The Delaware ledger. (Newark, Del.) 1879-19??, 1883-12-29
NUMBER 2.
rhe Watch Trade in En- land.

tcrty years ago people VINO wanted
accurate and reliable watches bought
them Of English manufacture. They
were not an elegant article, but they
were substantial and serviceable and
those who carry them still, or to whom
they have come as legacy, do not find
that the lapse of years has impaired
their value as tlmepieces. Within a
generation, however, the centre of the
trade has shifted, and while millions
are now annually turned out In Swift
zerland, France and the United States,
the yearly product in England is but
1S0, 900, or 1000 less than it was CEN
tury ago. The decline of the trade in
England is distinctly due to the fact
that while Swiss and American manu-
facturers have availed themselves of
new methods and tools, the English
still employ those Of hundred years
since. A recent article in the London
Times points out the defects of the Eng
lish system:
"Engllsh watches are not made in
sufficient quantities to justify the pro-
duction on large scale of any one par
ticular type the trade is for the most
part in the hands of small men,, who
make certain sizes in dozens and half
dozens. In the Swiss and American
factories a particular type, If it be con-
sidered worth making, is made by thou
sands everything is organized for pro-
duction on large scale. Confning the
contrast to English and American
methods, the principal point upon
which it is necessary to insist is that in
America the - or IA trades which con-
stitute matchmaking are aggregated
under one roof and form one compact
organization. BY the older method
still pursued in England, and until re-
Gently almost the rule in Switzerland,
the different parts are transported from
one workshop to another in different
quarters Of the town, and even from
one part of the country to another.
Under the new method the maximum
of efficiency and individual RESPONSE
bIlity is obtained by the minute subdi-
vision of every process the loss of
time in the transfer from one depart
ment to another is so minimized as to
be practically non-existent. In the
United States one company alone en-
ploys capital of 100000, and with
2,30O hands produce 2O0,0O0 watches
annually-an autput equal to the entire
English trade. There are no official
returns OF Swiss manufacture, but the
best authorities estimate its growth
during the past five years at 1000, 900
watches, the total standing to-day at
3,500,000. Besancon, the centre of the
French trade, shows an equally re-
markable progress. During the five
years 1859 the average annual pro-
duction of watches in France was AT
500; it now exceeds half million.
About 80 per cent. of the watches made
in France come from Besancon."
The extraordinary growth in the
manufacture of watches indicates a cor
responding increase in the demand.
During the past five years, indeed,
while the manufacture of English
watches has stood still, the importation
of foreign watches into England has
ductuated between e400, 900 and $780,
600, as against e1s6, 600 in 1867. Much
of the demand, no doubt, arises from
the fact that the new method employed
in the manuf acture of watches enables
them to be sold at so much lower price
than formerly but it must be regarded
as in large degree due also to an in
creased pecuniary ability among the
masses. Not only has the cost of the
manufactured article come down, but
the means Of the people have gone up.
Watches are no longer considered
luxury, and the poorest citizen flatters
himself upon the accuracy of his time
piece.
In E4gland efforts are being made to
recover the trade which has been lost,
an undertaking which is the more diff
cult because of The jealousies and sepa-
rations which prevail among the varl-
GUS departments of the business.
Nevertheless, a plant of machinery for
the production of stem-winders has
been established in London an Ameri-
can plant has been put down in Birm-
ingham for the manufacture Of both
key and stem-wlnders a second trm
in Birmingham is working an organiza.
tion for the production of the ordinary
English watch in demand in the Colo
nies; and in Coventry modern treat
ment has been grated on an old-estab-
lished business and is working side by
side with old methods of manufacture.