Old New Find

[romeo-1]

I found this on one of my last hunts last season. I thought it was a bottle cap of some kind but last night I re-found it in an assortment of MD junque and noticed some lettering that I hadn't noticed before. Not a great find but not a bottle cap either. American Waltham Watch Co. The patent date is 1896 or 1892.

I don't think that this is a watch back as the metal is very brittle and thin. Any suggestions?

 

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[Montana Jim]

Like buttons, the company went under different names as shown below...

1850, September Howard, Davis and Dennison, Roxbury Mass
1851 (for 6 months) American Horology Co., Roxbury Mass.
1851-1853 The Warren Mfg. Co., Roxbury Mass.
1853 (Sept) - 1857 (May) Boston Watch Co., Roxbury Mass & Waltham Mass.
1857 Tracy Baker & Co., Waltham Mass.
1857-1859 Appleton Tracy and Co., Waltham Mass.
1859-1885 American Watch Co., Waltham Mass.
1885-1923 American Waltham Watch Co., Waltham Mass.
1923-1957 Waltham Watch Co., Waltham Mass.

I think the tin lid you have was a shipping or storage case lid that a watch/pieces (pieces because your find is smaller than the watch would have been) would have been shipped in to protect it. A google search will net a ton of Waltham Watch information, but so far I've not found a picture of a lid.

If not for a watch or watch pieces, maybe for another type of instrument made by the company, as their pieces were machined they may have branched out.

 

[Montana Jim]

Found this... looks like it was for shipping parts (movements)...

http://pages.bdunique.com/cgi-bin/g...ique;catId=Clocks_and_Watches;itemNo=5103-049

 

[Gypsy Heart]

Cool.....I thought it said "Witch Co."

 

[romeo-1]

Cool.....I thought it said "Witch Co."

So did I when I first got it cleaned...had to do a double take!

Montana...you nailed it...thanks!