The History of the Great American Watch Companies - Learning From the Past
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- Description: Philosopher George Santayana once wrote, “Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.” At Vortic Watch Company, we’re planning for the future - and the future is looking bright. We have so many new things planned that we can’t wait for you to see. However, as we dedicate so much time to new product lines and all these exciting new things in the works, we understand the importance of knowing where we came from. That’s why, in this episode, we’re talking all about the rich history of the great American watch companies.
From about 1850 to 1950, America was “the Switzerland of watch companies.” In the 1850s, America was expanding west. Not only were we expanding, but we were building. At the very center of this expansion was the railroad industry, building railroads to transport people and goods all across the country. At this time, the only way to keep track of time - and remain efficient - was with a pocket watch. This profound consumer need led these great American watch companies to make over 100 million pocket watches between 1850 and 1950 - which gives us more than enough to source for our watches. That is, however, if you know where to look.
We’re Building a Watch Company with Custer + Wolfe and giving you an inside look into what it takes to manufacture in America and build mechanical watches. We want to bring you along on all the successes, failures, innovations, and inventions that go into American manufacturing and watchmaking. Follow along as we restore vintage pocket watch movements and give them new life with Vortic Watch Co., and as we build a brand new watch company from scratch, focused on making high-quality American-machined watches.
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:07 - What are we talking about today?
00:35 - You can learn a lot from the past
01:26 - Our Map of the Great American Watch Companies
02:10 - Trigger Warning Watch Nerds!
02:54 - Why do we care about some old defunct companies?
04:08 - Overview
04:56 - The Howard Watch Company
06:27 - Seth Thomas Watch Company
07:58 - Waltham Watch Company
10:10 - Hamilton Watch Company
12:13 - Hamilton Vs Vortic
12:33 - The Ball Watch Company
14:12 - The Amazing Mary Babcock
15:10 - The Hampden Watch Company
16:40 - Southbend Watch Company
17:53 - The Elgin Watch Company
19:53 - The Rockford Watch Company
22:35 - The Illinois Watch Company
23:02 - Illinois Private Lable Movements
23:25 - The Burlington Watch Company
24:10 - The Bunn Special
24:44 - Wrapup
25:02 - Is American Made Synonymous with Quality?
25:08 - Quality American-made watches predate the Ford Motor Co.
25:25 - Why we believe in American Made products
26:12 - Wrapup
26:53 - Outro
Like this content? Check out our:
‣ Current inventory of one-of-a-kind watches: vorticwatches.com/watches
‣ Military Edition watch (available 11/11 each year): vorticwatches.com/military
‣ Heirloom pocket watch conversions: vorticwatches.com/convert
‣ Instagram: / vorticwatches
‣ Facebook page: / vorticwatches
‣ Twitter feed: / vorticwatches
Custer&Wolfe is a CZcams show created by the founders of Vortic Watch Company (vorticwatches.com) and produced in part by Carter&Custer agency: carterandcuster.com
We’re Building a Watch Company with Custer + Wolfe and giving you an inside look into what it takes to manufacture in America and build mechanical watches. We want to bring you along on all the successes, failures, innovations, and inventions that go into American manufacturing and watchmaking. Follow along as we restore vintage pocket watch movements and give them new life with Vortic Watch Co., and as we build a brand new watch company from scratch, focused on making high-quality American-machined watches.
Thanks so much for watching, and be sure to subscribe to our channel so you don’t miss out on any exciting updates! You can also stay in the loop & get exclusive access by signing up for our weekly newsletter at www.vorticwatches.com.
#antiquerestoration #vortic #vorticwatches #militarywatch #military #manufacturing
Thank you for this amazing history lesson. I love this stuff. We need this in America, a healthy respect of the past is needed nowadays.
So very true. Kids are being taught such erroneous codswallop about our past, it's so disheartening. But with your help, we can preserve it!
I thought I was only interested in wristwatches. You just changed that - fascinating! Cheers!
Greetings from the UK. Thank you for this most interesting presentation. The United States was indeed the original Switzerland of watches. It seems crazy today, but in Victorian Britain, they were most worried about these pesky American imports lol. Like the Dollar Watch. They democratised watch ownership by becoming the masters of standardised production.
Hello! Thank you for taking the time to watch. That makes sense! Thanks for sharing.
Per your comment at 17:05, parts of the Illinois Watch Co factory still stand, including the original clock tower. The building currently houses the Illinois Environmental Protection agency. Also, I'd buy a map if it were available again.
This is an excellent overview and a great presentation!! Thank you!
Thank you so much for the praise! We appreciate you taking the time.
Awesome video, thanks RT
I'm a huge fan of your company! But, I really would like it if you could do a video showing your "hauls" of where/how you get the antique movements from flea markets, estate sales, jeweler liquidation, or whatever. Thanks!
Great idea!! We've got something like that we're working on...
Great video. Thank you!👏
Thanks for the watch! 😉
I grew up in Waltham about two miles from the Howard building and of course the Waltham watch Co. The company also moved next to the Charles River because the water kept the dust down. Waltham has a history of manufacturing. The textile factory was the first to produce raw cotton to a finished cloth. There was also the Orient bicycle company that became the Metz car company. Hope you guys can get out there some day.
I want the MAP!!! :) great video and an amazing company with true AMERICAN VALUES.
Great video! Would definitely be interested in one of those maps!
Fantastic episode. Really great stuff. Great watches as well.
Glad you enjoyed it
Great video and cool map…I’d possibly be interested in one
Great history lesson R.T. and sweet Military Edition on your wrist!
