Photography is less than a weak point for me, so I will not post a totally illegible ad copy, but I shall relay its text. In Dean Judy's 100 Years of Vintage Watches there is a reproduced page of the Morrison & Co., Wholesale Jewelers, Chicago catalogue for 1917. On the page is a photo of a Riverside movement with this caption:

12-Size Riverside, 19 Jewels
Nickel, 19 fine ruby jewels, double roller
escapement, steel escape wheel, micrometric
regulator, compensating balance, adjusted to
temperature and five positions, Breguet
hairspring.

The double roller is just casually listed as one of the Riverside movement's features in a rather ho-hum, matter-of-fact fashion. On that photos that I have seen, however, including those posted by Jerry Treiman in the 185 photo gallery, I can not say that I have ever viewed a notation regarding a double roller. Am I blind, or is the presence of a double roller just to be 'understood' because the movement is a Riverside?

Waltham did not routinely list the adjustments on its watches nor the presence of the double roller. They also neglect to mention the jeweled barrel in many cases.

In the early days, they did not even mention the cap jewels. The only records were for the number of holes jeweled.

When you see a Waltham with 5 pairs of jewels, it can be from 17 to 23 jewels, depending on the grade and model.

Tom;
Thanks. I just feel a bit uneasy about taking anything for granted (especially when watches are concerned). If I understand correctly, a Riverside movement produced after the later half of 1916, containing 19 or more jewels is LIKELY to have a double roller. In addition, the word "adjusted", having no other delineation, is LIKELY to indicate a "P" level whereas a 17 jewel Royal would contain a single roller and be an "A" adjustment level mechanism. Likely is the key word.

Even as early as 1903 the 12-size Riverside is listed as having a double roller, as you can see in THIS AD reproduced by Wayne Schlitt on his Elgin website. I think it is only the earliest Riversides that had only a single roller. Off the top of my head I think that most of the 12-size Riversides with serial numbers in the 7-millions had single-roller escapements but by the 10-millions most had the double-roller escapement.

Although I have not examined nearly as many of these as Jerry, I agree with his view. Waltham changed new production to new standards from time to time. When they did this they did not randomly use both standards, but they did generally use up material on hand. Therefore the breaks seem to have a grey band in the middle where both standards were being produced.

Having reviewed all that has thus far been said, I am perplexed by one consideration. For the most part, the discussion has revolved around high-grade (P) finish mechanisms like those used in a Riverside. As the years passed, did Waltham extend the use of the double roller device to mid-grade(A) finish and low-grade(U) finish mechanisms? If such was the case, does anyone know at approximately what date the changes occurred? Thanks.