362 WILLIAM A. COUNTRYMAN 



The manufacture of these watches is limited to Connec- 

 ticut and New York. At one estabhshment the maximum 

 daily product is stated to be 2,000 watches. The demand 

 for them in the United States is constant and it is yet far from 

 being fully supplied. They are urged upon the public as 

 really better than the cheapest of Swiss watches, which are so 

 imperfect as frequently to require expensive repairs. Expor- 

 tations of them have been made ever since the beginning of 

 their manufacture, and the dejnand has been increased of 

 late, it is said, by the presence of the American soldier abroad. 

 When the home market becomes better supplied manu- 

 facturers assert that they will take up the export problem 

 in earnest. The question arises: Will the clock manufac- 

 turers, with whom watches are a by-product, come to be 

 watch manufacturers, with clocks as a by-product? The 

 answer to this, as given by a clock manufacturer, is that it is 

 not probable, at least in the immediate future. The destruc- 

 tion of clocks seems to be greater than that of watches. A 

 person gets attached to a watch, even a cheap watch, and will 

 expend much more than its cost in repairs, but when a clock 

 becomes out of order he will buy another. There is, there- 

 fore, a greater proportional consumption of clocks than of 

 watches, and, other things being equal, this will keep the 

 cheap watch a by-product when made in a clock factory. 



The imports and exports of watches and parts thereof 

 vary with a variety of causes, but it is noteworthy that the 

 net imports decreased from $3,018,447 in 1870, to $1,403,302 

 in 1900, or 53.5 per cent, while during the same time the 

 domestic exports increased from $4,335 to $787,620, or over 

 one hundred and eighty fold. Of the imports in 1700, those 

 from Switzerland were valued at $1,023,967 and constituted 

 73 per cent of the total net imports; France sent a value of 

 $140,067; Germany, $114,886; and Great Britain, $89,525. 

 Watches from the United States are now exported to most 

 of the countries of the world. In 1900 Canada received a 

 value of $274,537, or 34.9 per cent of the total; Japan, $162,- 

 014; South America, $125,692; Great Britain, $82,315; British 

 Australia, $36,995; British Africa, $32,174; the Philippines, 

 $18,003; China, $9,170; Hawaii, $8,341; and Cuba, $1,006. 



