Company Histories

The National Watch Co was founded in Elgin, Illinois by several prominent Chicago businessmen as the Civil War raged. Work began as soon as the new factory was completed, which would eventually turn out some 54 million watches, equaling the total output of all other American brands combined. 

1864 - 1874

Former Chicago mayor Benjamin Raymond and watchmaker John C Adams helped choose the small Illinois town of Elgin as the site for a new watch company, luring several key workers away from Waltham. Investors raised $500,000 and construction began on a huge brick factory with Raymond as president. The first watch was finished in early 1865, named in his honor and retailing for $115.   Success followed, with new models being introduced and additions to the factory being built until 1869, when the capital was increased to $2,000,000.

1874 - 1966

The stockholders voted to rename the venture Elgin Watch Co in 1874. Many smaller grades were added and in 1876 the demand was so great that the small London office was closed and the workers transferred. By 1880 some of the men who built the company began to pass away, and new officers were elected. The firm employed over 2,000 workers producing 7,500 watches a week in a factory covering 169,000 square feet with its own gas system, fire brigade, carpenter shop, and generating station. The company began selling wristwatches after 1900 and built the National Observatory in 1910 to measure celestial time.

1966 - 1970

By the mid-1960s sales had dropped off, with the last watches being assembled from leftover stock, and in 1966 the huge original factory was demolished. By 1970 all remaining material and parts had been sold off, and all distributorships terminated.

Combining the origins of both the Mozart Watch and New York Watch companies, Hampden was officially named in 1877 in Springfield, Massachusetts. A decade later case manufacturer John C Dueber bought a majority interest in the company and moved it all to Canton, Ohio.

1864 - 1867

The Mozart Watch Co was founded in 1864 with $100,000 and a factory was built in Providence, Rhode Island. Production began on a 3-wheel model designed by Don Mozart before the stockholders balked in 1866, convinced that the venture was a poor one. The firm changed the name to the New York Watch Co, bought two buildings on property in Springfield, Massachusetts and relocated the machinery the next year.

1867 - 1877

After relocating the business to Springfield, the operating capital was raised to $300,000 and James Gerry was hired away from the US Watch Co as superintendent. The factory burned in 1870, stalling work until it was rebuilt several months later. The company did well with their first full-plate design until the Panic of 1873, forcing them to cut workers until closing completely in 1875. Reorganizing as the New York Watch Manufacturing Co didn't help, and in 1877 the firm restructured again under new investors as the Hampden Watch Co.

1877 - 1930

The Hampden Watch Co was officially named in 1877 in Springfield, Massachusetts and a new brick factory with a separate engine room was built a few years later. In 1886 case-maker John Dueber bought a majority interest in the company and relocated the operation to Canton, Ohio. Manufacturing watch cases and movements from adjoining buildings brought on one of the first anti-trust lawsuits in US history, but Hampden was most famous for introducing the first 23-jewel watch in America. After Dueber himself died in 1907, the watch works merged with the case factory in 1923 as the Dueber-Hampden Watch Co. The firm produced roughly 3 million watches in all sizes before going bankrupt during the Great Depression and selling out to a Russian interest in 1930.

The Illinois Watch Co started as the Springfield Co, surviving two name changes, one financial panic, and the death of two of its presidents to make 5 million watches in more named grades and private labels than any other brand.

1870 - 1885

The first incarnation was the Springfield Watch Co, organized in 1870 by a group of local businessmen led by John C Adams with a startup capital of $100,000. Watches began selling within a year, but the Panic of 1873 left the company with surplus material and little demand. The business was reorganized twice in the next five years, raising the stock up to $250,000 and installing Jacob Bunn Sr as president in 1879. New offices were opened in Chicago and New York, and things began to roll.

 1885 - 1927

The venture grew steadily as the Illinois Watch Co under Jacob Bunn Sr until his death in 1891, when control passed to his eldest son Jacob Jr.  4-size ladies' watches were launched in 1896, the smallest available at the time. The Sangamo Electric Co was formed in 1899 as a subsidiary of Illinois to make electric utility meters using Ludwig Gutmann's design. In 1903 the company made the decision to produce only higher-grade watches, including the popular Bunn Special and Sangamo lines, and the factory made limited amounts of 26-jewel variants, the highest production count of any American company. At its peak the factory employed 1200 workers and produced roughly 5 million watches in more named grades than any other brand. The death of Jacob Bunn Jr in 1926 led to the sale of the factory to the Hamilton Watch Co the following year, which kept making Illinois-brand watches until 1932. 

