The Heyday of Watchmaking, U.S.A

FOR A TIME, YANKEE INGENUITY— AND NEW MASS-PRODUCTION METHODS— HAD SWITZERLAND ON THE RUN. THEN THE SWISS STRUCK BACK. By Christen Fisher

In 1849, in a corner of the Howard & Davis clock factory in Roxbury, Mass., Edward Howard and Aaron Dennison had been experimenting with new designs of watches and new techniques for making them. Inspired by a visit to the Springfield Armory, where Howard witnessed the mass production of firearms using interchangeable parts, they wanted to see if the armory system, as it was called, could be applied to watchmaking. They founded the American Watch Company, which, after a move to Waltham, Mass., and several name changes, became the Waltham Watch Company.

In the 1850s, Waltham began producing watches whose movements were assembled from interchangeable parts made on machines in a factory-based system. Faster and cheaper, the system when it proved workable allowed Waltham to create the first mass-produced stopwatch. Designed for horse racing, the stopwatch, called a chronodrometer, sold for $50, compared with $150 to $250 for an import. Waltham also designed and manufactured the William Ellery watch. This $13 pocket watch was so popular with Union soldiers that by the mid-1860s, when Waltham’s production topped 70,000 watches a year, 45 percent of it was the William Ellery.

Waltham’s success inspired imitators and competitors alike. The first and most successful was the Elgin National Watch Company. It was incorporated in Chicago in 1864 as the National Watch Company. A group of businessmen who were determined to capitalize on the booming frontier West built a factory on a farm in the town of Elgin, 30 miles northwest of Chicago. Employing a team of watchmakers and mechanical engineers, some of whom were poached directly from Waltham, they produced in 1867 their first pocket watch movement, called the B.W. Raymond. It sold well at $117. Within a few years, Elgin, as it was known, rivaled Waltham, producing more than 100,000 watches annually.

The method of watchmaking employed first by Waltham and then by Elgin became known as the American system. Its success so alarmed the Swiss that in 1876 they sent a man named Jacques David to investigate the two companies and report back on his findings. This act of industrial espionage produced two reports written by David, framed as a warning to the Swiss that the Americans would dominate the market if the Swiss did not reorganize and embrace this new methodology. To David’s frustration, the Swiss were slow to react. Meanwhile, the demand for American watches continued to grow thanks to another rapidly expanding American industry, the railroad.

With the adoption of the international time standard in 1884, train traffic increased, and schedules became more predictable, making the watches carried by conductors and engineers more important than ever. But only when tragedy struck did the quality and precision of those watches become an issue that would push the industry’s achievements to even greater heights.

FOUR FATEFUL MINUTES

On April 19, 1891, in Kipton, Ohio, a fast mail train heading east collided with a passenger train heading west, killing eight people. The passenger train was supposed to stop to let the mail train pass, but it had been late in getting to the stopping point because the conductor’s watch was running four minutes slow. The general superintendent of the railroad appointed Cleveland, Ohio, jeweler Webster Ball to investigate time and watch conditions on all lines. Founding the Ball Watch Company, he established strict guidelines for the manufacturing and maintenance of all timepieces used by railroad personnel. Established watchmakers such as Waltham and Elgin were quick to adopt the new railroad standards, but so were newer, smaller companies eager to capitalize on the requirement for more accurate and high-quality timepieces.

In 1892, the Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Penn., was created through a merger of the Keystone Watch Company and the Aurora Watch Company. Utilizing the Keystone factory location in Lancaster and the Aurora equipment from Illinois, Hamilton quickly came to dominate the railroad timepiece industry, reportedly acquiring more than a 56 percent market share. By the turn of the century, its advertisements in Harper’s Bazaar called the company “The Railroad Timekeeper of America.”

According to Nicholas Manousos, executive director of the Horological Society of New York, “The American railroad expansion in the late 19th century was half of the reason why the American watchmaking industry rose to prominence in the early 20th century. This expansion gave manufacturers a reason to improve the quality of their watches and gave consumers a reason to buy those watches.”

Waltham and Elgin remained the top two producers of American watches, with Hamilton a close third. Many other companies began successfully producing railroad grade watches as well, including Illinois, Trenton, South Bend and the E. Howard Watch Company, which marketed its watches directly to rail workers through railroad trade magazines. (In 1858 Edward Howard had left the Boston Watch Company, Waltham’s predecessor, to form the eponymous E. Howard.) The American watchmaking industry boomed throughout the early part of the 20th century before a sharp and devastating decline. By 1932, only the big three and the Ball company remained.

