l)y considerations of expediency in manufacture were 

 made. The movement that issued was 18 size, rather 

 thick, cased at the factory in a nickel case made by the 

 Thiery Watch Case Co. of Hoston, Massachu.setts. 

 In the winding and setting mechanisms, some changes 

 in details were made with respect to those shown in 

 figure 7. The dial is mounted by means of a rim 

 which snaps o\er the edge of the movement as on a 

 high-grade Swiss watch of the same era. The usual 

 dial feet, if used, would have interfered with the rota- 

 tion of the movement. For the same reason, of 

 course, there is no dial indicating .seconds. 



Five jewels are found in most instances, two cap 

 jewels and two hole jewels for the balance staff and a 

 jeweled impulse pin. One of the faults of the move- 

 ment is that the cap and hole jewels on the balance are 

 not separable for cleaning. After the jewels were in- 

 serted part of the setting was spun down over them, 

 making the assembly permanent. A few movements 

 with only one jewel are known, the cap and hole 

 jewels being metal '"jewels"' likewise set under a spun- 

 over rim. \Vhether or not the impulse jewel found in 

 these last-mentioned movements is original or a later 

 intrusion remains undetermined. It is easy to con- 

 cei\e that the factory would see no more necessity for 

 an impulse jewel than for other jewels. 



The lever escapement is the only one known to have 

 been used, but two varieties of this are found (see 

 fig. 11). One is a standard club-tooth lever with 

 banking pins, the other, much more interesting because 

 unconventional, has pointed pallets and all the lift 

 on the escape wheel, which has very short stubby 

 teeth, very much like the wheel of a pin-pallet escape- 

 ment. No banking pins are used, the banking taking 

 place between the pallets and the wheel. An exam- 

 ination of a number of these watches, with serial 

 numbers ranging from 46 to 507, '' reveals no corre- 

 lation between the serial number and the style of 

 escapement, from which one may conclude that the 

 pointed pallet escapement was originally used; later 

 four balance jewels were added and the escapement 

 changed to the conventional club-tooth pattern. As 

 complaints came in about the defective running of 



" No. 46 courtesy of the late C. .A. Ilbert (tliis watch is now 

 in the Science Museum, .South Kensington, London); 124, 176, 

 224, 241 in the author's collection: 161 .\bbot, op cil. (footnote 

 29); 250 Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Michigan; 361 F. Earl 

 Hackett; 387 Dr. .\lfred G. Cossidente; 403 Dr. VV. B. Stephens; 

 423 Grossman, op cil. (footnote 8); and an unnumbered move- 

 ment illustrated in American Jeweler, December 1898, vol. 17, 

 no. 12, p. 371. 



PAPER 4: AUBURNDALE WATCH COMPANY 



the watch these changes were apparently substituted 

 at the factory in customers' watches. The movements 

 with the pointed-pallet escapement seldom show much 

 wear; on the other hand, watch no. 224,''- which has 

 the conventional escapement and five jeweb, is very 

 much worn and must have run for many years. 



These watches are stem wound by turning opposite 

 to the usual direction and are set through the winding 

 crown after actuating a setting lever located under 

 the front bezel. The plates, bridges, and ring gear 

 are nickel-plated and highly buffed, making a very 

 showy movement, the only instances of such a finish 

 on watches in the author's experience. In figure 12 

 is shown a 24-hour dial to fit the movement. Special 

 dial gearing would be required for the hour hand to 

 accompany this dial. 



Figure 1 6. — Dial for }io-Second Model Auburndalc 

 timer. (In author's collection.) 



The first of these watches were placed on the market 

 in 1877, priced at $10.00 to the trade. Soon com- 

 plaints came in that they were defective in operation 

 and many were returned. We have seen from the 

 specimens examined that there seems to have been 

 no established model produced in quantity. The dial 

 and the number of jewels varied, as well as the escape- 

 ment, suggesting that the owners were groping for a 

 salable variant of the design for which they had tooled 

 the factory. Probably the pointed pallet escapement 

 was u.sed first, it being the less expensive of the two. 



"In the author's collection. 



61 



