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Waltham Watch - AGE?

A

Aarong81

New member
Whites MXT Pro & D2 coil find:
It says Waltham and 17 Jewels on the face. Inside the band clasp it says Whiting & Davis Mesh Bags. I can only find one other watch just like this on Etsy HERE.and one similar on Ebay HERE.
The one on Ebay has a more modern looking face and dials but the rest of the watch look to be the same.

The person on Etsy says it is rare. I usually take that with a grain of salt but I can't find any more like it. What I would like to know is the aprox time frame this would have been made...Thanks!
 
I would say 30's, 40's, early 50's .

Quote from this link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltham_Watch_Company

The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., produced about 40 million high quality watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time fuses and other precision instruments between 1850 and 1957.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the info, Taz! 1957 is when Waltham went out of business. But on THIS site it has a Q&A ..... Question: "I have a new Waltham watch and..."
Answer: "If it is new and powered by batteries, it was not manufactured in Waltham. Apparently several companies are selling new watches with a Waltham name on them, but they are not associated with this company."
I only assumed this watch to be battery operated because the person on the Etsy site says theirs no longer works and may need a new battery. Is it wind up? When did wrist watches begin using batteries? And why would it be assumed that a battery powered watch could not have been made by Waltham just because they closed in 1957? I would have thought watches used batteries before then.

I may have to try to open my watch up to find out for sure if it has a battery, or remains there of, inside. But even if I get it open, There may not be much to look at since it is pretty crusty.
 
flinthunter said:
The watch face says 17 jewel so it should not be battery.
Click to expand...

Shows how little I know about watches! hehe. At least I'm not the only one unsure about that since the person on Etsy claimed it needed a new battery. Thanks for the reply!
 
The jewels are there to act like mini barrings on mechanical watches. Most all of the time they are made from synthetic ruby which is a 9 on the hardness scale so they can handle the 1000's and 1000's of movements on them from the gears like a barring
 
I go by Ant not Taz, lol. I can see where the wind
Ing stem was, not battery operated like has been wrote.
 
17 Jewel models are on the newer end of mechanical movements, say 1940's-60's. To be certain, pop off the rear cover and you'll find the serial numbers. Google keywords "Waltham" and "____serial number" and you should get a pretty accurate result.

Walthum, Gruen, and Hamilton often sold their movements to retailers who also sold custom (non mfg.) created bezels/bands and paired the two for custom designs. There are only a very, very few movements that are rare and worth money, however, many of these watch cases were gold/platinum and consequently, when you look at the prices online for similar watches, prescious metal content is the determining factor in the price.

If not, contact Mark Sirianni at http://www.watchdoctor.biz/Buy/Watches.aspx#Content, he is an expert at restoring these types of watches and will tell you the specs on date of mfg, etc.... including my own.

http://www.watchtalkforums.info/forums/hamilton-watch-forum/14772.htm ... this site has a forum dedicated to old american watches (waltham, hamilton, etc) and has alot of the old ads for watches, serial number/mfg date, etc, etc, etc,

-David
 
Ant said:
I go by Ant not Taz, lol. I can see where the wind
Ing stem was, not battery operated like has been wrote.
Click to expand...
HAHA, Sorry Ant! I swear I read a post from Taz but then again my wife tells me something and about 5 minutes later I'm like 'what did you want?'.
Thanks for the reply, Ant!
 
Good info, DnD. Thanks for the links!
 
DnD's comment of "17 Jewel models are on the newer end of mechanical movements, say 1940's-60's." Is incorrect, Waltham was making 17 jewel watches at least as far back as 1894-5. Hampden watch co. came out with 17 jewel watches in 1891
Here is a 1897 catalog listing several 17 and 21 jewel watches.
Im not saying its that old just that you cant say its after 1940s by the amount of 17 jewels.
My guess is around 1920s.

http://mb.nawcc.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=127781&d=1334434246

http://mb.nawcc.org/showwiki.php?title=Waltham_Watches
 
I think another good clue is the Whiting & Davis Co Mesh Bags wrist band. THIS site talks about the company and when it 'became' Whiting & Davis(1876), as well as when most of their products were made of sterling(1912 through 1925), And finally by the late 1920's many of their products were 'made of base metals, silver or gold plated brass, copper, and nickel silver (a form of false silver), and the frames were machine stamped rather than hand engraved.'

Also, during WWII they shifted away from designer products and produced radar equipment. They returned to their original designer products by the late
 
taz42o said:
.... Here is a 1897 catalog listing several 17 and 21 jewel watches....
Click to expand...
Well researched.


Nevertheless, Aaron, did you pop off that cover to ID the serial #? That is usually a quick POP and whala', no more guessing about the age.

For kicks, here is a Ladies Waltham I bought and had restored.
 
I tried to pop the back off and the whole mechanism pulled out from the case. It kinda looks like it was suppose to do that but I don't know how it was ever accessed. I really don't think I can get it apart any more than this without completely crumbling it apart in the process. Its pretty rusty.
 
Actually, looking at the two pics with the stainless knife handle in the pic I can see a raised area on the mechanism which I will attempt to use to pry against. First, I'll put some oil along the watch back and give it a few minutes. I'll post more pics if I get it apart.....
 
It didn't come apart like it was suppose to. The back was so stuck that I used pliers and gently squeezed in the sides of the mechanism all the way around in hopes it would slowly work loose. Instead, the mechanism simply fell out the front, leaving the sides still attached to the watch back. Anyways, this is all I could find on the inside. Its pretty toasty but I really don't think it was serial numbered. It says "seventeen" & "17 Jewels". I read somewhere that serial numbers were most common on pocket watches and few wrist watches had serial numbers. I guess this is one such watch without a serial number.
 
I wish I could access my other computer's files on antique watches (I just moved) but I looked at two of my Hamiltons and the notes from their rebuild.
The 757 movement (left) has the serial # inside and can only be seen once dissassembled.
The 750 movement (right) has the serial # exposed.

There is a custom jewelry market that uses parts to make jewelry, so you might be able to make a buck or two just taking it apart and selling it.
Otherwise, here is some more info on Walthams....
http://mb.nawcc.org/showwiki.php?title=Waltham_Watches#Approximate_Production_Dates
 
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