Waltham 1908-Riverside.

This is one of a series of posts illustrating the main grades of Waltham size 16 watches, in this case the 1899 & 1908-Riverside.

Waltham 1908-Riverside, 1908

This following description is from an advert of 1913:

Whats in beat?

A Swiss lever escapement

If you have ever set up a pendulum clock you will know that it is important to level the movement so that the pendulum swings equally to the right and left of a centre line that is perpendicular to the base of the movement, this will help in timekeeping, make the clock easier to start and, if it is driven by a spring, it will be less likely to stop as the spring gets closer to being fully wound down. It will also result in a nice even "tick - tock". 

It is the same with a watch except that it is now the balance wheel which has to swing an equal amount left and right from it's "in beat" position  - which for a Swiss Lever escapement is when the impulse jewel, balance staff and the lever pallet arbor are in alignment with the movement at rest. Its a little more complicated for an English lever with the pallet tangential to the escape wheel.

 

Before the advent of electro-mechanical and now computerised escapement analysers watch makers and repairers had to adjust  watches to be in beat by visual alignment and listening to the movement through a type of stethoscope, it is impressive how they achieved the accuracy that they did but some errors are fairly easy to detect by listening to the watch.

 

This is my Waltham 1899 Riverside Maximus from 1901, the movement is 0.3 milliseconds (mSec) out of beat which at a nominal rate of 18,000 vibrations per hour (VHP) is an error of 0.17% - that is as close to perfect as you are likely to hear from a 114 year old watch so run the video to see what it sounds like.

 

 

The next video is of  a job in process and the movement is currently out of beat by 2.1 mSec or 10%, run this video and you should notice the arrhythmia.

Correcting an out of beat movement is likely to be a combination of reforming or tweaking the hairspring (in this case it needs major reshaping due to previous tampering and there is a real possibility of work hardening causing the spring to break when adjustments are made), turning the roller or preferably the hairspring collet on the balance staff to improve alignment and possibly some adjustment of the banking for fine tuning.

Waltham 1899 Riverside Maximus.

Here at last is a Riverside Maximus, in fact two of them! Except for a few specials and limited editions, the Premier Maximus (think £20k++ in a London store) and the rare American Watch Co Bridge model, this is the highest grade of watch made by Waltham.

Left: Waltham 1899 Riverside Maximus, 23J, 1901 and right 1902.
Click any image for a larger view.

The 1902 example opened up.

Waltham developed the 1899 Vanguard for railroad use, although many were  not used as such, the Riverside Maximus with essentially the same mechanicals was designed purely for the luxury goods market. Production was small with only 13,800 made (another source shows 14,600) of which 10,900 had 23 Jewels (rather than 21) and 7,050 were open faced with 23 jewels.

Production runs were small ranging from 100 to occasionally 500, the older of these two watches is from the third run of 23 jewelled open faced movements. The movement plates are damascened to the back whilst the face pate has a jewelled finish.

The  movement has a gold train, except for the escape wheel which is steel. Top plate jewels are set in raised gold mounts, the barrel is jewelled and there are four diamond cap jewels to the balance and escape with the rest being "fine ruby and sapphires".

Like the Vanguard it is adjusted to temperature, isochronism and five positions and it has micro adjustment to the Breguet sprung cut compensating balance with a double roller

The three piece dials have lettering in a font reserved for the Maximus, the Roman dial on the left is particularly rare with one selling recently for almost $300.

Waltham Colonial Riverside, 21J, 1936

Another excellent size 12 Waltham, this time a "Colonial Riverside" with 21 Jewels including the mainspring barrel.

The Swiss Lever escapement has a Breguet Sprung screwed balance with double roller, the hairspring appears to be elenvar to reduce temperature variation and the movement is adjusted for temperature. The serial number dates it to 1936.

The Colonial movement is particularly slim and in its case is only 0.4" / 1cm thick.

A perfect watch to wear with evening dress or military mess dress but equally suitable for day to day wear.

A very rare Waltham 1894-Riverside Maximus, 21J 1903/4

In a previous post I described the Waltham S16 Riverside Maximus and mentioned that the grade name was also used on premium grades in other sizes. Here is one in size 12 and it is pretty rare.

The Waltham production records show that about three and a quarter million 1894 models were made of which about 83 thousand were "Riverside" grades but only 10,063 Riverside Maximus grades were made of all types - and that number will include rejects and movements planned to be made but not.

Of these only 2,801 were recorded as Open Faced 21Jewel movements the rest being Hunters or of different jewel count.

The general design is very close to the larger 1899 & 1908 models which followed and has moved away from the captive winding stem of the 1888 model. It has a Swiss Lever escapement with a Breguet  sprung cut compensating balance.

This grade also has a double roller, micro adjuster and steel escape wheel as found in railroad grade watches of the period.

Apart from the escape wheel the train wheels are gold and the top plate jewels are screw set in gold mountings. There are diamond cap jewels on the escape wheel and the Balance.

This example has a rare dial signed by Bailey, Banks, Biddle Co. Philadelphia - a very prestigious jewellery maker and retailer.

The case is by the Illinois Watch Case Company of Elgin and is rolled gold.

More pictures can be found via this page of my web site.

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.

The Waltham S16, Riverside Maximus

1899-Riverside Maximus c1903 Courtesy of John Scott

This is one of a series of posts illustrating the main grades of Waltham size 16 watches, primarily the 1899 & 1908 models. Note that specifications did change over time, the description below being typical.

The Maximus grade was reserved for some of the most prestigious watches made by Waltham, although technically the size 16 open faced lever set versions  exceeded the requirements to be a Railroad grade watch, being very similar to the best Vanguards, they were not marketed as such and had enhanced cosmetics. They were also available in open face and hunter configurations and both were available as Lever or Pendant set.

The face of the same watch. Courtesy of John Scott

The movement is in damascened nickel and is adjusted to temperature, isochronism and five positions. The Swiss lever escapement with steel escape wheel has a double roller and a Breguet sprung cut compensating balance with micro adjuster. The train, jewel mounts and balance screws are in gold and it has 23 diamond, fine ruby and sapphire jewels.

The example shown is a Pendant Set 1899 model Riverside Maximus dating from approximately 1903. It is in hunter configuration and in a filled gold half-hunter case.

Three Completed S16 Waltham Watches.

The three movements shown below are now back in their cases.

On the left is the Pendant set 17J 1899-Riverside from 1900/01. The Three piece dial (see previous post) is signed by Fattorini & Sons  Watch & Chronometer Manufacturers, Bradford, Fattotini are still in business as makers of insignia, medals and trophies (they made the FA cup among others), their dials come up on occasion buy rarely do you see these nice three piece dials on a size 16 Waltham.

The middle watch is a railroad grade 21 Jewel 1908-Crescent St, it has an uncommon (for a lever set watch) hinged front so it is more convenient and quicker to set than a watch with a screw on bezel. The three piece dial is a US railroad approved type.

On the right is a 23J 1908 Vanguard from 1935/6 and shortly after this one was made the movement was changed loosing the nice screw set jewels in their gold mounts (see this post below), the dial is typical of these later watches.

Three size 16 Waltham movements.



 

 

 

Some work in process, three good Waltham movements all of which have nice Gold plated cases now being cleaned. From left to right (click the image for a larger view):

1899-Riverside, 17J, Pendant set, 1900/01.
1908-Crescent St, 21J, Lever set, 1926/27.
1908-Vanguard, 23J, Lever set, 1935/36.

The Riverside has a particularly interesting dial, watch this space! Also coming soon will be an illustrated review of all of the commonly available size 16 movements by Waltham.