This one got me, It says Seth Thomas on the dial, However, there's a plaque that is supposed to go with it, that says it's an E Howard.

Auction says it's a Conductor Watch?

Can anyone tell what it says on the plaque?

Do you recognize the watch case?

No movement showing, so YOU GUESS and I will let everyone know what it is when I get it.

Happy guessing!

Hi Shiela,

I am intrigued by the Howard document, which appears to be from one of the E. Howard & Co. sales offices (most likely NYC or Boston). Such documents are pretty scarce. Could you possibly provide a closer picture of it? It may well contain interesting information, and be valuable, even if it has nothing to do with the watch it came with (which may well be the case).

Clint

Hi Clint,
That was what got me too! Turns out, I think, that it's just a paper about it being serviced, however that is speculation.
The reason:
There is another one by the same seller, that clearly shows, I think, it to be a service paper from the 1970's for another Howard watch.

My dial says Seth Thomas.
I bid anyway just for the paper.

The second label is from a "re-issue" produced by Howard Clock Products, Inc. in the 1970s. The 59-8 was a Vienna-style clock that was produced in a numbered series of 1000 clocks and sold for $800. This late incarnation of E.Howard & Co. also re-issued a banjo and figure-8 clock.

The label with yours looks very similar and is probably from another clock re-issue.

Jerry,
Thank you! The seller said that he was selling them for the wife of a railroad man who passed away, and she gave the plaques to him as a part of the watches, and that they went with them. I didn't think so, but I figured, who knows what they are. I thought that they may be a repair paper, but the serial numbers were wrong, so I had no idea.
Your information is great, I considered clocks with those serial numbers, but had no idea. Your information is fantastic, so Thanks again, Sheila

I enjoy the papers almost as much as the watches.

I'll take better pictures when I get them and post them.

Oh well. Thanks for the pic anyway, Sheila.

I have a picture of the E Howard Plaque it says

E Howard & Co
Vernon L Woodrum, Hudson Ohio,

Model 10
Serial No, 71
Purchased July 6, 1976
Completed Nov., 8, 1976
Final Inspection November 12, 1976
E. Howard & Co.
D J Blackwell Chief Engineer

Thanks, Sheila. My friend Dana Blackwell is responsibe for having saved the Howard factory watch production records, or at least most of them, for posterity. He told me that in the 1970's the company wanted the records gone because it was costing them too much money to "research" inquiries from curious watch owners. The management agreed to let Dana take the records home instead of simply destroying them.

My first look at the factory records, which was at the Smithsonian Museum of American History Archive Center, was extremely exciting. I had been waiting for my first glimpse of them for 20 years and they did not disappoint, though they require a lot of expert interpretation and cross correlation with other information sources to really make sense of them. That was on September 10, 2001. My studies were cut short by infamous unforseen events the next day and it wasn't for another six months that I could manage to return. Alas, the first and third record books were not in the group. Probably they perished back in the 1970's or before, although Dana did say once that he may have "lent" them to someone and had not received them back (his recollections of the events, unfortunately, were dim and uncertain). If these records do still exist, may the unscrupulous current possessor be haunted by a thousand ghosts until he returns them. Dana and I have since become good friends. He is a very fine gentleman.

Clint,
I just can't imagine the goose bumps that you suffered while waiting on those books! lolol

I can still remember when I saw a partial listing of E Howard watch information, that included information on my Lissauer collecting, and I was so excited, that I just stared at it forever.

My poor husband thought I had finally gone overboard.

What an experience! and what a great move on the part of Dana, to retrieve those documents!!!

I snatch anyting I think resembles information on watch data, it's just the right thing to do.

Thank you for sharing your experience, I enjoyed it, and the goosbumps it gave me too.