Waltham pocket watch models
![waltham pocket watch models waltham pocket watch models](https://i.etsystatic.com/7136825/r/il/349bd6/1902003794/il_fullxfull.1902003794_63qb.jpg)
The best regular production 17j model in 1903 would have been the Riverside, which had a double-roller escapement, steel escape wheel and raised gold settings. However, the gilt finish to the screws and regulator suggests it may have been a special order movement.
![waltham pocket watch models waltham pocket watch models](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/615ba3c8745dd10fdc1c6b72/1633403766513-BJ3TGG6Q0LUEWSE7CGR7/watch+6.jpg)
The comtemporary catalog claims only adjustment to temperature. However, it still has the lower-grade plate pattern, flush-set train jewels (other than the center wheel) and brass escape wheel of the Royal at this date. The better grade movement you show is listed as a Royal grade movement, although it shows some finish details I associate with the Riverside grade (damaskeen pattern on plates and winding wheels). According to the contemporary catalogs it was an unadjusted movement, not even claiming temperature adjustment. As you note, the grade 625 was their cheapest 17j model. Surviving 1857 model movements also occasionally turn up fitted with an Abbot's patent stemwind conversion.There was, indeed, a range of quality in Waltham's 17j 1899 model. This feature can be identified as a small screw head on the barrel bridge with the word "patent" next to it. Some stemwind 1857 movements were fitted with a screw which could be used to lock the winding click into the "off" position to allow the mainspring to be let down. All stemwind 1857 movements have the winding stem located at 3:00. Later 1857 movements also added a reversing clutch, a feature ubiquitous on all subsequent Waltham stemwind watches.
![waltham pocket watch models waltham pocket watch models](https://images.antiquesatlas.com/dealer-stock-images/thevintagewristwatch/1921_Waltham_pocket_watch_in_b_as170a4301z-3.jpg)
Later stemwind movements were lever setting, with a unique design of set lever which pivoted out from the movement rather than pulling out. The earliest stemwind 1857 movements were fitted with no reversing clutch on the winding stem, and had no setting mechanism these early movements required using a key to set the time. A small amount of the total production of 1857 model movements were fitted with a stemwind mechanism from the factory. The majority of 1857 model Waltham movements are keywind from the rear and keyset from the front. The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. This watch is now in the collection of the National Museum of American History at
#Waltham pocket watch models serial number
In tribute, upon the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln was presented with a William Ellery, key wind watch Waltham Model 1857, serial number 67613. Most of the Model 57 pocket watches were in coin silver, which is 90% pure.Īmerican system of watch manufacturing in Wikipedia is a great side reference on the Waltham Model 57 Pocket Watch President Abraham Lincoln's Waltham Pocket Watch Most pocket watches were made in England or France, so this was a test for early American manufacturing to take and produce items better than the countries in Europe, which at the time was in the middle of the industrial revolution. In the spring of 1857, the Boston Watch Company did not have enough money to stay running and was forced into insolvency. The American Watch Company created and marketed the first successful industrialized watch.īefore 1857, The Boston Watch Company made and sold approximately 5,000 movements and 4,000 cases before it failed financially, and in the factory at the time there was an estimated 1,300 watches in various stages of production that had yet to be finished into complete watches. Prior to that year, pocket watches were not made of standard parts and repairing and making the watches was difficult and expensive. The Waltham Model 1857 is a watch made by the American Watch Company, later called the Waltham Watch Company in Waltham, Massachusetts. Case back inside photo with hallmark of the Waltham watch company model 57