About Waltham

Waltham is a watch manufacturer representing the United States.

The history of the American watch industry dates back to around 1850, but the American watch industry, which started after Britain, France, and Switzerland, quickly overtook those countries by the end of the 19th century.
Waltham was a company that automated the parts manufacturing process and created the "American style" of mass production, and played an important role in the development of the watch industry not only in the United States but also around the world.

Although the company name has changed several times along the way, we will use the representative name WALTHAM here.

the beginning

Waltham's history begins with Boston clockmaker Aaron Lufkin Dennison.
He was known as the ``Madman of Boston'' due to his unconventional drive and passion for watches.
After training as a watchmaker from the age of 18, he ventured into his own business.

Dennison had the idea of ​​mass producing watches using replaceable parts rather than making them all by hand, reducing repair costs.
The company proposed this idea to Edward Howard, a watchmaker and partner at Howard & Davis, a measuring equipment manufacturer in Boston, and after receiving investment, began commercialization.

Waltham's predecessor, Howard, Davis & Dennison, was founded in September 1850, and after changing its name several times, the company built a factory in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1854.
Starting with the creation of a machine tool that could produce parts uniformly from the beginning based on Dennison's ideas, Dennison, Howard, and others created a new watch manufacturing system through trial and error.

However, in the beginning, business was unstable due to unstable production machinery and high investment costs, and the company went bankrupt in 1857.
Taking this opportunity, Edward Howard, who is also the founder, left the company and took back the skilled labor company and production machinery and established the ``Howard Watch Company.''
This was the beginning of E. Haword, one of America's leading luxury watch manufacturers.

The company's buildings and large machinery were sold to Royal E. Robbins, who founded Tracy, Baker & Co., which resumed clock manufacturing.
Dennison remained with the company as superintendent of the mechanical department, but was fired in 1861 due to conflicts with Robbins.
Denison later became involved in the establishment of several watch manufacturers, and the watch case manufacturer ``Denison Watch Case Company'' launched in Birmingham, England, was a huge success and continued as a luxury watch case manufacturer until 1967. .

Aaron Lufkin Dennison (1812-1895)

Edward Howard (1813-1904)

Development of the American watch industry

Even after the two founders left, due to the influence of the Civil War, the company underwent several changes of management and mergers, becoming known as Appleton Tracy & Company (ATCo) and The American Watch Company (Waltham, Mass.). The name is being changed.
During that time, the company steadily improved its technological capabilities with successes such as low-priced watches for soldiers and became a major supplier of accurate chronometers for railroad operations called ``railway clocks'' to support the expansion of American railroads. It became.
Waltham watches have been worn by American presidents such as Abraham Lincoln and James Buchanan.

In 1876, he won his first gold medal at a contest at the World's Fair in Philadelphia.
Jacques David, Longines' technical director, who was there to inspect the company, was impressed by Waltham's technological capabilities and is promoting an "American-style" production method of integrated mechanized manufacturing in Switzerland.

After that, the company was renamed "American Waltham Watch Company (AWWCo)" in 1885, "Waltham Watch Co. (WWCo)" in 1907, "Waltham Watch and Clock Company" in 1923, and "Waltham Watch Company (WWC)" in 1925. While changing the name of the company, the company continued to manufacture watches for people from all walks of life, from low-priced watches to high-end models, from practical watches to highly decorative watches for women, and achieved success as America's largest watch manufacturer. I will collect it.

decline

During World War II, Waltham became a military factory and mainly produces military watches such as ``TYPE A-11'' and ``TYPE A-17.''
However, the company's postwar business transformation did not go well, and it went bankrupt in 1949. After that, many attempts to restart the business ended in failure.

In 1958, the company withdrew from the consumer watch business and was split up.
While undergoing several acquisitions, the company moved its headquarters to Switzerland, and in 1981 after the quartz shock, it became a subsidiary of Japan's Heiwado Trading Co., Ltd., but Heiwado Trading Co., Ltd. also went bankrupt in October 2016.

summary

Waltham can be called the standard-bearer of the American watch industry, which has taken the American watch industry, which was far behind that of Europe, to the top of the world in just 30 years since its founding.
The American production method of ``integrated production of high-precision watches by assembling high-quality parts produced using specialized machines by skilled workers'' had a great influence not only on America but also on Swiss watch manufacturers such as Longines.

Today, only a few brand names remain, but its former glory will never fade.