After the 1929 stock market crash and the onset of the Great Depression, watches were among the first luxury goods the American public stopped buying in favor of necessities such as food and clothing. Entry into World War II, which largely pulled the U.S. out of the Depression, further complicated matters in the watchmaking industry as companies like Elgin halted commercial manufacturing to aid in the war effort. Instead of watches, these companies manufactured chronometers, fuses for artillery shells, altimeters and other aircraft instruments and sapphire bearings used for aiming cannons. Ironically, the

In 1892, the Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster, Penn., was created through a merger of the Keystone Watch Company and the Aurora Watch Company. Hamilton had a monopoly on the railroad timepiece industry, and by the turn of the century was dubbed “The Railroad Timekeeper of America.” Waltham and Elgin remained the top two American watchmakers of the era (with Hamilton a close third), but neither exists any longer. Another big name of the time was Ball Watch Company. Cleveland, Ohio, jeweler Webster Ball was hired to investigate time and watch conditions on the railroads after a fatal crash was caused by a conductor’s too-slow wristwatch. Ball established strict guidelines for the manufacturing and maintenance of all timepieces used by railroad personnel before establishing his own successful brand. Eventually, additional U.S.-based companies started producing railroad-grade watches as well, including E. Howard Watch Company, which marketed its watches directly to rail workers through trade magazines.

defense industry that had inspired the American system of watchmaking almost 100 years before would now have a heavy hand in the industry’s downfall. Elgin’s patriotism and others inadvertently gave the Swiss, who had remained neutral in the war, the opening they needed.

REVENGE OF THE SWISS

Manousos adds: “One other aspect [that also] contributed to the collapse of the American industry…was the structure of the large American brands…. There were almost no independent suppliers of critical parts, like hairsprings, screws or wheels. The large American brands made these parts for themselves. In comparison, the Swiss industry had (and still has) a multitude of independent suppliers for every watch part imaginable. As a result, the Swiss industry was much more flexible in navigating through changing business conditions.”

The Swiss, led by Longines and Vacheron Constantin, eventually heeded Jacques David’s warning and even improved upon the model he had described, ultimately combining the best of American machine-driven efficiency with the finest tradition of Swiss handcraftsmanship into a winning hybrid system that is still in place today.

Elgin and Waltham no longer exist; Hamilton is Swiss-owned; even the Ball Watch Company sold the rights to its name in the 1990s, and yet hope remains. Nick Manousos maintains: “The U.S. watchmaking industry absolutely could be successful again in the future. To a certain extent this is already happening, with brands like RGM and J. N. Shapiro leading the way. The way to see this take place at a large scale is to think differently, just like what happened with the introduction of the American system of… interchangeable parts. Modern manufacturing techniques, like 3D printing and nano-fabrication, could change the way that we think about how mechanical watches are made.”

The brands from the golden age of American watchmaking may have been relegated to the annals of history, the remnants of their once coveted production sitting on the shelves of the Smithsonian Institution or of dedicated collectors. Yet the enduring Yankee spirit of innovation and competition may one day ignite the spark of American watchmaking on a grand scale once again.

IWC: A SWISS BRAND ROOTED IN THE AMERICAN SPIRIT

At the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., there is a photograph on file of a young Union soldier holding a large pocket watch. His name was Florentine Ariosto Jones. Born in Rumney, N.H., in 1841 to Solomon and Livinia Craig Jones, he listed his occupation as “watchmaker” when he joined the 13th Massachusetts infantry regiment at the outset of the American Civil War. After the surrender at Appomattox, Jones left the service and went to work for E. Howard & Company, a leading Boston watch manufacturer. There he rose to the rank of deputy director and manager. Then, in 1867, Jones applied for a passport and traveled to Europe. At a time when the pioneering spirit prevalent among young American men sent them west, Jones went east.

His plan was simple: to manufacture high-quality watches for the American market by “combining all the excellence of the American system of mechanism with the more skillful hand labor of the Swiss.” He ultimately settled in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Drawing on the skills of highly qualified Swiss watchmakers, modern technology and hydropower sourced from the nearby Rhine River, Jones founded the International Watch Company in 1868. Today, it’s commonly known as IWC Schaffhausen.