The Auburndale Watch Company : $b first American attempt toward the dollar watchBattison, Edwin A.
History
The Auburndale Watch Company : $b first American attempt toward the dollar watch
Battison, Edwin A.
Auburndale Watch Company (Auburndale, Mass.); Clock and watch making -- United States
The old reliable Auburndale Chronograph Timers, for sale by Edward
H. Brown, No. 16 Maiden Lane, New York. The manufacture of these
watches having been discontinued for reasons entirely apart from
their value and reliability, the stock in existence is very
limited, and is now in the hands of Mr. Edward H. Brown, No. 16
Maiden Lane, New York City, the well known and reliable dealer in
Watches, Diamonds and Jewelry. The Auburndale timer has been in the
hands of a number of competent judges, and has always been found to
be accurate. It is of convenient size, and is contained in a German
silver case, nickel plated. The timers are manufactured in two
qualities, without split seconds for $15 and with the split second
for $25. They all have minute, second and lightning hands. We
recommend all desiring a cheap and reliable timer to apply at once
to Mr. Brown, No. 16 Maiden Lane, New York.
A steadier market was sought with the introduction of a low priced
3/4-plate, back-setting, 18-size watch to compete, it was hoped, with the
full-plate watches of similar price made by the established companies.
Nearly all these watches had seven jewels, some few had more. The
majority were key wind and set with a folding winding key permanently
attached to the barrel arbor, as in figure 21. These were named
"Lincoln" for Mr. Fowle's son, Lincoln A. Fowle,[42] and had a solid
steel balance with screws and the general appearance of a compensated
balance. A stem-wound, lever-set edition of the same basic watch was
named "Bentley" for Bentley D. Fowle, another son.[43] This had a cut
bimetallic balance and higher finish. Conventional gilt finish was used
on both of these models, although one isolated specimen found in factory
remainders[44] has a bright nickel finish comparable with the rotary
watch. These watches were designed by Chauncey Hartwell,[45] after J.
H. Gerry had removed to Lancaster, where the Lancaster Watch Co.,
organized in August 1877, was attempting to bring a line of watches onto
the market although beset by acute financial woes similar to those
building up at Auburndale. To return to our 3/4-plate watches, it may be
said that they were well made for the price, reliable, and successful
from a manufacturing point of view but could not be sold at a figure high
enough to return a profit on the manufacture.
[Illustration: Figure 19.--SPLIT SECOND MECHANISM of the Auburndale
timer, as shown in drawings from U. S. patent 220195, issued September
30, 1879.]
Up to this time, about November 1, 1879, the Auburndale Watch Co., had
existed as a private company; now it was incorporated with a book value
of $500,000, and William B. Fowle, who at this point had invested about
$250,000 (mostly unrecoverable) in the enterprise, was elected president,
and George H. Bourne was elected secretary and treasurer.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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