So You Want A Standard for Comparison
Part 2 of 3

by Watchking

We pulled out a few more of the very best examples of watchmaking from one of the three great eras of the watchmakers art and marveled at the time and care it must have taken to make some of these wonders. There were Walthams, Illinois, Howards and Hamiltons. Every one was beautiful. We collected them as artistic standards. Then we went back another era to a detente chronometer from England. Finally we went back to Louis Breguet himself and realized that this is where the "Greats" began. 

After some talk in reverently controlled tones, discussing the months and years it took to make these finely crafted works we agreed that these watches were the standard by which all others should be compared. These watch houses could make average everyday merchandise at times so brand names were not the only measure of quality. But for the money, within reasonable limits, it WAS possible to own a work of watch art that showed the hours, minutes and maybe seconds (to use as a "standard") for between $50 and $900 depending on which of the three greatest eras of watchmaking you were searching in.

Not counting complications there are three great eras of watchmaking, where everything was made as perfectly as possible as the norm. The first was in France at the house of Breguet. Any Breguet watch made during the senior's lifetime may have actually cost lives as well as money to make. People would have killed to be the most lowly apprentices for him. The workers were paid when each creation "had no flaw the Master could find, inside or out". Things were tested the old fashioned way, by trashing things. Once in a while a plain Breguet watch with time only can be had for less than a thousand dollars. If you ever get the chance to buy one of these watches buy it. We know that workers were maltreated compared to today's watchmakers, but these are some of the finest timekeeping objects ever made.

The second great period of watchmaking was the English lever period as exemplified by the Tobias or Russell families and the introduction of the detente marine chronometer. Incredible engraved dials and ultrafine watches are available from this period although there is a less classical style used on the chronometer dials compared to Breguets or the Tobiases. 

The next, last and many consider the greatest era of the non-complicated watch is the American era from 1880 to 1933. This isn't always understood to some because only about 1 million out of 100 million of these watches were considered magnificent, but this also means that most collectors can actually buy one. Cotes de Geneve finishing looks average by comparison with the best American finishing work. Companies as lowly as South Bend produced inexpensive units like the #411 in 12 size with a solid gold train (for perfect hardness matching) and wave after wave of brushed damaskeening. The pocket watch provided a larger canvas for these artists to do their best work. There was little in the way of graphics work available in the USA then and artists needed a real income. 

Watch companies had thousands of finishers and they were paid on a competitive basis. Some guys finished numerous units quickly and they ended up in the production of cheap 7 jewel watches. Other craftsmen did the finest work and ended up making presentation and highly jeweled railroad chronometers whose tests were more rigorous than today's wristwatch chronometers. The 1891 crash testing program for the railroad made a deviation of less than 4.2 seconds per day in any position the minimum standard for certification. Hamilton was the IWC of its day and Illinois and South Bend had finishing craftsmen who were producing work superior to Patek Philippes made during the same era.

The American watch companies went out of business because they lost their gigantic economies of scale and profitability when CHEAP Swiss watches took over the low-end market as wristwatches became popular. In spite of inventions by Patek and others, American watch craftsmen made pocket watches BETTER than the Swiss during this era and the world knew it. IWC was founded by an American who imported the best American production methods, tools and craftsmen to Schaffhausen. Although the first start-up went out of business and the Swiss took over IWC, the basis of the company came from the great era of super crafted pocket watches in America.

Click here for Part 3