In 1902, (or was it 1903?) when Keystone Watch Case Company acquired the rights to use the E. Howard name they added "USA" to the "E Howard, Boston" inscription. Did they, however, continue to use the hound, the horse and the hart markings? Thanks

Did not continue use of hound, etc. markings. Those indicated the degree or lack of degree of adjustments which are generally indicated on the keystone howard watches directly or the arrow/cross marking.

The changes were bigger than that. The original company, which was located in Boston, signed all of its movements "E. Howard & Co., Boston" on dial and movement. Keystone, which occupied the old US Watch Co. factory building in Waltham, signed all of the movements it made "E. Howard Watch Co." Hence, to my knowledge you will never find Keystone Howard movements signed "Boston." Furthermore, the movement designs were completely different, as none of the production machinery, design drawings, master plates, etc. were transferred in the sale, only the rights to use the Howard name.

Now just to complicate matters, during the transition the AWWCo of Waltham manufactured private label watches for both companies. We know this because a block of S#'s corresponding to those production runs appears in the E. Howard & Co. factory record books. But here again, even though at least one watch design exists in common between the private label watches made for the two "Howard" companies, I believe the above mentioned distinction in the manner of signature remains true.

Because nothing is ever simple, Ed Ueberall just showed me a picture of a 23J 16 Size open face M99 movement signed "E. Howard Co., Boston, USA" with no "&." But this is an oddball movement with an S# just beyond the known range of private label S#'s (which are preceded by the letter "H") made for the earlier company. It also features diamond endstones like an "American Watch Co." Grade movement, rather than the ruby endstones typical of the private label Waltham-Howards.

Michael & Clint;
Thank you both very much. That which you have both said explains a great deal about Before Keystone (BK) and After Keystone (AK) mechanisms. I am a bit surprised, however, about the use of diamond endstones. I would expect to see them only in the very highest grade private label mechanisms; and then, only in mechanisms with serial numbers 701,000 or lower (BK).

Watches made for Howard by Waltham had one of two different signatures:

"E.Howard & Co., Boston" - appears on earlier contract bridge model movements (12 and 16-size) and later contract split 3/4-plate movements (12 and 16-size).

"E.Howard Watch Co., Boston, U.S.A." - appears on later contract 16-size bridge models.

Any variation on these two signatures (including the lack of an "&") that I have seen are later hand-engravings added to unsigned movements or movements that have had the original signature removed.

[By the way, all Keystone-Howards that I have seen have "Boston" on them, with or without "USA"]

The diamond endstone on the single example may have been added during restoration of this movement (if it is the example I am thinking of). They were never used on Howards (contract or otherwise), to my knowledge.

Jerry,

I'll defer to your greater knowledge of these watches. I know you have been collecting data on them for some time. It strikes me as very odd that the Keystone-Howards should say "Boston," when the company was located in Waltham. Some advertising rationale, I suppose. The 23J movement missing the "&" to which I referred has the "Howard" signature on the dial incompletely erased, so perhaps the movement engraving was added later as you suggest. But by whom? EH&Co? Keystone?

The engraving "USA" often indicates that a movement was intended for export. Indeed, the only complete early Howard movement so engraved, S# 250,003, was found in an original 9K gold English case with Chester date marks for 1903-04. I wonder if some of the Waltham-made Keystones were originally intended for export as well. Certainly, one finds quite a few high-grade Waltham Model 99 center bridge models in English Dennison cases with foreign made dials on them, so the watch model already had a market in England.

*Sigh* (of relief). I thought that the matter of diamond endstones was going to add one more "wrinkle" to the E. Howard identification process. Thanks Jerry.

Allow me to throw a wrench into the Boston vs. Waltham matter. In several places I have read that Roxbury was the location of the Howard Watch works and that later, after Keystone went out-of-business, Howard Clock works purchased and moved into the building that Keystone had used (the former U. S. Watch Company of Waltham) in Waltham. By the finest point of technical detail Roxbury did not originate as a part of Boston, but rather it got "run-over" by the expanding city of Boston and became a district. So, Clint, like you said, I guess it became a matter of advertising.

With the normal unpredictability that one encounters in the watch world it would appear as though one would be safe to think that the USA marking was not firmly indicative of one thing or another. In that respect, can one be fairly certain that E. Howard mechanisms bearing serial numbers below 701,000 were manufactured before Keystone acquired the manufacturing rights to the name?

Hi Mark,

I have not paid a lot of attention to Keystone S#'s, but I believe it is true that all movements actually made by Keystone have S#'s higher than 701,000. As for the Waltham-Howard private labels, I'm not so certain this is true. (In fact, I think it isn't. Perhaps Jerry can provide the definitive answer.) It is also worth noting that E. Howard & Co. S# 800,001 has been documented, an L Size movement with a Model 1869 (Series V) pillar plate and a split top plate (a la Series XI).

[edited by CBG, 9:23 PM 7-2-07] Roxbury was incorporated into Boston in 1868. Except for a handful of extremely early Howard KW movements, all had dials proclaiming "Boston," which could be construed as suggesting that the absorption of Roxbury into the city had already taken place, but this was not the case. However, the company's original sales office - its public face - was actually in Boston. As for the Howard Clock Co. moving into the old US Waltham building, by then Howard would have been so closely associated with Boston that it is perfectly understandable why they didn't change their clock dials to reflect the move.

As for the "USA" marking, it is certainly clear that Keystone intended at least most of their movements for domestic, rather than foreign sale. However, the "USA" marking makes me wonder whether the company may have initially entertained the idea of some foreign sales efforts.

Clint;
What I personally know about Roxbury would likely get lost in the bottom of a thimble. The online encyclopedia Wikipedia, however, did have this information:

Roxbury is a neighborhood within Boston, Massachusetts. It was one of the first towns founded in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 and became a city in 1848 until it was annexed to Boston in 1868. The original town of Roxbury once included the current Boston neighborhoods of Jamaica Plain and West Roxbury, Mission Hill, the South End and much of Back Bay. Roxbury now generally ends at Columbus Avenue to the north and Melnea Cass Boulevard to the east.

It cited the Roxbury historical web site as a source for the dates. Since the E. Howard & Co. was founded circa 1858 this really does not help, but it does lend credence to the advertising aspect that you mentioned in an earlier posting.

As for E. Howard's private label mechanisms, I do not know anything and would not even want to hazard a guess about their serial numbers. At about the same time that Keystone acquired the rights to the E. Howard name, they also bought-out the New York Standard Watch Company, the U. S. Waltham Watch Company and the Suffolk Watch Company. So, I should think, the in-house sourcing of parts would have become very diverse. Consequently, I am lead to believe that, from a practical repair point-of-view, the pre-701,000 mechanisms (having more "uniform" components) would be more desirable.