Does anyone know when the U.S. watch companies got out of the business of making private label watches? I kind of think it may have stopped when the wrist watches started to tale over, but don't really know and I've never seen this talked about before. Thanks!

I think that private label pocket watches started to fall out of favor in the 1900s. By the 1910s, the railroad time services had banned their use for railroad operations.

Thanks Alan.

In my database I have private label watches listed up till around 1918 or so- After that you see alot of named watches but very few Jewelers names etc.

Terry

Thanks for that Terry.I always figured the watch companies made a lot of extra money making PL watches, since most of them did it. I think the king of that must have been Illinois, there seems to be way more Illinois PL watches out there. I think probably South Bend had the least.