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1947 Ingraham Biltmore Pocket Watch

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    Posted 2 years ago

    dav2no1
    (841 items)

    1947 Ingraham Biltmore Pocket Watch

    The E. Ingraham Company
    Bristol, Conn. U.S.A.
    9 - 47 (September 1947)

    Picked this watch up a few days ago. I was buying some glass items for our etsy store and the seller had this listed. The ad said it didn't work and I picked it up for $4. When I got home I figured out how to wind and set the watch. It works perfectly and keeps very accurate time. It's missing the bow(wire piece that protects the winder). I'm working on sourcing one.

    WHAT CAN I GET FOR A DOLLAR?
    My watch is what's called a dollar pocket watch. So what is that?
    "Attempts to make a watch that could be sold for as little as a dollar began in the 1870s." By 1880, one company had achieved the price of $3.50. And in 1890 another company got the price down to $1.50.

    FINALLY A DOLLAR!
    "The one dollar price was reached in 1896 when Ingersoll introduced a watch called the Yankee, setting its price at $1. This made it the cheapest watch available at the time, and the first watch to be priced at one dollar."

    "In 1899, Western Clock (Westclox) and the E. Ingraham Company also began manufacturing them. Dollar watches were practical, mass-produced timepieces intended to be as inexpensive as possible.

    NO JEWELS HERE.
    "Dollar watches had a simple, rugged design, movement (usually with a pin-pallet escapement, although sometimes with duplex escapements) which has either no jewels or just one jewel." Many companies made them with hundreds of names on them. The sale price of a dollar lasted from 1892 until the mid-1950s.

    E. INGRAHAM
    "The company was founded in 1831 by Elias Ingraham (1805-1885), who opened his own shop in Bristol as a cabinetmaker and designer of clock cases. After several mergers with other companies and name changes the company was known as E. Ingraham and Company by 1884. From 1884 to 1958, the period during which most of the surviving company records were created, the firm was known as E. Ingraham Company."

    THIS COMPANY IS NOT DEPRESSING!
    "The depression of the 1930s did not affect E. Ingraham Company as severely as it did many other businesses. Employment never dropped more than 15% and wage and salaries were not cut. By the beginning of the Second World War, the company was producing clocks and watches at maximum capacity."

    WAR SAYS NO MORE WATCHES!
    "In 1942 the War Production Board ordered E. Ingraham Company to cease manufacture of all clocks and watches. By August 1942 the company had entirely re-tooled for production of items of critical war use, such as mechanical time-fuse parts for Army and Navy anti-aircraft and artillery. Full production of clocks and watches was not resumed until 1946, but the years 1946 to 1948 were boom years for company sales."

    So my watch was made a year after they restarted making watches.

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    Comments

    1. dav2no1 dav2no1, 2 years ago
      Cleaned the back up a little and updated the pucture..
    2. BHIFOS BHIFOS, 2 years ago
      great story.
    3. keramikos, 2 years ago
      dav2no1, Yes, great story, especially the part about WWII.

    4. dav2no1 dav2no1, 2 years ago
      Thanks for the comments and loves. The company has a rich history and I enjoyed learning about it.
    5. pw-collector pw-collector, 2 years ago
      The Bannatyne Watch Co. was incorporated in November of 1905. Mr. Bannatyne had previously worked for the Waterbury Clock Co. before starting the Bannatyne watch company. He advertised his watch as "A Time-Keeper Ahead of the Times. The smallest, thinnest and easiest winding practical watch ever produced at a low price. Winding and setting mechanism can be removed without taking movement from case. No accidental pushing in of crown stem. No screws used in fastening movement into case." They retailed for $1.50.
      He stayed in business until 1911 and then the company was purchased by The E. Ingraham Co. in 1912. Ingraham made their first pocket watch in 1913 fashioned after the Bannatyne watch.
    6. Vynil33rpm Vynil33rpm, 2 years ago
      I like the descending angles of the numbers
    7. dav2no1 dav2no1, 2 years ago
      pw-collector, Great information..thanks for sharing. You don't happen to have an extra bow laying around do ya?
    8. pw-collector pw-collector, 2 years ago
      Sorry, I don’t have an extra bow.
      Here is the Bannatyne watch:
      https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/56142-the-bannatyne-watch-co?in=collection-724
      Dave

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