Fake or otherwise questionable early Howard movements have been discussed quite a bit of late.

The deliberate close resemblance to a Howard N Size Model 1862 ("Series III") is obvious, as is the deceptively similar name engraved on the movement, "Eug. Harward & Co., Boston Mass." Close examination of this movement reveals that few if any of the parts employed in it's construction are actually of E. Howard & Co. manufacture, with the possible exceptions of the balance wheel and balance cock. Quite accidentally, the S# does truthfully convey information about the movement's probable date of production, circa 1863-65, even though the S# was not assigned by the Howard firm, for the counterfeit very likely was modeled on a roughly contemporary Howard movement close in S# to that of the fake. The various finishing details of the fake, such as the location of the balance wheel above the center wheel, the decorative steel crescent atop the center wheel, the style of pallet bridge (imprecisely copied from a contemporary Howard pallet bridge) and the case screw location at the base of the stepped balance cock, all would be appropriate for a genuine early M62 example of the same S#.

I suspect that this particular fake has a conventional going barrel and is of Swiss origin (like most Howard fakes). (If the rest of the movement is indeed Swiss, then the balance cock and balance wheel likely aren't Howard products either.) While I never collected counterfeit Howards, I always considered them quite interesting from a historical perspective. Horologically speaking, one might say, toungue in cheek, that "Forgery is the sincerest form of flattery." Thus, the surviving artifactual evidence of Swiss counterfeiting efforts of American watch movements [both Waltham and Howard] in the mid-1800s is an eloquent testimony to the achievements of the early American watchmaking industry. In only it's first two decades of real existence, this industry had essentially reinvented watchmaking to a degree that the Swiss found it hard to compete honestly with the value that American watches could offer. Thus the item herein discussed is not so much a "fake collectable," but more accurately a "collectable fake."

The movement may well have been cased in this country, but off-hand, I do not recognize this particular casemaker's mark, "C&B."

Clint

I would like to learn from other collectors what makes and models of American watches, both by Waltham and Howard and otherwise, that they have seen counterfeited by the Swiss. I am familiar with fake M57 Walthams [far and away the most common Swiss fakes] and fake M62 (Series III) Howards, but not many others. I may have seen a Swiss counterfeit or two modeled on the Elgin "B. W. Raymond" 18 Size full plate keywinds, but I don't remember for certain.

Clint

The following is a reportedly "true story" relating to "fake" collectables [as opposed to collectable fakes] that some may find amusing:

A man approached a prominent art dealer and asked the dealer to authenticate the painting the man had just purchased elsewhere as a "genuine Picasso." The dealer studied the painting, which had been left in his care, for a long time and concluded that it likely was authentic. However, Pablo Picasso was alive and active at the time of the story and living in the same city as the dealer. The dealer, being a major player in the fine arts scene, not surprisingly knew the artist personally. Thus he decided to take the painting to Picasso's studio and determine positively whether the painting was indeed authentic.

Upon arriving at Picasso's studio the dealer found him hard at work at his easel and deeply absorbed in his current project. The dealer held up the painting he had come to vet and asked, "Pablo, is this painting a genuine 'Picasso?'" Picasso glanced over at the painting the dealer held and announced, "Its a fake."

The dealer was taken aback. Later that day, he arranged the suspect painting side by side with another painting he himself owned that he knew positively to be a genuine example of Picasso's work. More and more convinced that the artist was either simply mistaken in his perfunctory assessment or had been playing with him, the dealer returned to Picasso's studio the next day with his own Picasso painting in hand. Just as the day before, the artist was engrossed in the work on his easel. The dealer held up his own painting and asked, "Pablo, is this a genuine 'Picasso?'" The artist glanced over and said yet again, "No. Its a fake." A picture of consternation, the dealer replied, "I saw you paint this with my own eyes!" Picasso shrugged and said, "I make fake Picasso's too!"

Clint