Dennison Watch Case Company Serial Numbers

Joining Dennison and Howard in establishment of the company were fellow Bostonians David P.

Howard initially wanted Dennison to build locomotives but instead went into business with Dennison making watches. In 1849, Dennison was approached by Edward Howard, a clock and scale maker from Boston. He found this enterprise distracted him from his dream of industrial production of watches and turned the company over to brother Eliphalet Dennison in 1849 so that he could turn his full attention to horology. In 1844 Dennison started the firm that would later emerge as the Dennison Manufacturing Company, a paper box business.

This would not be his first venture, however. Mass production of clocks had come on line during the first quarter of the 19th century in the United States, moving from a handicraft to a factory basis the forward-thinking Dennison hoped to apply the same principles and techniques to the making of pocket watches. In 1833 he became a journeyman watchmaker with the firm of Currier & Trott in Boston, leaving in 1839 to go into business for himself. He served as an apprentice to a jeweler for three years as a youth and had come to Boston in 1833. Dennison was the son of a shoemaker, born in Maine in 1812. The idea for the Waltham Watch Company came from watchmaker Aaron Lufkin Dennison. Prior to 1850, watches in America were generally supplied either from England or Switzerland. A.L.D died in 1895, but left behind a very worthy successor in his son, Franklin Dennison.Picture of the Ellery Model 1857, produced when Waltham was still named Boston Watch Company. Originating from a small workshop on the side of the family home, the company called Dennison, Wigley & Company grew to produce 100,000 high-quality watch cases per annum. A.L.D found a niche in the market for high-quality watch cases produced in large numbers and patented many designs for air and watertight cases. In 1871, A.L.D moved to England and after a short time in London he decided to setup home in Birmingham. He joined Tremont Watch Company, heading the manufacturing side of the business and helped in the formation of International Watch Co. In 1863, the talented watchmaker moved to Zurich in Switzerland, as he found the Swiss were more advanced in the production of watch parts.

The company grew to become the largest watch Dennison began his pioneering career in the watch industry by founding Waltham Watch Company.

Dennison Watch Case Company Serial Numbers