The Waltham Pocket Watch Company
This Waltham Pocket Watch Company article is reproduced from the Scientific American, dated August 1881. The author is unknown but it gives a wonderful insight into the company and it's operation. There are a few errors but the article is shown 'as is' for historical interest. Good Reading!
"A Waltham pocket watch is a machine. It used to be supposed that its delicate parts could only be made by manual skill; and in a large portion of the world this notion still prevails. The idea that a machine can be made by machinery, much of which is automatic, is essentially American. In its application to the watchmaking industry it originated with Aaron L. Dennison, a Boston watchmaker, who begun his experiments in 1818.
After struggling with numerous unforeseen obstacles, these pioneers in a new industry failed financially; and their property was bought, in 1857, by Royal E. Robbins, for Appleton, Tracy & Co., the corporate name being subsequently changed to that of the American Waltham Pocket Watch Company of Waltham, Mass. The original stock capital of $200,000 has been increased to $1,500,000, with an equally large surplus. The number of hands has grown from 75 to 2,500. And in place of the small factory existing in 1857, there was built a much larger one, that in turn gave way to the immense structure now in use, and that has been wholly built since 1878.
When Mr. Robbins took hold of what was then regarded as a forlorn enterprise, only 5000 watches had been made in all. Now over 2,500,000 have been made thus far at this one factory, of which 500,000 were made during the last eighteen months! The present capacity of the works is 1,250 Waltham pocket watches daily, which by recent improvements will soon be increased to 2,000. There have actually been sent out 30,000 in a single month, and 30,000 watches are needed all the time in the finishing rooms to enable the hands to work to advantage.
Out of the American Waltham Pocket Watch Company all the others have originated. Many have failed and others are starting. Taking no notice of cheap, inferior goods, there are made, on average, 3,650 watches a day by nine first class factories in the United States. According to Mr. Robbins' estimate, the value of a year's product of gold and silver watches in this country exceeds $16,000,000; and the business directly and indirectly furnishes employment for 100,000 persons.
For certain kinds of work female operatives are preferred, on account of their greater delicacy and rapidity of manipulation; and it should be added that women get the same wages as men for doing the same kind and amount of work. All the apartments are lighted by large windows by daytime, and for night work there are 200 incandescent electric lamps and 3,500 gaslights, requiring over 22 1/2 miles of piping. There are 38 furnaces using gas as fuel. There are 25 distinct departments, each having its foreman, and all in telephone communication with the central office. Mr. Ezra C. Fitch is Superintendent, recently at the head of salesrooms at No. 5 Bond Street, New York. G.H. Shirley is Assistant Superintendent, E.A. Marsh is the master Mechanic, and D.H. Church Master Watchmaker, through whose kindness the writer had access to the various departments. Most of the foremen and a number of the hands have been in the employ of the company for from twenty to twenty five years. Probably very few persons realize how many distinct operations are required to produce a single Waltham pocket watch. The managers themselves did not like to make a statement until at my request the question was laid before the foremen: "How many distinct mechanical operations are required in order to construct one of the grade of watch movements described as an Appleton, Tracey & Co, stem-winder?" Each foreman made a list of the operations in his own department, and the startling sum total was 3,746; and the number would be considerably larger for some of the higher grades.
