Ask the Watch Guy: Old Style, High-Tech

clock was 10 minutes late and the two trains met head-on in Ohio.

After that tragedy Congress wrote the Railway Timekeeping Act, mandating that all railroad employees use railroad pocket watches. Now, what is a railroad-approved watch?

They have all of the following.
-- Lever set: This is the type of watch where you must slide a lever under the crystal bezel to change the time.  This was done so the watch could not accidentally have the time changed in someone’s pocket;
-- At least 19 jewels in the movement;
-- A 36-hour run time after winding; most watches of the day only ran approximately 24 hours, though some models were dual time zone and had a 60-hour run time. This was done so the trip from New York City to Chicago could be made on a single wind. Also, having two hour hands one hour apart, it displayed the time in New York City and Chicago;
-- The ability to adjust to five positions, and some even adjusted to six;
-- An open-face case made of nickel or gold-filled; and
-- Accuracy from minus 0 seconds per day and up to plus 5 seconds per day.

During this time, the longstanding Swiss watch companies paid the American watch companies a great honor, if you believe the old proverb that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Swiss watchmakers started using American designs and, what’s even more interesting, they used American names; for example, The Bay State Watch Co. and the Delaware Watch Company. Collectors call these watches “Swiss fakes.”

The reason the Swiss tried to fool people into thinking that their watches were American is because during the entire 19th century, the American watchmakers were the best. People were hot to own a piece of American high-tech. Owning one of these Swiss-made “American” timepieces then is akin to buying an iPhone clone from China today.

America’s entrance into watchmaking made highly accurate timepieces affordable to the working class for the first time in history, which was needed as the country transitioned from a farm-based economy to an urban-factory economy.

The first dollar watches cost $5 and, over time, they became $1 retail. During the 1930s and ‘40s, most American families owned a dollar watch or a low-cost alarm clock made in America.

The American age of watchmaking came to an end with post-World War II tariffs and imports taxes favorable to overseas manufacturers. For example, during the late 1950s and until their demise in 1966, Elgin bought Swiss parts to assemble watches in Puerto Rico because it was cheaper than making the watches in Illinois. It did not take the company far. Elgin went bankrupt in 1966, mostly because the quality had gone downhill. From there, Elgin became a “licensed brand,” meaning someone paid to use the name.

America needs a renaissance in watchmaking. The world is seeking real innovation is a sea of mediocrity, and America is the place to find it. It all began here, so I suggest that we bring it back here.

I, like others in the trade, have nostalgic dreams of the rebirth of American watchmaking. For my part, I have begun making plans to remake the 1890s “Gendron Special.”  

At the moment, I’m getting tooled up for the task, only this time it will be a wristwatch and updated with a power reserve and shock jewels. But, that’s a topic for another article.

Jess Gendron is a seventh generation watchmaker, having learned by his father Dan’s side since childhood. He is now the owner of Colorado Timeworks, a watch repair service center in Colorado Springs. He can be reached at talktothewatchguy@gmail.com, and his website is Timeworks.biz.