American Made Watch Companies - Old School Question

[Time King]

Keystone bought the Howard name in 1902. They are marked "E.Howard Watch Co. Boston, U.S.A."

[HamiltonIllinois]

While searching the Internet, including Wikipedia, I found the following information, hopefully someone here can confirm the information:

Ball -
Benrus -
Bulova - 1977
Elgin – 1964
Gruen - 1956
Hamilton - 1969
Illinois - 1920
Keystone - 1891
Pulsar - 1977
Southland - 1933
Timex - 1984
Waltham – 1957

What companies am I missing? Can anyone confirm these years (other than what has previously been posted)?

Thanks,
Chris

Chris,

Some of us might argue that Benrus and Bulova, and many Gruens were not truly American since they used European-made movements. BTW, the Illinois factory was closed in 1932/33, but production continued in the US at Hamilton's Lancaster, Penn plant for a few years after that.

Regards,

Rick

[GeneJockey]

Chris,

Some of us might argue that Benrus and Bulova, and many Gruens were not truly American since they used European-made movements. BTW, the Illinois factory was closed in 1932/33, but production continued in the US at Hamilton's Lancaster, Penn plant for a few years after that.

Regards,

Rick

Bulova used US made movements at a number of points in their existence. I own 4 Bulovas, the ones from 1937 and 1959 are stamped 'USA', while the one from 1946 is marked 'Swiss'. IIRC, Bulova started out with Swiss movements, switched to American prior to the Depression, then back to Swiss sometime around WWII, but made a number of movements in the US in the 50s and even into the early 1960s.

One thing I noted while looking a the list - Ball. Ball never made any watches. The Ball company contracted with Hamilton and others to produce Ball watches to their specifications. Ben should be able to confirm this.

[Ben_hutcherson]

Content removed by the person to whom the intellectual property belongs due to disagreement with site policy

[441victor]

If you are including companies that made only pocket watches in your list there are probably over a dozen that never made it to 1900. Major US pocket watch makers you should add are

Columbus Watch Co. - 1903
Hampden Watch Co. - 1930
Seth Thomas Watch Co. - 1915
South Bend Watch Co. - 1929

These companies all made RR approved pocket watch models. I'm sure the pocket watch gurus here can add other major makers. There are also several dollar watch makers like Ingersoll and Ingraham that are ligitimate US companies.

Joel

[441victor]

Forgot to list my favorite dollar watch - Westclox. I don't know when they stopped manufacturing movements in the US.

Joel

[C. Hurt]

Time Hill, Gruen's factory in Cincinnati, closed in 1958, rather than 1956. They continued to sell watches through their New York offices until 1976, but most people consider those Gruens to be just imports.