May 2021 - by Aaron Brzozowski - Watchuseek
There’s no more important company in American watchmaking history than the Waltham Watch Company: born in Massachusetts shortly before the onset of the American Civil War, Waltham turned out some 40 million timepieces, speedometers, compasses, and related precision instruments over the course of its 100-year run. In its prime, the company – first founded by Aaron Dennison in 1850 – was practically synonymous with watchmaking in the United States. In fact, Waltham is credited with creating the American system of watch manufacturing, which was later “exported” to Switzerland and used as the model to industrialize the Swiss watch industry. Abraham Lincoln was even presented with a Waltham pocket watch in celebration of the Gettysburg Address – a watch that now lives in the Museum of American History at the Smithsonian in DC.
