Time to Talk About the Waltham Watch Factory

From Dave Brigham:

Waltham, Mass., is known as the Watch City, but prior to today, I'd only published a post (plus an update) about a spin-off company from the industrial titan that gave the city its nickname (see July 8, 2013, "What a Dump: A Different View"). As part of a series about Waltham's industrial past, this post will cover the former watch factory that many years ago was converted to apartments, offices and restaurant space. In the first post of this series, I wrote about the former Boston Manufacturing Co. complex along Moody Street (see May 8, 2021, "Former Mill Complex Now Apartments, Artist Space and Museum").

Located between the Charles River and Crescent and Prospect streets, the former Waltham Watch Company -- aka the American Waltham Watch Co. and American Watch Co. -- is a large, beautiful and impressive site.

The seeds of what became the Waltham Watch Co. were planted in 1830 when, at age 18, Aaron Lufkin Dennison, of Brunswick, Maine, began an apprenticeship to a local clockmaker, per Wikipedia. He next moved to Boston to work for a jeweler, before starting his own business in 1834 as a watch repairman. Two years later he ditched that operation and took a position with "Jones, Low & Ball [where] he worked...until 1839 under master watchmaker Tubal Howe. Here he learned the methods used by English and Swiss watchmakers," according to Wikipedia.

From Wikipedia:

"In 1849, Dennison was approached by Edward Howard, a clock and scale maker from Boston. Howard wanted Dennison to build locomotives but instead went into business with Dennison to make watches. Dennison began to make watch parts for the company in its...factory in 1849. A year later, the company moved to its own factory in Roxbury, Massachusetts.... The first prototype watch was completed in 1850. The company name was changed to Warren Manufacturing Company and released its first watch on the market in 1853. The company...became known as The Boston Watch Company starting in 1853."

(According to a fire hydrant enthusiast who commented on this picture on Instagram, this is a circa-1890 model made by Chapman Valve Manufacturing Company.)

The Boston Watch Co. moved to this site in 1854, after investors had purchased the land and some buildings (nothing from that era still stands). That year, the company produced five watches per day and employed 90 people, per Wikipedia, and was the first factory in the world to produce a pocket-ready watch in the same factory.

Again, from Wikipedia:

"The company 'failed' in 1857 and upon bankruptcy, it was sold at auction to Royal E. Robbins, who reorganized it under the new name Appleton Tracy & Company.... The company was sold back to [original owners] under a new name of The American Watch Company. In 1861, as the country entered the American Civil War, production stopped. [The company] began producing a low cost watch...which was a 'fad' with Union soldiers. They sold for $13 and by the end of the Civil War represented 45 percent of Waltham's sales. After the Civil War, the company became the main supplier of railroad chronometers to various railroads in North America and more than fifty other countries. In 1876, the company showed off the first automatic screw making machinery and obtained the first Gold Medal in a watch precision contest at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition."

Wikipedia, again:

"In 1885 the company name changed to the American Waltham Watch Company. In 1907 the company name changed to Waltham Watch Co., in 1923 briefly to the Waltham Watch and Clock Company and finally in 1925 to the Waltham Watch Company. The company closed its factory doors and declared bankruptcy in 1949, although the factory briefly reopened a few times, primarily to finish and case existing watch inventory for sale. Several different plans were presented to restart the business, but all failed for various reasons. In 1958, the company got out of the consumer watch business completely and reorganized into the Waltham Precision Instruments Company. All remaining watch inventory had been sold to the Hallmark Watch Company the previous year, and rights to the 'Waltham' trademark were sold to a new Waltham Watch Company incorporated in Delaware in exchange for stock."

Currently, there is a Swiss company making watches under the Waltham brand.

Let's get to the post-watch company part of the story. Again, I cede the floor to Wikipedia: "Following the demise of watch manufacturing, the complex was leased out in portions to light manufacturing industries. Panametrics, a manufacturer of precision equipment, occupied much of the premises until its acquisition in 2004 by General Electric. The complex has since then undergone an environmentally friendly conversion to mixed residential and commercial/industrial use."

That brings up to the complex known as the Waltham Watch Factory.

From the development's web site: "The...complex...consists of approximately 400,000 square feet of space in 22 interconnected buildings. The Queen Anne and Romanesque Revival style complex was constructed by the Waltham Watch Company over half a century starting in the 1860s. The Watch Factory is characterized by a series of narrow wings with regimented rows of windows designed to maximize daylighting for the detailed production of watches. Watch City Ventures LLC, an affiliate of Boston based developer Berkeley Investments, acquired the property in May 2007. Berkeley then oversaw the multiphase redevelopment process consisting of the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of the complex into a vibrant mix of office, residential and retail uses with riverfront amenities."

The rear of the building opens out to a large parking lot, as well as a bike path and floating docks along the river. As you can see in the sign above, this area of the river was once home to the Charles River Carnival. Held from 1885 to 1899, and again in 1904, 1915 and 1930, the carnival took place between the Newton Boat Club, just past the factory, and the Moody Street Bridge about a half mile away (for more on the boat club, also known as Nutting-on-the-Charles, see January 27, 2012, "Smoke On the Water"). "During the event, the shores of the Charles River became animated with fires, Chinese lanterns, fireworks displays, illuminated houses and factory buildings...there were canoe races" and a "parade of highly decorated and themed boats," per the sign in the photo above.

The buildings have some nice design details throughout.

In the front of the buliding, there is a restaurant, Brelundi, which offers Italian cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner (bre-lun-di).

Keep your eyes peeled for the third and final installment in my series about Waltham's industrial past, in which I will feature the former Atlas Chemical Factory.