The United States Watch Co was organized by F A Giles and William Wales, jewelers in New York City. Although staked by a startup investment of $500,000, the venture did not last long.

 1864 - 1872

Production began when the huge iron and glass factory was finished, making 18-size movements with a distinctive butterfly-shaped cutout on the upper plate and named for employees or investors. They were the first American company to mill patterns on their plates to catch the eye, with a total output of roughly 60,000 watches. Their highest grade was the 19-jewel US Watch, which was marketed for the astounding price of $425. Not surprisingly, the firm was beset by fiscal troubles and was assigned to Wm Muirhead, a creditor in Jersey City.

1872 - 1874

Despite the large increase in capital stock to the then unheard-of price of $1,000,000 in 1868, the company ran short of funds a few years later. The venture re-organized as the Marion Watch Co to mirror the Marion Building Co, the parallel real-estate firm that owned the property, but sales didn't pick up and the mortgage was sold in 1874. The machines and tooling were sold to Auburndale, Independent, and others.

The Waltham Watch Co traced its roots back to 1850 with three Massachusetts businessmen who would apply Honoré Blanc's  method of gunsmithing in the late 1700s to the American cottage industry of watchmaking - the concept of interchangeable parts.

1849

Convinced that mass-production would result in better and cheaper watches, Aaron Dennison first visited the Springfield Armory and then traveled to Europe to observe British watchmaking methods. After he returned home, friend and clock maker Edward Howard and partner David Davis allowed Dennison to outfit a part of their Roxbury shop to begin experimenting, eventually perfecting the production machines that would one day become the foundation for the American Watch System.

1850 - 1851

 With Boston investor Samuel Curtis backing the venture with $20,000 in blind faith, a small factory was built across the street from Howard's shop in Roxbury and the name American Horologe was chosen, though Dennison would deny that in later years. In the summer of 1850 the first watch was completed, a larger 8-day piece, which was deemed impractical, and after making fewer than twenty for those involved with the firm the design was scrapped in favor of an 18-size 30-hour movement, which would become the standard. 

1851 - 1853

Still in the same building, the company name was changed to Warren Manufacturing after local Revolutionary War hero Major General Joseph Warren, and partly to conceal the factory's purpose. It wasn't until 1853 that the first watches were put on the market, the first ones to ever be machine-produced in quantity by a factory, with the first eighty or so with "Warren" engraved on the plates, and then with Samuel Curtis's name (Howard's father-in-law) on the next nine hundred movements.

1853 - 1857

Growing cramped in the small factory, Dennison found a new location on Crescent Street in Waltham, Massachusetts, ten miles from Boston. Investors formed the Waltham Improvement Co to fund the new factory, which was completed in 1854. The first watches made by the new Boston Watch Co were named for Dennison, Howard & Davis, but sales were slow, the machines kept breaking down, and the country was in a recession, so the business was put up for auction in the spring of 1857.

1857

The winning bid of $55,800 was tendered by New York businessman Royal E Robbins on behalf of Philadelphia creditor Eliashib Tracy and Theo Baker, who had supplied the Boston Co with gold watch cases.  Charles Rice, who would eventually back Edward Howard in his solo venture, was the underbidder. Aaron Dennison remained as superintendent, but Howard left with Rice to form his own company in the old Roxbury shop that had housed the Warren Co.

 1857 - 1859 

 Theodore Baker, with a factory of his own to run, quickly sold his interest to James Appleton to form the Appleton, Tracy & Co, with Robbins staying on as treasurer. Ambrose Webster was the first mechanic hired, inventing the automated machines that would transform the factory, who would eventually leave to establish the American Watch Tool Co. The Model 57 was launched, their first major model and the platform for many grades, starting at SN 5001. In 1859 the business was joined with the real-estate holding firm Waltham Improvement Co to found the American Watch Co.

1859 - 1862

Several of the company's best left with the goal of producing the most precise watches in America, including Charles Van Der Woerd, James Gerry, Josiah Moorehouse, and master mechanic Charles S Moseley, inventor of the split chuck, interchangeable stems and the spindle lathe, who would go on to help set up the Elgin Co. Funds ran short and the company was bought back by Robbins, and the thousand unfinished watches made by the failed venture were completed with the Waltham name.