In the anxiety to secure a high finish, many a hand-made watch is polished to death. The aim of the American Pocket Watch Company is to secure actual interchangeability of pieces. It may be too much to say that the corresponding parts of all their watches are identically alike. But they will come within one ten-thousandths of an inch of it! e.g., a jewel hole should be two ten-thousandths of an inch larger than the pivot that works in it. A few turns of the polisher would make a change. Hence microscopic measurement has to be resorted to in fitting pivots to jewels. But ordinarily, in assembling parts together, no measurement is necessary, but they are used exactly as they come from the machines. Furthermore, automatism in tools is the coming necessity for cheapening labor. The American Watch Company already uses many automatic and semi-automatic tools, and is constantly inventing more. The work thus secured is so nearly perfect that should any part of a watch fail in actual use the owner need only send on the number of the movement to enable the factory to supply an exact duplicate of the part. The order could be sent by postal card, and filled by return mail. To facilitate this a systematic record is kept; and this is so well done that any part of a watch ordered could be located at any stage in its manufacture; and the same could be done for a complete watch or for 1,000 or for 10,000 watches. The "movement" of a watch is made up of two plates and the wheels, etc., between them. It may be as well, before going further, to refresh the reader's memory as to the general mechanism of a watch. The plates are known as the pillar plate and the top plate. On full plate watches the most peculiar thing is that the top is wholly closed or covered. The top of a three-quarter plate which is flush with the balance bridge, and about one-quarter of the plate is cut out to allow the planting of the balance - hence the name "3/4 Plate". All Waltham watches have what is called a going barrel, instead of the fusee, preferred in the English system, though long discarded by the Swiss as superfluous. The going barrel contains the main spring, and drives the center wheel and pinion, which revolve once an hour, carrying the minute hand. The third wheel and pinion are simply intermediate between the center wheel and the fourth wheel, which carries on its staff the second hand, revolving once a minute. The fourth wheel also drives the escape wheel, so called because it only lets one tooth escape at a time, bringing the machine to a dead stop five times every second. They used to make all Waltham pocket watches with 14,400 beats to the hour (or 4 to the second); this is called "slow train," and is now obsolete except for one-quarter second watches. The English standard was advanced to 16,200 beats to the hour (4 1/2 to the second). The Waltham standard is now 18,000 beats to the hour (5 to the second), called "quick train". Experiments have also been made up to 21,600 beats to the hour (or 6 to the second), called "fast train;" but results are not satisfactory. Experience has proved the Waltham "quick train" watches to be the best timekeepers. All Waltham watches are "lever escapement," universally accepted as best for pocket timepieces. The lever consists of a pallet and fork, and receives an oscillatory movement from the escape wheel. The balance, to which the lever imparts motion through the medium of the roller jewel passing alternately in and out of the fork, regulates the whole watch. It consists of a comparatively heavy wheel running on an axis with finely adjusted pivots, and with the least possible friction; and a hair spring attached at one end to the balance wheel and at the other to the balance cock, which is fastened to the top plate. The value of the hair spring is to secure uniformity of vibration of the balance wheel, the balance is bimetallic, to correct the contraction or expansion of the hair spring, so that the watch may run true regardless of temperature. The minute and hour wheels are located under the dial, and are driven by a system of gearing. The cannon pinion fits friction tight on the center shaft, being so put on to enable the hands to be set. The cannon pinion drives the minute wheel, and the minute pinion drives the hour wheel; the proportion being such that while the former revolves once an hour, the latter revolves once in 12 hours. Most of the watches now made are wound up by turning the crown of the case, and the hands are also set by a similar device, dispensing wholly with the watch key.
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In company with Edward Howard and Samuel Curtis, a small factory was started, in 1850, at Roxbury, Mass., which was removed four years later to Waltham, ten miles from Boston, a place already famous for the first cotton mill started in this country.
A few figures will perhaps convey an idea of the magnitude of the Waltham pocket Watch Works in their present form. The factory itself is a brick building, with numerous long wings, several towers, and inclosing three ample inner courts, besides an elegant suite of offices at one end and an observatory at the other. The total length of the front is 646 feet. The floors cover nearly five acres. There are 3 1/4 miles of work benches, mostly made of cherry plank, 2 feet wide and 2 inches thick. There are 4,700 pulleys; 8,000 feet of wall rods; 10,000 feet of main shafting, and 39,000 feet of belting, varying in width from 2 inches to 2 feet. All this machinery is driven by Corliss engine of 125 horse power. 
The factory at Waltham is located on an expansion of the Charles River, and is environed by parks maintained at the company's expense. The rooms are thoroughly ventilated, and all the sanitary arrangements are excellent. Consequently the operatives are a remarkably healthy, cleanly and bright set of people, mostly young persons, whose unimpaired eyesight and steady nerves qualify them for the delicate work before them. Intelligence and integrity are also required in a business involving the handling of quantities of precious metals and jewels. 
It is evident that the mere finish of a watch is no test of its excellence. The greatest pains are taken by the American Pocket Watch Company in perfecting the original model. Every variety of design and appliance that human ingenuity can devise is sought for; and a resume of special artists, draughtsmen, and inventors is continually busy to make each part and process as economical and accurate as possible. The various machines are thoroughly and exquisitely exact. They are all made in the extensive machine shops belonging to the company. A great hue and cry has been raised in Europe against machine-made watches, as if necessarily clumsy; whereas the reverse is true. 
