Object Record
Images
Additional Images [2]
Metadata
Object Name |
Watch, Pocket |
Catalog Number |
83.52.72 |
Collection |
Watch |
Date |
c.1884 |
Description |
Waltham Watch Co. c. 1884 William Ellery Model 18 Size, Full Plate, Gilt, 11 Jewels, Stem Wind, Lever Set, Hunting. Lever escapement. William Ellery 1883. White enamel dial has Roman numerals and a seconds bit at the VI-hour mark. Unusual case has portrait of African man on the back cover with the initials "G.H." in lower right. Front cover has image of ship with the name "Ocean." |
Maker |
American Waltham Watch Company |
Material |
brass, gold, enamel, glass, silver |
Place of Origin |
Waltham, Massachusetts, USA |
Notes |
During the Civil War, Waltham's watch factory designed and mass-produced a low-cost watch, the William Ellery model. Selling for an unbelievable $13.00, these watches became a fad with Union soldiers. Just as itinerant peddlers had aroused the desire for inexpensive clocks, roving merchants sold thousands of cheap watches to eager customers in wartime encampments. By 1865, the year the war ended, William Ellery movements represented almost 45 per cent of Waltham's unit sales. (National Museum of American History) |