A few years ago I wanted to visit the site of the Elgin Watch Company factory in Elgin Illinois. While the very cool Elgin Observatory still stands, the factory was torn down in 1966. The saddest part was the destruction of the Elgin clock tower! This structure was 144 feet tall, had a one ton bell and numbers on the dial were larger than those on Big Ben!
Now there is just a plaque close to the strip mall parking lot where this magnificent structure used to stand. Why the clock tower was not preserved as a monument to the great Elgin National Watch Company will remain as one of the great historical travesties of watch making history!
Too much of our history has been mistreated, and Vortic Watches is trying to stop that. Glad to see you appreciate the gravity of this situation.
Very interesting presentation. Got to ask; how do things go from the highs to extinction? Can't believe the physical size of most of the watch factories!
Well, we kind of covered that in the military edition video ( czcams.com/video/rV1jQQZmMwE/video.html ), but it was also due to multiple factors and failures to protect American manufacturing after WW2 as well. Some fascinating documents can be found written by the watch companies begging the Truman administration to stop importing cheap Swiss movements from overseas:
catalog.archives.gov/id/146134912
This video is amazing! Thanks RT for doing this! I’d love to get my hands on that poster. Keep up the great work with these awesome time pieces.
You got it!
Cool map! I would purchase one even on cork.
Mary Babcock deserves a god damn hall of fame dedicated to her. I mean that’s not a overstatement think about all the lives she kept safe and on the ball lol. That’s something you don’t see today someone just putting their head down and doing important work because someone has to do it.
Especially during a time when some of the watch luming companies were treating their girls so poorly.
@@CusterWolfe when a good amount of the world was that way so ya.. good on the company also. This was before the work revolution during the wars so ya they where really treated as second class citizens in all aspects.
A long vid on each company please!! I have a ball wrist watch that doesn’t work anymore.
A Ball wristwatch!? How interesting! Is it from the original American company, or from the foreign company that bought the name?
@@CusterWolfe oh this is old maybe 50 yrs or so.
First time seeing your channel Subscribed 👍 I'd be interested in map you shared.
Thanks for subbing!
What era do you consider to be the best for American pocket watches? Awesome educational video. Thanks for posting it!
1910 to 1940 was the hey-day of American watchmaking at scale. "Best" is hard to define as there were some spectacular pocket watches made in the 1800s with many complications, but most were one-off watches made for collectors and cannot be enjoyed by many people today. Since those companies made so many watches in the early 1900s, there are a ton of great pocket watches to choose from and they can be found at decent prices today. Check out the Hamilton 992B if you want a classic and excellent railroad pocket watch that won't break the budget!
@@CusterWolfe Thanks for the reply! My Lancaster is from 1949. So when did US production start to finally fall off and forever give way to wristwatches?
It started after WWI but escalated quickly after WWII. Most of these watch companies went out of business in the 40s and 50s. Hamilton lasted the longest and went under in 1969.@@Johnfsu
@@vorticwatchcompany One last question because I don't want to keep you from prepping for the awesome M.E. release, but so far it looks like only some of the more recent (1940s) Lancaster movements have been size 10s (43mm). Did the other manufacturers not make many 10s? Or was this a size that came mostly later, hence Hamilton was still around to make them and the other companies already dissolved by the time 10s came into fashion?
@@Johnfsu excellent question! Other brands made 10size movements, but to your point, there weren't as many other brands around in the 1940s, so the most prevalent ones we've seen that we can use for pocket watch conversions were made by Hamilton and Elgin. So far we've only made Hamiltons, but don't worry, we're always working on fun new things!
So the Ball Watch company Was the HotRod Tuner shop of watches. 😄
Very nice overview...but you're not getting any of my railroad watches. I would, however, like one of those maps.
Fair enough! We aren't interested in forcing people to change the watches they have and love, but instead to encourage people to find the value in the abandoned pocket watches of the past.
@@CusterWolfe Thank you…but I still want that map.
Excellent show!. America was and is a leader in many industries. Very interesting overview on the American pocket watch manufacturers. It would be great for a deeper dive on each manufacturer in a separate episode.
I would strongly suggest looking at French watch and clock making as they were the world leaders.
Hmm let's agree that you're wrong on that point, haha! Jokes aside, let's see some evidence of that claim so we can have a good discussion about it.
Was that before or after the British and Americans?
The British and French were the pioneers of fine clock and watch making. Because of the geography French and Swiss (along with German) were interchangeable. I am not denying that the American railroads didn't make a huge impact on accurate pocket watches, as with everything leaders come and go... look at the British for example.
I would like to purchase a map.
Send R.T. an email at rt@vorticwatches.com!
I'll take the map as well
Hampton Duerber went bankrupt and sold the machinery to the Ussr in the 1930s. Some of the employees went as well.
I have several of the Moscow Watch Factory 15 jewel Kirovskie watches both as pocket watches and lots of Kirovskie wrist watches.15 jewels 45mm in size. The are all working.
I also have a solid gold 30mm Elgin wrist watch with a six o clock sub dial. I has a big onion crown and is engraved From Ernest 1931 on the caseback. I am going to get it mended if I can as it doesn't run.
During WW2 the former Hampden watch Co moved from Moscow to a new location and later became the Vostok. In recent years Vostok sold an anniversary edition of the Kirov/Hampden watch as the K43.
That sounds about right, considering how poorly the entire industry was treated by the government at the time.
Is that a product of the Idaho Watch Company on your wrist? Certainlylooks like a 40 count potato.
Thanks james! Our Military Edition is certainly a significant statement, and people with petite wrists struggle to pull it off. This year we'll be releasing some smaller-sized cases for those who are easily intimidated by a few extra mm.
@@CusterWolfe 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 I'll check them out if I can muster the courage!