhotoWatchcase.html

Here is one from the parts bin. A 0-size open face 7 jeweler. It still runs sometimes

picture 2

picture 3

I noticed, reading through the list more carefully, that Claude had located the same site I had.

You might especially want to visit the site because it shows some buildings, which I think are their headquarters, which look as if they might be the old location of the company. I'm not sure.

Jessica

Jessica: Actually you are asking two questions:

a) Is the location of the former U.S. States Watch Company the same as the Howard Clock Company, on Charles Street? YES IT IS.

b) Are the pictures of the Decision Resources Headquarters those of the renewed U.S. States Co / Howard Watch Co? YES THEY ARE

As clearly indicated in their Internet text at their site. Also the last time I pilgrimed through Waltham at the occasion of a Seminar on Waltham in 2002, I could admire the job they did in restoring the building: it is absolutely remarkable.

TIMING A CENTURY: Charles W. Moore, a promising student of the then Harvard Business School's Dean, who himself was a friend of Dumaine's, Waltham Watch Co's CEO. Charles W. Moore was granted access to (all?) Waltham's business papers and wrote his doctorate thesis (photocopies still available at Harvard's Library) on Waltham, which he later adapted into his famous book. Most of the remaining archives of the Waltham Watch Company are stored at the Baker Library, Harvard Business School.

More interesting than Moore's thesis & book, "Revolution in Time" by Prof. David S. Landes, Harvard College, ISBN 0-674-76802-7, is a must to read. In my opinion, Prof. Landes has clearly analysed and detailed the reasons of the demise of the U.S. Watch Industry.

Thanks Claude--At the least this is an implication of naming their headquarters after the clock company. I'll have to reread the history.

I have a biography of Dumaine, parts of which I"ve looked at. The Moore book sounds interesting--I'm interested in business (or economic) history; and the Landes seems to have become an instant classic. I didn't realize it had such an all-encompassing subject.

Jessica

You are welcome Jessica.

In addition to my previous answer, please read in Landes' book particularly chapter 20, "Who Killed Clock Robin?" in the "Making Time" part, pages 321 to 337.

The Bolino "Watchmakers of Massacusetts" book has a chronology of Keystone's acquisitions in the late 19th-early 20th c. It was the subject of an antitrust suit, although I wonder they had the year correct. The suit concerned the watch case industry. Keystone (which already owned the Howard Watch Co., and the US. Watch Co.

The company that was sued had started with merged with Zerbrguu (as the Riverside Watch CC of NJ. They then created a subsidiary, the Phila Watch Case Co, to give the impression of competitions. The Phila. Watch Case company "reached backward" (quote) acquire the New York Standard Watch co. in 1901.

1n 1903, Keystone got control of aspects of the Howard Clock Co. and the common stock of the Crescent Watch Case, whjich had purchsed the entire watch case division of Am. Waltham .

This becomes even more tangled. I have to run off, but will try to add the rest of the information later--including further evolution of this web of holdings. (My info is almost a direct quote from Bolino., who has a later chapter on the US of Waltham Co, as I recall.)

I'm taking a jewlery course--probably would be better off reading all these great watch books, Moore, Landes, etc.

Jessica

PS I'm very frustrated bacause I don't have that Oct. issue of the Bulletin--seems I didn't reenrol soon enough--they certain act fast when it comes to not sending the bulletin. J

Hi,

I recently got a pocket watch handed down from my great grandfather, and would like to add it to your database, and find out more about this type of watch.

United States Watch Company
Serial: 123746
3/4 plate movement
Solid gold case stamped with a karat symbol or assay mark "WARRANTED U.S. ASSAY" 14K

I don't know how to find # of jewels etc, but can take pictures.

Please contact me. Thanks!

All best,

Willy