1859 - 1885

With control firmly in the hands of Dennison and Robbins the capital was raised to $300,000 with a dividend of 5% paid to the stockholders. At the outbreak of the Civil War production ground to a halt, forcing the company to operate with a skeleton crew, but demand picked up with armies on the move and by 1865 the stock had increased to $750,000. The next decade saw rapid growth with the expansion of the nation's railroads, and the factory was greatly improved and enlarged, which would become the largest building in the world for the next fifty years.

1885 - 1923

The business was renamed American Waltham and abandoned case manufacture to produce movements alone. Construction began on an observatory to record celestial time, connected with a transit to a pair of master clocks on embedded piers in an environmentally-controlled basement room. Royal Robbins died in 1902 and trouble began for the firm with shutdowns, workers on strike, shipments of watches stolen, and many hours spent defending their patents and practices in court.

1923 - 1957

The name was briefly changed to the Waltham Watch & Clock Co and then back to Waltham Watch in 1925, becoming a classic example of a good company ruined by bad management. In 1941 the company was investigated by the Department of Commerce, and by the end of World War II was $4,000,000 in debt, unable to pay the workers. Bankruptcy was delayed by a federal bailout, but in 1950 the factory closed, only to re-open from demand caused by the Korean conflict. Several attempts were made to restart the factory, but the end came in 1958, though the Waltham name would be trademarked and future spin-offs created.

1851 - 1878

German-born Charles Fasoldt emigrated to America around 1851 and opened a small shop in Rome, New York. He was a mechanical genius who experimented with many designs, but was most famous for his coaxial escape and the "duo-in-uno" hairspring. It was said that no two of his hand-made watches were alike, and after making roughly 50 pieces he moved to Albany in 1861, where he produced some 300 more while dabbling in chronometers and microscopes.

1875 - 1878

H J Lowe, former superintendent for the US Watch Co, paired with S R Sawyer of the Sawyer Watch Tool Co to form the Fitchburg Watch Co. Sawyer's idea was to design the watch, build the machines, and then attract investors. It didn't work, and after Lowe withdrew because of poor health the equipment was absorbed into Sawyer's tool business. It is not known if any watches were actually made.

1884 - 1885

The Fredonia Watch Co of New York lasted only a year after the name change from the Independent Watch Co, still owned by the Howard Bros and now marketing a grade named for and endorsed by Mark Twain. Sales continued to slip and J C Adams was recruited to help sell the remaining movements and broker a deal to offer the business and equipment to the Peoria Watch Co in Illinois.

1874 - 1875

The Freeport Watch Co began in Freeport, Illinois, building a factory and purchasing the machinery from the failed Mozart Co when the Rock Island Co reneged. After producing only a few watches the factory burned several months later and the insurance was not enough to cover the loss, so the firm dissolved. Several company officers and stockholders were tried for arson but were acquitted.

1809 - 1872 

The Goddard Co spanned some 60 years through four generations, starting in 1817 when clockmaker Luther Goddard began making verge watches one at a time with his son Daniel in Worcester, Massachusetts, until Luther's retirement in 1825. The business continued through the Civil War under Daniel's grandson, producing roughly 500 watches total.

1879 - 1884

The Howard brothers of Fredonia, New York founded the Independent Watch Co for $150,00 with equipment from the California Watch Co and leftover material from the US Watch Co of Marion. The brothers were not the most honest of businessmen and found sales to be difficult. The factory re-tooled with new equipment in 1883 at the urging of J C Adams and renamed the business the Fredonia Watch Co a year later.

1882 - 1921

Robert H Ingersoll and younger brother Charles began as a New York mail-order business, selling watches made by the Waterbury Clock Co. The Ingersoll Yankee was invented in 1896, a cheap watch with a paper dial and stamped parts, selling 40 million of them at a dollar apiece. After buying the Trenton Co in 1908 and the New England Co in 1914 the company went bankrupt in 1921. It was bought by Waterbury, who introduced the famous Mickey Mouse wristwatch in the 1930s.

1895

Little is known about the Kelly Watch Co except that Joseph Bachner of Chicago convinced citizens of Sterling, Illinois to back his watch firm, which soon failed and sent him back to Chicago, where he found new investors and was named manager of the company. Very few examples are known to exist, and Bachner filed suit in 1896, citing conspiracy in Superior Court before moving on to form the Manistee Co in Michigan.

1883 - 1891

The Manhattan Co produced factory-cased watches with a sweep center hand in both open-face and hunter. Organized in 1883 with $100,000, a factory building was rented in New York City to produce roughly 150,000 watches before sales fell and the company failed.

