American Waltham was the first American Watch Co. They are the pioneered almost in all of the early developments in watches and watch making in the United States. Elgin was an early spin off from Waltham and eventually overtook Waltham in total production. For essentially all the period of 19th Century American Watchmaking, Waltham and Elgin had cooperative agreements intended to prevent other companies from competing with them. The first of these covered the patent center pinion. Later cooperative arrangements included stem winding and pendant setting arrangements.
In 1850 at Roxbury in Massachusetts, David Davis, Edward Howard and Aaron Lufkin Dennison formed together the company that would later become the Waltham Watch Company. The business plan was to manufacture the movement parts so precisely that they would become fully interchangeable. Based upon the experience of earlier failed trials, Howard and Dennison would eventually perfect and patent their precision watch making machines and create the American System of Watch Manufacturing.
Their vision was to form a watch company that could produce high-quality watches at a lower cost using interchangeable parts. With financial backing from Samuel Curtis, the first watches were made in 1850, but problems were encountered. They were exploring new ideas in watch manufacturing, such as using jewels, making dials, and producing plates with a high-level of finish which required extensive tooling and resulted in great financial burden on the company. They also found that even though they were using interchangeable parts, each watch was still unique and had its own set of errors to be corrected. It took months to adjust the watches to the point where they were any better than other widely available timepieces.
The 1883 model full plate watch was followed by Waltham’s 1892 model, which was the last of the Waltham 18 size designs. Although a larger watch, it incorporated many of the design elements of the earlier 16 size watches. Waltham also continued to develop the successful 16 size lines with the innovative 1888 model and their very successful 1899/1908 model.
Also commonly referred to as the “Waltham Watch Company,” the American Waltham Watch Company was the first watch company to mass produce watches in America and is generally considered to be the most important American watch company.
The name was changed to “Boston Watch Company” in 1853. In 1854 a factory was built in Waltham Mass. The watches that were made were named “Dennison, Howard, & Davis” as earlier stated, as well as “P.S.Batrlett”, and “C.T. Parker”. Boston Watch Company failed in 1857.
The company was sold at auction to Appleton Tracy & Co in May 1857. In January 1859 the Waltham Improvement Company and Appleton, Tracy & Company merged to the American Waltham Watch Company. By 1860 the country was in Civil War, and the company was in trouble again. Production ground to a halt. With a war going on, finding a market for their watches was becoming a seroius problem. The company decided to downsize to the lowest possible level to keep the factory open. It worked!
In 100 years of existence the factory produced 40 million jeweled watches, plus clocks, speedometers, compasses, time fuses for bombs and other precision instruments.
Waltham Watch company went out of business in the late 1950”s-early 1960’s, in 1957 they planned to merge into Waltham Precision Instrument Company which was completed March 1960. The shareholders of the old company received shares of the Waltham Precision Instrument Company and also received shares in a Waltham Watch Company. In the mid 60’s the remaining assets were purchased by the Dextra Corporation which failed in 1983.
Waltham S/N by through the yrears.
| 1852 – 50 | 1874 – 730,000 | 1896 – 7,450,000 | 1918 – 21,800,000 | 1940 – 30,250,000 |
| 1853 – 400 | 1875 – 810,000 | 1897 – 8,100,000 | 1919 – 22,500,000 | 1941 – 30,750,000 |
| 1854 – 1,000 | 1876 – 910,000 | 1898 – 8,400,000 | 1920 – 23,400,000 | 1942 – 31,050,000 |
| 1855 – 2,500 | 1877 – 1,000,000 | 1899 – 9,000,000 | 1921 – 23,900,000 | 1943 – 31,700,000 |
| 1856 – 4,000 | 1878 – 1,150,000 | 1900 – 9,500,000 | 1922 – 24,100,000 | 1944 – 32,100,000 |
| 1857 – 6,000 | 1879 – 1,350,000 | 1901 – 10,200,000 | 1923 – 24,300,000 | 1945 – 32,100,000 |
| 1858 – 10,000 | 1880 – 1,500,000 | 1902 – 11,100,000 | 1924 – 24,550,000 | 1946 – 32,350,000 |
| 1859 – 15,000 | 1881 – 1,670,000 | 1903 – 12,100,000 | 1925 – 24,800,000 | 1947 – 32,750,000 |
| 1860 – 20,000 | 1882 – 1,835,000 | 1904 – 13,500,000 | 1926 – 25,200,000 | 1948 – 33,100,000 |
| 1861 – 30,000 | 1883 – 2,000,000 | 1905 – 14,300,000 | 1927 – 26,100,000 | 1949 – 33,500,000 |
| 1862 – 45,000 | 1884 – 2,350,000 | 1906 – 14,700,000 | 1928 – 26,400,000 | 1950 – 33,560,000 |
| 1863 – 65,000 | 1885 – 2,650,000 | 1907 – 15,500,000 | 1929 – 26,900,000 | 1951 – 33,600,000 |
| 1864 – 110,000 | 1886 – 3,000,000 | 1908 – 16,400,000 | 1930 – 27,100,000 | 1952 – 33,700,000 |
| 1865 – 180,000 | 1887 – 3,400,000 | 1909 – 17,600,000 | 1931 – 27,300,000 | 1953 – 33,800,000 |
| 1866 – 260,000 | 1888 – 3,800,000 | 1910 – 17,900,000 | 1932 – 27,550,000 | 1954 – 34,100,000 |
| 1867 – 330,000 | 1889 – 4,200,000 | 1911 – 18,100,000 | 1933 – 27,750,000 | 1955 – 34,450,000 |
| 1868 – 410,000 | 1890 – 4,700,000 | 1912 – 18,200,000 | 1934 – 28,100,000 | 1956 – 34,700,000 |
| 1869 – 460,000 | 1891 – 5,200,000 | 1913 – 18,900,000 | 1935 – 28,600,000 | 1957 – 35,000,000 |
| 1870 – 500,000 | 1892 – 5,800,000 | 1914 – 19,500,000 | 1936 – 29,100,000 | |
| 1871 – 540,000 | 1893 – 6,300,000 | 1915 – 20,000,000 | 1937 – 29,400,000 | |
| 1872 – 590,000 | 1894 – 6,700,000 | 1916 – 20,500,000 | 1938 – 29,750,000 | |
| 1873 – 680,000 | 1895 – 7,100,000 | 1917 – 20,900,000 | 1939 – 30,050,00 |
Please remember that this is an unofficial account of the history of this company, Should you happen to find any mistakes with our information then please let us know at