Watch by American Waltham Watch Co., Waltham, Mass. Gilt brass full-plate movement with stem winding
and setting, engraved cock, compensated balance and English-style tangential or side lever escapement,
signed 16010652 / 17 JEWELS / ADJUSTED / P S Bartlett / WALTHAM, MASS. White enamel dial with roman
chapter-ring, single-sunk subsidiary seconds dial and blued steel hands, signed American / Waltham /
W. Co. Rolled gold (probably 14 karat) case with screw-fitting bezel and back, by Philadephia Watch
Case Co., no. 9786707. Coarsely engraved shield on back of case (now considerably worn). Tiny area
of brass exposed on pendant. Diameter 54mm.
The full-plate layout survived for a remarkably
long time in the U.S.A., at least for the larger sizes. Waltham's Model 1883 is probably the most ‘English’
of the major American types; the movement has the English type of side-lever escapement and is internally
indistinguishable from a contemporary British movement except that it has stem-winding, screwed rather
than pinned plates, a ‘left-handed’ escapement (see a rare British precedent here), and of course
no fusee. The fact that the movement is gilt, rather than decorated with the shimmering radial engine-turning
known as damascening, increases the resemblance and suggests that the watch was intended for the English
market.
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