Waltham was the first American Watch Co. and pioneered almost all of the early developments in watches and watch making in the United States. Elgin was an early spin off from Waltham and eventually overtook Waltham in total production. For essentially all the period of 19th Century American Watchmaking, Waltham and Elgin had cooperative agreements intended to prevent other companies from competing with them. The first of these covered the patent center pinion. Later cooperative arrangements included stem winding and pendant setting arrangements.

Because this seminar begins with the 1880 period, much of Waltham's early work predates the period. In particular the models 1857, 1860, 1862, 1868, 1870 and 1872 were all very important in the development of the industry but were already covered in the previous seminar "Boston, the Cradle of American Watchmaking."

In the early 1880's R. E. Robbins recognized that Waltham had grown beyond the technical development stage and required a stronger focus on products for the market. To serve this end, he brought Ezra Fitch and Duane Church in to run the operations. (Fitch was initially appointed General Manager and soon was promoted to President, an office he held for 37 years.) This resulted in the departure of Charles Vander Woerd who had been the genius behind much of the early work. The first product of the new team was Waltham's most successful watch in terms of longevity and range, the 1883 model.

The 1883 model full plate watch was followed by Waltham's 1892 model, which was the last of the Waltham 18 size designs. Although a larger watch, it incorporated many of the design elements of the earlier 16 size watches. Waltham also continued to develop the successful 16 size lines with the innovative 1888 model and their very successful 1899/1908 model.

There are examples of these watches shown in the thumbnails below. You can click on any of the pictures to find out more about the particular watch.