The history of the Waltham Watch Company - The biggest story in American Watchmaking 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

Waltham is the biggest story in American Watchmaking and is a story of human ingenuity.
Established in 1850 in Waltham Mass., The Waltham Watch Company has been setting modern standards for the production of clocks and watches, and has over one thousand watch and instrument patents. waltham.ch
Waltham produced about 40 million watches, clocks, car speedometers, compasses, aircraft instrument, time fuses, and other precision instruments between 1850 and 1957 and was the watch household name in America.
Waltham is also the inventor of the “American Watchmaking System” , the industrial organisation and workflow by which watches could be produced efficiently and in large quantities. Waltham Watches has effectively industrialized watch production, giving consistent quality to watches. This system has later also been widely adopted in Switzerland.
In fact, while not the birthplace of horology, the USA has given rise to the modern way to make watches. In the 19th century Watchmaking was primarily a Swiss business. It adopted the Etablissage system which involved making certain parts under the roof of a factory while obtaining other parts from workers who used their own cottages as workshops to produce components.
This system required skilled and costly labor and was not very scalable. At the same time in the USA new manufacturing techniques were developed by the USA Armory that called for using interchangeable parts. This was made possible by a strict organisation system, the extensive use of machines, and quality control systems that utilised gauges and measurement instruments to ensure precise and uniform dimensions.
Aaron Dennison a watch repair man from Brunswick, proposed to use similar techniques for the manufacture of watches because it allowed rapid assembly of the final watches. In 1850 Dennison partnered with clockmaker Edward Howard and they eventually gave rise to the Waltham Watch Company to apply armoury practices to watches thereby creating the American System of Watch Manufacturing which allowed to achieve strict production tolerances and less manufacturing defects.
The idea of applying armory practices to watchmaking allowed an efficient production where final assembly could be done by lesser-skilled workers, reducing labour costs, and where the same components could be used to manufacture different watch models. The American Watch Making system was exported and adopted by the Swiss through Florentine Ariosto Jones who moved to Switzerland and founded IWC.
The Field & Marine is back on watchangels.ch...

[@basicforge]

My grandfather worked in that factory building, my mother grew up in Waltham. My parents met in Waltham. I was born there, and I held several jobs there early in my software development career. I just ordered my second Waltham watch. At some point I want to own a vintage Waltham pocket watch.

[@-DarkFox-]

Im currently in the middle of converting 3 Waltham pocket watches into wrist watches. One watch from 1891 and two from 1901. They are smaller movements from lady's watches but are perfect sized for 36mm - 45mm men's wristwatches. And BEAUTIFUL with a big display-back. There are a lot just lying around that have had their old cases scrapped for the gold or whatever.

[@johnduffin9425]

and the reason you are waiting....???

[@watchbandit9241]

Amazing history! Also really like the design of the military A-11 and A-17 wrist watches 🇺🇸

[@juliarosas4117]

Es Emocionante y me siento muy feliz de poseer un auténtico reloj Whalham Siii!

[@WATCHANGELS]

Waltham es de hecho una marca muy importante e históricamente significativa. Si desea leer más al respecto: medium.com/watchmakers-ch/waltham-watches/home

[@DanellTomasella]

My GGF, Frederick Graves, worked in exec offices for over 60 years, and until they closed as paymaster.

[@WATCHANGELS]

Thank you for sharing this!

[@BruceWSims]

I restrict my own Hobbyist watchmaking to 19th Century Walthams such as the Model 57, 73 and 77 for exactly the information given in this video. I doubt seriously that the American citizen today has Any idea of the incredible jump forward that the Waltham Watch company induced in US industrial science.

[@WATCHANGELS]

This is true. The American industrial revolution came before the Swiss one and especially Waltham contributed to increase quality and the possibility of carrying out mass production at affordable prices by industrialising watch production. This method invented by Waltham, was called the American System of watch manufacturing. This system was then taken over by the Swiss. You find a great story here: medium.com/watchmakers-ch/industrial-espionage-and-the-eventual-downfall-of-the-waltham-watch-company-14290d235dfb

[@BruceWSims]

Thank you so much for thge link. I was also a bit disappointed to learn that the Waltham Watch Company records were gifted to Harvard University and are now held in a closed stack and are accessible only by appointment and pre-arranged permission of the University. Any recommendations regarding design and materials would be warmly appreciated. Best Wishes.....

[@WATCHANGELS]

@@BruceWSims Yes this is indeed true, all records are there, there is a small museum in the old factory in Waltham but relatively small. The best would be indeed to make an appointment at Harvard University...

[@KAFKUBA]

I have a 50s or 60s Waltham self winding watch. 17 jewels. Do you know if they used radium to make the glow feature?

[@WATCHANGELS]

In the 50s most probably yes

[@genekelly8467]

Yes..in fact the room they used was found to be heavily contaminated with radium and barium-it was a "Superfund" site and was torn dowm 3 years ago.@@WATCHANGELS