Three Waltham wristwatches from before WWII

In my continual digging, I pulled out a couple of old Waltham wristwatches from the twenties and thirties. To complete the group, I’m including my grandafther’s wristwatch from the First World War.

Waltham made some incredibly beautiful movements, particularly in the pocket watch days. But they were primarily a volume producer. When Omega was still in the 6 million serial numbers, Waltham was approaching 30 million; in addition to some nice movements, Waltham made a lot of cheap, seven jewel ones.

These first two watches were more 80’s pick ups at auctions. I doubt I paid more than a couple hundred for each of them. The first was grabbed because of the 21 jewel Riverside movement and a solid gold case; the second has a beautiful case and dial, very much of the period.




And finally, the WWI watch. I still haven’t found the original box, with matching serial number written on it, that the watch came in, but it’s around here somewhere. I have worn this watch as part of a daily rotation. It ticks loudly at night, I’ve noticed.


There’s no quartz watch, that upon opening, looks half as gorgeous as any of these.