Dollar watch with replacement crystal and face

A dollar watch was a

pocket watch A pocket watch is a watch that is made to be carried in a pocket, as opposed to a wristwatch, which is strapped to the wrist. They were the most common type of watch from their development in the 16th century until wristwatches became popula ...

or later, a

wristwatch A watch is a timepiece carried or worn by a person. It is designed to maintain a consistent movement despite the motions caused by the person's activities. A wristwatch is worn around the wrist, attached by a watch strap or another type of ...

, that sold for about one

US dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

History of development

Attempts to make a watch that could be sold for as little as a dollar began in the 1870s. By 1880, the Waterbury Watch Company, not to be confused with the

Waterbury Clock Company Timex Group USA, Inc. (formerly known as Timex Corporation) is an American global watch manufacturing company founded in 1854 as the Waterbury Clock Company in Waterbury, Connecticut. In 1944, the company became insolvent but was reformed into ...

, had lowered costs to the point where they could sell their so-called long wind watch for $3.50. In the early 1890s the

Ingersoll Watch Company The Ingersoll Watch Company is currently owned by Zeon Watches, a British subsidiary of the Hong Kong–based company Herald Group. The brand originated in the United States of America in 1892 . Origins Ingersoll Watch Company grew out of a ...

started selling a Waterbury Clock Company clock in a watch case for $1.50. 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.Cutmore, M. "Watches 1850–1980". David & Charles, Devon, UK. 2002. Later, Western Clock (

Westclox Westclox is an American brand of clocks and alarm clocks owned by Nyl Holdings. The company's historic plant is located in Peru, Illinois. Early history as United Clock Company Charles Stahlberg and others from Waterbury, Connecticut, forme ...

) in 1899 and the E. Ingraham Company also began manufacturing them. Dollar watches were practical, mass-produced timepieces intended to be as inexpensive as possible. Features of dollar watches were their simple, rugged design, movement (usually with a

pin-pallet escapement A Roskopf, pin-lever, or pin-pallet escapement is an inexpensive, less accurate version of the lever escapement, used in mechanical alarm clocks, kitchen timers, mantel clocks and, until the 1970s, cheap watches now known as pin lever watches. ...

, although sometimes with duplex escapements) which has either no jewels or just one jewel, width of about eighteen size (), and sale price of about a dollar from 1892 until the mid-1950s. Many other companies made them, with literally hundreds of names on the dials. From around 1905, Ingersoll started selling their watches in the UK as

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, parti ...

watches. To keep costs down, the watches were often sold in flimsy cardboard boxes, which are now highly collectible.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Watches

History of development

See also

References