1908 - 1912

The  common council of Manistee, Michigan agreed to allow Joseph Bachner and W R Rath to build a watch factory, with the town holding the mortgage, provided the factory employ 250 people for five years. The company produced roughly 60,000 low and mid-grade watches in men's sizes and distributed by the Star Case Co before going bankrupt and being sued by Star for the non-payment of a note for $5,994.

1866 - 1868

The stockholders of the Tremont Watch Co changed the name to match the Massachusettes town of Melrose, bought an existing building and transferred the tools and machinery. All unfinished movements were completed using the new Melrose name. Aaron Dennison's prophecy of failure came true when funds ran out and the company folded in 1868, and the equipment was sold to the English Watch Co of Great Britain. 

1866 - 1870

Donald Mozart moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan after being ousted from the New York Springfield/Hampden venture and together with William Benedict rented a small factory and tried again. After three years fewer than fifty watches had been produced and the shareholders pulled out. A stock company from Rock Island, Illinois bought and transferred the equipment and machinery but failed to pay for it, which eventually ended up in the ill-fated and short-lived Freeport Watch Co factory.

1891

After the failure of the Otay Co several of the same investors tried again in another building erected in nearby Alviso, California. The equipment was purchased back from Frank Kimball and work started in the spring of 1891. Fewer than a dozen watches had been produced before legal suit was brought by one of the original Otay investors.  Unable to pay, the company closed in December, again leaving Kimball with very little.

1889

Very little is known about the Sterling Co of Illinois except that it was started by Joseph Bachner, who was sole owner of an existing watch business in Chicago when he talked the citizens of Sterling into putting up $26,000 in capital stock, a third of which he kept. It is not known if any watches were produced, but Bachner would return to Chicago to found the Kelly Watch Co, and after failing at that, go to Michigan and form the Manistee Watch Co using public funds, and fail again.

1882 - 1885

Josiah P Stevens, a jeweler in Atlanta, Georgia, had for years bought movements from the Hampden Co and finished them in his shop after adding his own patent regulator. In 1882 he bought machinery offered to him by Ezra Bowman and found investors willing to build a factory, retaining W Todd as superintendent from Bowman. In 1885 the largest shareholder, J C Freeman, died, leaving his heirs to fight over the will and form the new Freeman Co. Stevens sold his interest to this new venture, which failed in 1887.

1898 - 1901

Whatever origins the Suffolk Co may have had with the Columbia Co, the factory continued to make low-jewel-count 0-size watches under Renton Whidden, the son-in-law of Waterbury employee E A Locke. Some 25,000 pieces were made in the few years the factory was operational before being bought by the Keystone Case Co and the equipment moved to the defunct U S Watch factory building.

1864 - 1866 

After leaving American Waltham, Aaron Dennison went to Boston to partner with A O Bigelow and raise funds for the new Tremont Watch Co in Massachusetts. He was named superintendent and traveled to Zurich to secure a parts source for the new venture. Dennison left the outfit in 1866 when the stockholders decided to move the business to Melrose and attempt to manufacture the entire watch here in America.

1887 - 1908

 After finding new investors willing to put up $250,000, the failing New Haven Watch Co relocated to Trenton, New Jersey in 1887 and a new factory was built in nearby Chambersburg. Several big names from rival factories were recruited and workers produced roughly 2,000,000 watches in all sizes until the company was sold to R H Ingersoll in 1908.

1878 - 1898

 The Waterbury Co formed around the idea for a low-cost watch and D Azro Buck's "long-wind" design, which required fewer than 60 parts. The factory was built in Waterbury, Connecticut and the tooling was provided by Charles Benedict of Benedict & Burnham Mfg, the nation's largest producer of brass. By the mid-1880s the company employed 300 people and was producing 1,500 watches a day, and in 1898 the firm was renamed the New England Watch Co.

1880

Albert Troller, who would become superintendent of the Rockford Watch Co and die at his desk years later in 1913, bought the all of the unfinished movements from the California Co and founded the Western Watch Co of Chicago with Paul Cornell, whose interest was bought by the California group.  A very small number of watches were produced, which were based on the original 18-size 15-jewel Cornell design, before the business failed.

1887 - 1888

The Wichita Watch Co was organized with a start-up capital of $250,000 in Wichita, Kansas. A new factory was constructed to turn out 18-size movements, but after only a few watches were produced the business failed the following year in 1888. Total production is not known, nor is it certain where the watchmaking machinery came from or ended up.