Would any one have information on early Howard's hand style. I have an early series III with the spade hands that have the polished tips. What I would like to know is when did they switch to the Umbrella style...

John Pavlik

John, I believe the change from the spade hands to the "umbrella" hands occurred at the 30,000 serial number.

Thank You Harold.....

John,

this is very hard to answer. Howard umbrella hands were found on movements:
26321
26103
23850
22327 (this movement is cased in a heavy 14k box hinge case which looks to be original)
20225
19666
17029
while spade hands (both polished and blued) were found on these movements:
25424
24988
24397
24032
23755
21572
20295
17964
15691
14291
but there is no way of guaranteeing that all hands are original to the movement.

As you can see there is overlap in the serial numbers. It could have been that customers had a choice of style of hands when they purchased their watches. One has to do a study of known original watches to determine a good answer, although I doubt that a single serial number exists at which
a style change occurred.

The same mix of hands is also found on Series V (L-size) movements.

Hans

Hans,

The information you have provided addresses what I
wanted to know.. While we all would like definitive answeres I realized it is not exact.. So under 12 -15 thousand you should find the spade style hands and above that a mix, to 30,000, and after that the umbrella. Realizing switching does play a role on these "guides"..

As far as choise of style, wasn't Howard a bit of a dictator on his movements.. Layout, jeweling, winding and setting, movement sizing, and hands to a greater extent after the 30,000 mark..

Thanks for the information...

John Pavlik

If one looks at a larger cross section of surviving early Howard watches, one reaches the very firm conclusion that polished spade (also called "teardrop style") hands were standard on KW Howard watches up through about S# 30,000 and umbrella style hands became standard on both KW and SW Howard watches after around 1870. Spade and umbrella hands would only have been in simultaneous production for a short period around 1869-71. During this period and only this period, it seems as if KW movements (Model 1862 and KW examples of Models 1869 and 1871)came standard with spade hands and SW watches (which would have been the L Size Model 1869's and N Size Model 1871's) came standard with umbrella hands. During this same brief period, it might also have been possible, as Hans suggested, for a buyer to specify which hand style he wanted. However, I suspect this would have been a very rare occurrence. By far the most likely explanation for the presence of umbrella hands on some surviving earlier Model 1862 KW movements with S#'s below 30,000 is that most early Howard KW watches continued in service well after 1871. Thus, some of these watches would have had contemporary umbrella style hands put on them when their original hands had become lost, corroded or otherwise damaged. (Umbrella style hands would have been the only N Size replacement hands available much after 1871.)

At the same time, the Howard firm is the most difficult of all US watch manufacturers about which to make absolute statements concerning their products. For example, I have seen apparently original trident and even moon (i.e., Breguet) style hands on early KW movements once or twice. Nevertheless, whereas one cannot make categorical statements, it is possible to say which styles of hands were "standard" (i.e., heavily predominant) in each period. Furthermore, I believe that Howard did not even begin making umbrella hands until 1869.

Clint,

Thanks for making the issue clearer.. Your explaination satisfies many points. I still have a hard time with customers picking the style of hands..early on.. Were finished movements shipped with hands intact or were they added by the "Seller"..or the person that cased the movement..At what point did the fancier dials start making their appearance..

Hi John,

As to your first question, as far as I know all US watch manufacturers shipped movements with the hands already installed. I have never heard of a contrary practice.

The answer to your second question depends on exactly what you mean by a "fancy" dial. Special dials were just about always available as an aftermarket item for well healed cunsumers with the money to pay. Both personalized and private label dials occasionally are seen on Howard watches dating almost to the beginning of Howard watch production in 1859. (Please see my August, 1993 BULLETIN article for a comprehensive discussion of E. Howard & Co. watch dials.) If you specifically meant Moorehouse dials, the evidence suggests that Josiah Moorehouse moved from the American Watch Co. in Waltham to become the dial room foreman at E Howasrd & Co. some time in 1886. However, multicolored Howard dials, which were likely aftermarket items not made by Howard, might have first become available when this style became popular, somewhat earlier in the 1880's. (Can I prove that Howard multicolor dials all were made outside the factory? No, I can't. However, their artistic style is diametrically out of character with Howard's carefully cultivated aesthetic associated with precision and subtle elegance. Furthermore, as a special order item, if they were Howard factory products made during a period mostly overlapping Moorehouse's tenure as dial room foreman, one would expect that at least one or two of the two dozen or so known examples would have Moorehouse signatures on their reverses. To my knowledge, there are no Howard true multicolor dials that are known to carry Moorehouse's signature. There is at least one signed Waltham MH dial, from an earlier period, that one could properly describe as "multicolor," but the artwork and design of this unque dial are very different from that of known Howard multicolors - making it sort of the exception that proves the rule.)