Waltham International

WALTHAM INTERNATIONAL SA
Private
Industry Watch Manufacturing
Founded 1850 (as Boston Watch Company)
Founder Aaron L. Dennison / Edward Howard
Headquarters Marin-Epagnier, Switzerland
Key people
 Antonio DiBenedetto, Chairman
Products Luxury Watches
Website waltham.ch

Waltham International SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Marin-Epagnier/Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It is one of the oldest watch making companies in the world, heir and owner of the legendary Waltham brand. It was founded in 1954 in Lausanne, Switzerland by the American Waltham Watch Company to provide necessary watch and movement parts which were not readily available in the USA.

History

Foundation

The Waltham Watch factory, before 1923, on the banks of the Charles River
The Ellery Model movement, produced when Waltham was still named Boston Watch Company
The Waltham Boxed Naval Chronometer, 1910
The Waltham Type A-11 Hack Navigational, 1942
Print ad of the Waltham Vanguard adopted by Railroads
Wrist Watch WWI
The legendary Waltham Model XA-Type 37, 1927
Waltham Central Date Indicator Aeronaval, 1942
Waltham Elapsed Time Chonograph, 1964
The Waltham Car Speedometer Clock 1102 Model, 1916

In 1850, at Roxbury, Massachusetts, David Davis, Edward Howard, and Aaron Lufkin Dennison formed the company that would later become the Waltham Watch Company.[1] Their revolutionary business plan was to manufacture the movement parts of watches so precisely that they would become fully interchangeable. Based upon the experience of earlier failed trials, Howard and Dennison eventually perfected and patented their precision watch making machines, creating the what has been called the American System of Watch Manufacturing. In 1854 the new plant built on the banks of the Charles River in Waltham, Massachusetts, was ready to operate.[1]

Relocation - Waltham International SA

Waltham International SA was founded as subsidiary in Switzerland in 1954, and continued to produce mechanical wrist watches and mechanical pocket watches under the "Waltham" brand. In 1976, the 40% share capital of the company were acquired by Heiwado&Co., a Japanese company that, in 1981, acquired the total majority, manufacturing and distributing Waltham Swiss Made watches in the higher end of the luxury Japanese watch market.

Waltham International SA - The new course

In 2011 the control of Waltham International SA was acquired by Antonio DiBenedetto, the current President and CEO. With a vast experience in the world of luxury and jewelry gained at his company Tanagro Corp., New York, USA, and a passion for watches, he desires to bring the Waltham brand back to the western markets and to glory of its past. The company was completely reorganized, and new commercial offices were opened in Milan, Italy and in New York, USA and the new Aungular Aeronaval Collection was presented in USA at the end of June 2014.

Waltham Legendary Feats

For more than a century (1850–1980), Waltham was the most diffused and largest manufacturer of the world. It was renowned for its incomparable precision and reliability, that allow the company to produce more than 40 million pieces in its history. Since its beginnings, Waltham was beside extraordinary men and feats.

Important reference dates for the Waltham precision records:

The First watch on the Poles

The "Waltham Pocket Chronometer" was the first watch on the Poles, used by Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton, Robert Edwin Peary, Sr., Walter Wellman and Ernest Leffingwell in their successful expeditions. Peray, wrote "... the behaviour of the meantime watches was particularly excellent. Watches carried by men in charge of different parties on the sledge journeys over the sea ice ran for weeks without any considerable variation form each other".[4]

The First clock flying across the Oceans

The legendary Waltham Model XA-Type 37 was the onboard clock of the airplanes used in the two first trans-oceanic expeditions: Charles Lindberg had it on his Spirit of Saint Louis; Sir Charles Edward Kingsford Smith had it on board of his Southern Cross.

The watch of the Railroads

The finest Vanguard was the world's railroad watch for half a century (1870-1920). This high-precision pocket watches was selected by railroad companies in 52 countries across the five continents. It was the first watch to incorporate the "up and down" power reserve indicator on the dial, a Waltham patent that is still used in hand-wound timepieces. During the golden age of railroads, there were more Waltham watches in circulation around the world than all other brands put together.

The watch of the Army

The Waltham XA Model was subjected to difficult performance test since it had to be able to perform under extremely difficult environmental conditions such as vibration, exposure and sudden and extreme barometric and temperature changes commonly encountered in aircraft. Since the XA had these capabilities, it became a standard aircraft timepiece for the U.S. Army, Signal Corps, the U.S. Army Air Corps, and the U.S. Navy Air Service.[5] Waltham timepieces was adopted by the Army of several countries (U.S.A., Canada, England, Australia, Soviet Union) for their planes, ships and soldiers.

Notable men of Waltham

Waltham history was made by extraordinary men, from creators to developers, to owners or simply users:

References

  1. 1 2 Moore, Charles W. (1945). Timing a Century. History of the Waltham Watch Company. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p. 18.
  2. ↑ Abbott, Henry G. (1923). History of the American Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Mass. p. 97.
  3. ↑ NASA. "Apollo 15 Mission". Preparation Lunar EVA2 mission/line 142.14.22. NASA, USA.
  4. ↑ Peary, Robert E. (June 19, 1908), Private letter written to Waltham Watch Company
  5. ↑ Whtney, Marvin E. (1992). Military Timepieces. USA: AWI Press. p. 16.
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