Waltham 1888-Riverside

This is one of a series of posts illustrating the main grades of Waltham size 16 watches, in this case an 1888-Riverside.

The 1888 was the forerunner of the 1899 model and is very similar, apart from the shape of the plates and balance cock there are two main differences, firstly the winding and setting mechanism is wholly contained within the movement with a captive winding stem rather than having the stem captive to the case with the in/out position set there as was the case with the 1899  model which used the newly introduced "standard" case.

The second difference is related in that the movement is secured into the case with a pin and a single case screw rather than two case screws.

The Waltham production records show about 37,000 15 jewel and  20,000 17 jewel versions of the Riverside, of the 17J versions about half were hunters and the rest open faces or undefined. In addition one 19 jewel version and thirty seven 16 jewel versions are recorded.

Shown is a recently restored example made in 1894, it has an adjusted17 jewel movement, the  Swiss lever escapement has a Breguet sprung cut compensating balance with micro adjuster and double roller.