Small Wonders
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Waltham introduced the first small American watch in 1859. The Appleton Tracy grade of the KW10 was a truly marvelous watch. It introduced the first safety barrel in the form of Fitt's patent applied to the barrel instead of the center wheel as it was in the larger high grade KW18. Waltham produced a great many fine small watches over the next 40 years culminating in the OM model American grade that is better known from its size as the 00 American grade. Before the turn of the century all small watches were designed for Ladies' wear. This included very fine examples from most of the watch manufacturers with some especially nice contributions from Elgin. During the 1920's and 30's the fashion shifted to smaller watches for men's wear. Gruen was probably the leader in this fashion trend, but Hamilton and Illinois competed as well and venerable Waltham introduced the Colonial watches to maintain their position in the fray. This collection of "Small Wonders" is an attempt to show a representative sample of these watches that are really the final expression of the American pocket watch. As can be seen from the contemporary price lists, these watches were the highest output of their respective factories at the time. For example in 1924 a 23 jewel Sangamo Special in a 14K case sold for $92.50 while the 12 size, 21 jewel Illini also in a 14K case sold for $100 and topped out at $124 in an 18K case. A few years later the top price reached $180 in a carved case with carved dial and the price of the basic watch had risen to $140 in a plain green gold case. This collection is a work in progress. The other watches and companies will be added over time.
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