The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-02-14
WATCH THE SIZE OF A NICKEL

The smallest watch yet turned out in
this country has just been put on the
market. although few are on sale yet.
The new watch is the size of a scent
piece.
The smallest watch which American
watch factories had hitherto succeeded
in making had been as big as a quarter,
SO the new watch is looked upon as
marking a distinct advance in the in
dustry in this country, where watches
have only been made for a little more
than half a century. Watchmakers
also regard it as indicating that the
time is not far distant when Americans
will soon overtake the old worlds
watchmakers. the Swiss, in turning out
watches of minute size.
The Swiss still make a watch smaller
than the Americans, but the watch
just put on the market here by the two
largest matchmaking concerns in this
country will have the advantage over
the Swiss watch that all the other
watches made here have possessed,
namely, that of being turned out in
quantity. Under American methods the
daily output in one factory is $500 a
day.
The new watch is the result of
watchmakers and machinists. For
every new sized watch designed new
machines have to be made, and as the
size of the watch is reduced, by so
much more must these machines be
made more delicate.
The smaller a watch the harder it is
to make. To make a watch half the
size of another is just twice as hard.
When it is considered that in every
watch there are 1853 parts it will be seen
what q task the watch machine eX-
perts had in designing machines to
make the parts for the new watch,
many of them almost inf1nitesimal in
size. When the machines are made the
new watch can be turned out as fast as
the larger sizes.
In watch making in the big factories
another factor has to be considered in
the production of a new watch that is
smaller than those tuned out before;
this is the ability of the hands en-
ployed to handle the parts. Half the
work of Matchmaking in the big fac
tories is in educating the hands to
handle the parts. 1t takes months to
do this with every new watch that is
designed and therein has lain the diff
Guilty of initiating the Swiss in the
manufacture of small watches by
American methods.
In Switzerland the work is let out by
the piece. A workman will make just
one part of a watch, as his father did
before him In the biggest American
factory, that of the Waltham COM
pany, watch is turned out of the labor
of 5000 employees.
1t has been the boast of the Swiss
that their tiny watches could never
be made by machinery, and it has been
Just as much the endeavor of Ameri-
can watchmakers to show their Swiss
rivals how sadly they moderated
American inventive genius. That is
why the new watch has been hailed
with so much pride.
The Jewellers say that there will al
WAYS be a demand for a watch smaller
than the last one people could obtain,
so before long a still smaller watch
may appear. The demand for an Amer
lean watch smaller than that of the
25-cent piece size has long been felt,
especially since the custom came in of
wearing chatelaine watches. The new
watch is designed for this, and also to
meet the demand of a new custom
lately come into vogue with women,
that of wearing a watch on a chain
around the neck like a locket.
Despite its diminutive size, the new
watch keeps as good time as the larger
ones, and better time. the American
watchmakers say. than do the minia-
ture watches of the Swiss.
But the Swiss still hold the palm for
putting the works of a watch into the
smallest compass. The smallest watch
made in any number by the Swiss is
what is known in watch nomenclature
as the "three-ligne" watch. 1t is only
the size of a mans flngernail. This
watch is imported here and is often
put in pocketboolks and leather goods.
The Swiss turn out even smaller
watches than that, but they are re-
garded here as freak watches. One
of them is a watch made to be set in a
ring the size of the ordinary seal ring.
Fairly good time has been kept by one.
Another watch made by the Swiss
watchmakers is a watch to go in the
buttonhole, but it is not as wonderful
as the ring watch. Though the dial is
as small, the works. hidden under the
lapel of the coat, are larger.