Just a heads-up. M. S. Smith #61 in original case is currently on Ebay. Simply search "m s smith watch". Rare opportunity for somebody.

Mike

Another one of these (movement only) was shown in the spectacular exhibit at the 1976 National Convention. It is illustrated in the exhibit catalog and described as:
"Freeport Watch Company, Freeport, Illinois, serial 50. Assembled by Detroit jeweler, M.S. Smith circa 1874."

Also, numbers 1, 2 (both marked Freeport Watch Co.) and 74 (M.S. Smith & Co.) are shown in the Time Museum catalog (book by Hoke). In this source it is speculated that the Smith watches were a private-label made for Smith by Freeport.

The Smith watch story was detailed in a December, 1989 Bulletin article.

The watch design originated in Detroit with a self-trained English watchmaker named J. H. Allison, who made a small number of the nickel ¾ plate movements with pivoted detent escapements. Charles L. Hoyt had grown up in Michigan, and was a Detroit watchmaker near where Allison worked, in the waterfront jewelry district. Hoyt seems to have taken over the Allison watchmaking business, converting the movement to a lever escapement, and making these for the Martin S. Smith jewelry store. Smith watch serial numbers known to me range between 38 and 80, lower numbers perhaps having belonged to Allison watches. This was during the early 1870’s, and probably ended with the panic of 1873.

Freeport, Illinois citizens had incorporated a watch company in early 1874, around another watch design, but adopted the Hoyt watch during the summer, and brought Hoyt to town by September. He began working from a small shop, preparing a number of movements while a factory was being constructed during 1875. Some (probably fewer than 20) were completed in nickel, very much like the Smith watches. The venture ended when the nearly completed factory burned in October, 1875.

Hoyt moved on to the Rockford Watch Co. and then to Illinois Watch Co., being superintendent when the Model 105 was introduced. He later went to the J. P. Stevens watch factory in Atlanta, Georgia, then disappeared.

Some Freeport material was later completed in Dubuque, Iowa by George P. Rose, who had been a Freeport watchmaker and jeweler, and had been Treasurer of Freeport Watch Co..

Martin S. Smith eventually left the jewelry trade for larger business pursuits, but was founding President of the Chicago Watch Case Co. in 1882. He was no longer involved when that company moved to Brooklyn as the Crescent Watch Case Company.

Mike