Expert: Melvin Mills - 5/19/2008

Question
I have a pocket watch and know absolutely nothing about it. The outside case
is gold. The clock face says DIENER & ROTHACKER MEXICO. It also has Roman
numerals, with shiny bluish hands and a smaller minute clock on the face. On
the inside cover facing clock face, it has the number 196322. When I flip it
over and open the first cover, it says PAT. AP. 2284 C.W.C.CO. Trade Mark
and the number 196322 below it. When I open the second gold cover,
showing the "insides" of the watch, it says Hillside. WALTHAM, MAss. along
the rim and under that it says 3310562 SAFETY PINION. Also, along the very
edge very tiny, it says PAT'D DEC 7, 86. Can you tell me about the history of
this watch and possibly the value of it?
Thank you.

Answer
Jose Manuel,

This is what is called a private label.  That is when a jeweler or company buys a watch and has their name put on it instead of the manufacturers' name.  Tiffany and Co. does this very successfully.

In your case, the watch was made by Waltham Watch Co. Here is their history.

The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., produced about 40 million high quality watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time fuses and other precision instruments between 1850 and 1957.

History
In 1850, Roxbury, Massachusetts, David Davis, Edward Howard and Aaron Lufkin Dennison formed together the company that would later become the Waltham Watch Company. The revolutionary 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.


American Horologe Company
In 1851, the company took the name American Horologe Co. and production started in the new factory building. Late 1852, the first watches were complete. The first 17 watches, marked "The Warren Mfg Co" were distributed among company officials. Number 18 to 100 were named "Warren Boston" and the following 800 "Samuel Curtis". A few, marked "Fellows & Schell", sold for $40. January 1853 saw the introduction of the "P.S. Bartlett" watch.


Boston Watch Company
The company was renamed Boston Watch Co. in September 1853. A new factory was built in Waltham, Massachusetts, on the banks of the Charles River, which grew over the years to its present size. In October 1854 the company moved into the new factory. The next movements manufactured (1001-5000) were marked "Dennison, Howard, & Davis", "P.S.Bartlett", and "C.T. Parker". The company had financial difficulties and Edward Howard left to form E. Howard & Co..


Appleton Tracy & Company
Upon bankruptcy, the company was sold at auction to Royal E. Robbins, who reorganized it under the new name Appleton Tracy & Co. (ATCo) in May 1857. Bearing this name, the next movements produced, Waltham Model 1857 was the 1st pocket watch produced in America of standard parts. Serial numbers 5001 to 14,000. The "C.T. Parker" was introduced as the 1857 model. 399 units were made. Also 598 chronometers were manufactured.


American Watch Company
The Waltham Improvement Co. merged in January 1859 with the Appleton, Tracy & Co. forming the American Watch Co. (AWCo). In 1860, as President Abraham Lincoln was elected, the country was in Civil War. Production ground to a halt. However, the company decided to downsize to the lowest possible level to keep the factory open. It worked: Upon his Gettysburg Address, President Lincoln became the proud owner of a Waltham watch: Model 1857, grade "Wm. Ellery", serial number no 67613.

Waltham became the main supplier of Railroad chronometers to the various railroads in North America and in as many as 52 other countries of the world. In 1876, Waltham disclosed the first automatic screw making machinery and obtained the first Gold Medal in a watch precision contest at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Not only the American Horology but also the world owes much to the early members of the Waltham Watch entity, such as Bacon, Church, Dennison, Fogg, H. Marsh, Webster and Woerd for their technical inventions and developments.


American Waltham Watch Company
In 1885, after 26 years, the company name changed to American Waltham Watch Co. (AWWCo) where it was to remain for the next 32 years. Most widely known under this name, the company would produce some of the finest examples of pocket watches ever created.


Waltham Watch Company
In 1907 the name changed to Waltham Watch Co. (WWCo), in 1923 briefly to Waltham Watch and Clock Company and finally in 1925 to Waltham Watch Company (WWC).

Two high-quality groups of watches were produced by Waltham as direct result of orders placed by the Canadian Pacific Railway. One large group has the shield and beaver emblem of the Railway engraved on the movements, and is known as the "CPR" type. The second group has "Canadian Railway Time Service" engraved on the movements, and is known as the "CRTS" type. They are both highly prized by collectors.

In U.S.A., the manufacturing of Waltham watches and watch parts ended in 1957. Production was transferred to Switzerland, to Waltham International SA, a company established for this purpose in 1954 by the US parent company. However, specialized clocks and chronographs for use in aircraft control panels continued to be made in the Waltham factory under the name of Waltham Precision Instruments Company until the company was sold in 1994. The company is now based in Alabama as the Waltham Aircraft Clock Corporation.

Waltham International SA
The Waltham Watch Company went out of business in 1957, but had founded a subsidiary in Switzerland in 1954, Waltham International SA, which now produces Waltham Swiss made luxury watches as a full-fledged member of the Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry FH.