WATCHMAKING BY MACHINERY.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XIII, Issue X, 8 September 1894, Page 229

WATCHMAKING BY MACHINERY.

Machine made watches is a misleading term, as no watches have as yet been made by machinery alone, and no watches have been made in our time without the aid of machines. Watches two centuries old had the teeth of the wheels cut in an engine, and the use of the lathe is much older ; but the use of extensive machinery and the factory system in the manufacture of watches in England is of very recent date. Although the earliest record of a system of making watches by elaborate machines that would make watches of uniform size, and that would make the several parts to gauges, so that they might be interchangeable, was introduced here about the year 1840 by a Swiss named Ingold, who, with the assistance of some watchmakers and others, was able to form a company about that date for this purpose, and a factory was established in Soho ; amongst the directors at least two names were familiar to both watchmakers and the public—Messrs Earnshaw and Barwise—so

that the trade could not be said to have been all against it. The active Clei kenwell manufacturers, < f course, disliked AN INNOVATION on the part of a foreigner that was likely to injure them, and the workmen could hardly be expected to favour a system that had for its avowed object the substitution of the unskilled labour of men or girls tor their skilled labour, even if it did reduce the price of the product. The company seems to have been badly managed. The few watches that were turned out were more costly than those made on the old plan. The company soon got into difficulties, and was wound up, Mr Ingold going to the United States and taking his machines with him, where he settled in the city of Boston. I have recently seen a series of drawings of these machines, beautifully executed, and signed by the draughtsman, John Edison, dated, 1843. It is A CURIOUS COINCIDENCE that about the time Mr Ingold went to America a Mr Dennison was located in Boston, and engaged in inventing machines for the manufacture of watches. Mr Dennison got partners or formed a company for the manufactnre of watches by his machines, which resulted in the great American Waltham Watch Company. Much controversy has been expended as to which of these inventors the priority belongs. They were probably both the original inventors, and independent of each other. The American companies made little progress until the outbreak of the Civil War, when the large armies all wanted watches the country could not supply, and watch companies sprang up everywhere. But the financial results of this company did not encourage the formation of similar companies here ; we went on in the old way. Vested interests prevented the trade from forming companies, and the scheme did not hold out sufficient inducements to the public to enlist therein. However, the COMPETITION OF THE SWISS AND AMERICANS began to tell heavily against our low-priced watches, and a bad model and want of uniformity in the article produced made it clear to some of the manufacturers of low-priced watches that some improvement was necessary. I have already explained the system of watch movement making in Prescet. There were then many movement makers ; each one had either his own or his customer’s size for movement, plates, wheels, etc., and in consequence of this variety in everything, dials and cases bad to be made to each movement separately. This was found to be a great disadvantage to watchmakers who had customers in America, as in consequence of a high duty imposed on finished watches the completed movements without were usually sent, on which no duty was charged, so that the Americans made watch cases long before they made watches.