One of our members who lives west of Cleveland, Ohio got in touch with me about a "BERKSHIRE" watch he has. You'll see a picture of it under this message. I took the picture from my screen because the type of attachment would not copy as a .jpg for me.

Here is what I eMailed back to him...


"I do believe I recognize it as a watch design known as a "Swiss Fake" if it's indeed Swiss or a step above a "Dollar Watch" if it was domestically produced. I also called our local watchmaker Rich Kuhn who lives near you in Strongsville. I sent Rich the picture I took and he agrees with my assessment.

The only way to find out more about it might be to post the picture on our Discussion Site as I suggested to you earlier. I will post the image I made in our "Pocket Watches" forum with the question and a brief explanation. Perhaps one of our members will recognize it specifically and can tell us more about it.

Watches of this type are not generally considered to have much value. That changes in a situation where it belonged to a family member and then the whole "family heirloom" thing of course comes into play. I had a situation a couple of years ago where a $20.00 watch was fully restored at a cost of several hundred dollars because to the family it was indeed a priceless treasure."


So can anyone tell us what this is, did I steer him right, what do you say about it?

It's a "Berkshire" model, produced by the New England Watch Company of Waterbury Connecticut, which operated from 1898 until 1914. The company was formerly the Waterbury Watch Company, which made similar products, and it eventually evolved into the Timex Corporation, which was the last company in the US to produce watches of any type.

I don't have a "Berkshire," but I do have several of other New England models. Most (including the "Berkshire" model) have duplex escapements, which to me, are rather interesting. Not very accurate, mind you, but interesting.......

As far as I know, except for variations of the lever escapement, the duplex was the only other escapement type commercially produced in the US. The escape wheel is a "sunburst" looking affair, which impulses the balance in one direction only. The balance receives impulse on one stroke, and on the return, it unlocks the escapement in preparation to provide another impulse. This arrangement makes a really odd sound, even when it's in perfect order; sort of a "TICK tock TICK tock........" with the "TICK" being MUCH louder than the "tock."

The other interesting aspect of a duplex escapement is that with the hairspring removed, the balance wheel will rotate in complete revolutions while operating the escapement. In other words, it will spin in one continuous direction, unlock the escapement and receive impulse to continue spinning for as long as the movement has power. Both the sound and action of one running that way remind me of watching a miniature steam engine.

Also, if one "jiggles" the watch to get the balance swinging in really large arcs (which would make a lever escapement knock the banking), it's possible to make a duplex escapement "double index," or allow two escape wheel teeth to pass on one oscillation of the balance wheel. Needless to say, when one's running like that, it will gain time at a 2:1 rate!

In any event, the "Berkshire" is just one of about 40 or 50 models produced by NEWCo. They were obviously low-cost or "Dollar watches," which weren't really intended to be repaired, and as a result, even though they were made in large numbers, they're not very common today.

As always, I hope this helps!

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Steve Maddox
President, NAWCC Chapter #62
North Little Rock, Arkansas
IHC Charter Member 49