Wrist Watches History
History
of the Wristwatch
continued
from previous page
Goddard began his business in a small shop about eighteen feet square.
He bought hands, dials, hairsprings, mainsprings, balance verges, fusee
chains, and pinions from Boston importers. The plates, wheels, and other
brass parts were cast at the Shrewsbury shop and the watches assembled
there. The plates and watch cocks were fire gilded and engraved by an
engraver in nearby Malborough. Goddard’s watches were made in a
typical English style; however, his casting, his plate finishing, and
the quality of the engraving were not as fine as on imported watches.
One of Godddard’s apprentices, William H. Keith, later wrote: “His tools consisted mainly of a tooth-cutting engine, a common foot lathe, brass pivot turns, and upright tool, and sinking, depthing, grooving and hairspring tools; and the usual variety of pliers, tweezers, files, and other appliances in use by watch repairers, all of which were of English manufacture.”
Goddard’s first watches were marked “L. Goddard”; after taking his son Parley into the business, he used the name L. Goddard and Son. The business was apparently unprofitable, for after 1814, he again began importing watches. In 1817, Goddard moved to nearby Worcester and opened a watch-repairing business. Less than 530 watches had been finished when he moved; his sons Parley and Daniel finished another 70 watches thereafter.
On July 16, 1817, the following notice appeared in the Worcester National Aegis:
Publick
Notice
Luther Goddard with his son Daniel Goddard have taken and opened the shop
opposite Mr. D. Waldo’s Brick Store in Worcester, for the purpose
of making and repairing Watches, where they keep many Watches & Eight
Day Time Pieces – all warranted good – together with an assortment
of Silver & Gold Ward, Chains, Keys, Seals, and Worcester, July 16,
1817.
The eight-day timepieces were probably made by Goddard’s cousin Simon Willard, who advertised in the same newspaper on September 25, 1822, that “he has authorized L. Goddard & Son to sell his new Patent Alarm Time Pieces.”
In 1828, Goddard moved to Preston, Connecticut, and by 1830, he had moved to Norwich. He later returned to Massachusetts, where he died on March 24, 1842, at the age of eighty-one. By 1835, though few watches had been made in America and none had been made by machine methods, the Pitkin brothers, Henry (1811-46) and James Flagg (1812-70), of East Hartford, Connecticut, were developing a watch they hoped could be made successfully in quantity. Henry, as well as two older brothers, John O. and Walter, had been apprenticed as a silversmith and watch repairman, probably under Jacob Sargeant of Hartford. The youngest brother, James, was trained by his older brothers.
The Pitkins ran a shop in East Harford for the manufacture of silver articles; they later opened a retail store in downtown Hartford. The store was destroyed by fire in 1833. They took over sergeant’s shop shortly thereafter and began experimentation with the machine-made watch. One of their four apprentices, Nelson P. Stratton, later became involved in the Boston Watch Company, American Watch Company, and Nashua Watch Company. He began working for the Pitkins in 1836. By this time they were making the tools and machinery necessary for the production of their American lever watch.
In their experimentation, the brothers attempted standardization so that the watch parts would be interchangeable. They cut the wheels in stacks and as uniformly as possible, though final hand-finishing was found to be necessary. They tried to avoid using foreign-made parts, but dials, hands hairsprings, mainsprings, and jewels, when used, had to be obtained from importers. The first fifty watches were marked “Henry Pitkin,” but later examples were engraved “H. & J.F. Pitkin.” No place of origin was engraved on the East Hartford-made watches, though the words “Detached Lever” appeared on the balance bridge. An American flag was engraved on the backplate. Watch number 164 is extant and Ambrose Webster (1832-94), a historian of the watch making business, claimed in 1890 to be the owner of watch number 90.
In October of 1841, the brothers moved their watch factory to New York in hopes of finding a better market in the city. Unfortunately, Pitkin & Company was not successful, for its watches were too expensive to compete with imports. During the summer of 1846, Henry had a nervous breakdown and on September 8, while being taken to Bloomingdale Sanitarium in New York, he fell or jumped from the Croton Aqueduct, then under construction, and was killed.
After his death, the oldest brother, John, came to New York and with James formed the firm Pitkin & Brother. They manufactured watch cases, but not watches, and sold imported watches. The manufacture of cases was discontinued about 1850 and James continued to import and sell watches until 1865. It is believed the Pitkins manufactured about four hundred watches. Those made in New York, marked “Detached Lever/Pitkin & Co./New York,” were quite different from those made earlier in Connecticut. Watch number 367 is extant; watch number 378 was illustrated on the cover of the 1884 edition of the Jeweler’s Journal, but its present location is unknown.
Another
maker was Jacob Detweiler Custer (1805-72) of Norristown, Pennsylvania.
He developed a number of unusual clock-movement styles during his career.
On February 4, 1843, he was granted a patent for a watch of his own design;
the patent model with its original key is in the United States National
Museum in Washington, D.C. Custer apparently made few, perhaps only a
dozen, of these watches. Watch number 7, a fusee watch – basically
nonjeweled – is known.