Waltham Watches

The Waltham watch company shares some parallels with Elgin Watches.

• Both are vintage American watch companies.
• Both were around for about 100 years.
• Both went out of business in the late 1950s or 1960s.
• Both watches remain collector items.
• And both are named after the city in which they were founded.

Both companies spearheaded the development of mass-market watch making, producing an estimated 100 million watches between them. Waltham produced approximately 40 million watches to Elgins 60 million.

Waltham was a leading supplier of railroad chronometers to places all over the world. Waltham is actually older than Elgin. It was started in 1854 as the Waltham Improvement Company, by Aaron Dennison.

A classic Waltham pocket watch

Waltham watch repair

As with Elgin watches, you can repair your Waltham watch. However, this is only if you have (or have access to) another Waltham with the same parts. If you click around on the internet, you may be able to find large inventories of Waltham watches, or you may be able to find people selling Waltham watches for relatively cheap. EBay can be a fine source for collectables such as Waltham watches. You may find that you have the right timing to get a good deal.

Learn more about Waltham

You can visit the Waltham Museum in Waltham, Massachusetts.

Waltham revival?

There is a company in Switzerland that is now creating Waltham watches. While these are certainly fine timepieces, do not make the mistake of thinking that the original Waltham Company has resumed producing Waltham watches. The Swiss company does offer a history of Waltham on their site, but they only design watches in the tradition of Waltham artisans.

This is their Lord Waltham 45 Classic, a mens watch that recalls the classic elegance of Walthams peak production period. Its a COSC certified chronometer with the same Roman figures Waltham used in 1850.