What time is it?

No, it's not really 10 minutes to 2:00 (or 10 after 10:00)!


My paternal grandparents, as a matter of fact, basically all the paternal grand and great whatevers, worked at the Waltham Clock Company a hundred years or so ago. The family story is that my grandmother made this clock in 1929. And that one of her brothers, while employed by the Howard Clock Company made the case. And it's a prototype that never went into production.

That can't possibly be true. For one thing I think they were pretty much all gone by 1929. The grand and great whatevers. If the flu didn't get them tuberculosis did.

Oh, I'm sure the clock belonged to my grandparents and they may even have had something to do with its fabrication. But as far as I can tell, the movement, I think it has a model number 891 or 892 stamped in its plate, I should have taken a picture while it was apart, was only made from the 1890s up until 1914. There is something special about this clock however - some of the family story may be true - it is "non catalogued" and it may be a prototype or a custom build. It doesn't appear it was ever in production.

Edit 8 October 2011: I had occasion to remove the dial to service the clock.

Here, the number stamped on the plate is 1512. I think that's a serial number rather than a model number but I don't really know. If anyone knows anything about this clock please feel free to tell me about it!

The clock hasn't run in years and I recently had it serviced by Hills Antique Clocks and Richard Hills did a wonderful job servicing the clock. He faithfully restored the compound weight configuration and with the sole exception of the absence of the "Waltham" name on the dial, this is the original condition of the clock.

My grandfather made this watch for himself while he was employed at the factory:

It's a nice watch. It's a standard production model. Waltham was known for making very nice pocket watches at the time. The serial number dates this watch to 1915.


Which further suggests something in the neighborhood of 1914 for the clock might be a good guess. There could be something significant about 1929 sure, but it's not when the clock was made.