RailsWest.com American Waltham Watch Co.

On October 1, 1854, the watch company founded in 1850 in Roxbury by Aaron Lufkin Dennison relocated to Waltham, Massachusetts, to become the Waltham Watch Company, a pioneer in the American System of Watch Manufacturing. From the article:

"Boston Watch Company
In 1849 Aaron Lufkin Dennison, Edward Howard and David Davis formed a company with a plan to use machinery to manufacture watch movement parts so precisely that they would become fully interchangeable. They initially outfitted space for design and manufacturing in Howard's clock factory in Roxbury, Massachusetts, a community neighboring Boston. In 1851 they moved to a new factory across the street from Howard's clock factory. Based upon the experience of earlier failed trials, Howard and Dennison eventually perfected and patented their precision watch making machines and create the American System of Watch Manufacturing.

In the spring of 1853 the first Dennison, Howard, & Davis watches were offered for sale to the public. The name was changed from Warren Mfg. Co. to Boston Watch Company in September 1853, and a new factory in Waltham, Massachusetts was opened in October 1854. The company produced gilded full plate pocket watches ranging from 7 to 15 jewels which found acceptance in the industry, the first pocket watch produced in America of standard interchangeable parts, fostering growth until the country began experiencing a recession in 1856. Sales dropped, debts climbed and bankruptcy became inevitable. The Boston Watch Company was sold at auction in April 1857.

American Waltham Watch Company Emerges
Royal E. Robbins and D. F. Appleton, New York watch wholesalers, along with Tracy and Baker, watch case manufactures in Philadelphia, purchased The Boston Watch Company factory and part of the other assets at the auction. As majority owner, Robbins reorganized the company as Appleton, Tracy & Co. (Most of the remaining Boston Watch Company material and watches in progress, along with some of the watch making machinery were acquired by E. Howard & Co. due to a lien). Aaron Dennison remained in Waltham as the superintendent of the mechanical department.

The Model 1857 Appleton, Tracy & Co. grade was the first pocket watch produced, it was essentially the same movement as was produced by the Boston Watch Company. It was an 18-size, 15-jewel watch which wound with a key on the back side of the watch, and set with a key from the front. By the end of 1857 the company was producing movements at the rate of 365 per month.

In 1859 the Waltham Improvement Co. and the Appleton, Tracy & Co. merged to form the American Watch Company. Under Robbins leadership the company gradually added less expensive 11-jewel and 7-jewel grade watches to their line. The Civil War provided impetus for growth in watch sales, especially for the American Watch Co. The William Ellery grade (named after William Ellery, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) became the popular Civil War soldier's watch. Available as 11-jewel and 7-jewel versions this grade reportedly accounted for 44.6 percent of watches sold by 1865.

In 1859 Belding Dart Bingham, N. P. Stratton, C. S. Mosely and Charles Vander Woerd left the American Watch Company to form the Nashua Watch Company, in Nashua, New Hampshire. The Nashua Watch Co. succeeded in desiging a high grade precision timekeeper and the machinery to build it, but failed financially. In 1862 the American Watch Company absorbed the Nashua Watch Company, including Nashua's superior machinery, creating a separate department to produce high-grade watches. A new wing was added to the Waltham factory to house the Nashau Department where high grade watches were produced independently from the rest of the factory.

In 1866 the Pennsylvania Railroad ordered a number of Model 1857 Appleton, Tracy & Co. grade 15-jewels watches from the American Watch Company, the first American watches specifically made for railroad use."