Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-01-19
Watch for Friday Nigth'S Ad
WATCHES KEEP GOOD TIME


 i in court that watch which does not lose or gain more than five seconds a month is an excellent timepiece Am erican watches are occasionally seen that do not gain or lose more than five seconds year. Such watch is. 50 to speak. an accident. The most careful matchmaking cannot be ex pected to yield any such result.
 Few chronometers gain or lose less than a tcrth Gf a second d da-. With the chronometer the important thing is not that it shall run very close. hut i that it's rate of variation shah be reSu- lar. The same is true of watches. but thei, size makes it difficult to assure regularity.
 You may reasonably hope that a watch which sells to the dealer with out d case for Sl00 or $I50 may be reg ulated to few seconds a month. The best watches are sent to the NatiOnai observatory to be observed and regu, lated. and from those thus carefully treated the most regular are selected ;.S standard watches. Even cheap watch may be regulated so as to run very close to correct time. but the reg uiation may occupy months. and may : cost almost as much as the original ! price of the watch. For this reasol. cheap watches are for the most part not very closely regulated.
 Many of the most expensive watches seldom run well, because the owners are content to have them cleaned. re- paired and regulated by incompetent persons. Excellent as American watches are, the watch repairing busi' rcss in this country is in sad state.
 As matter of fact American watch making. and in this city watch repair ing. is mainly done in the hands of foreigners. Nearly 15 per cent of tho watchmakers in the factories are Ger mans, 20 per cent English and perhaps , per cent French. Swiss and Scandi :lavians. The few Americans now learning the trade are usually the sons of some foreign born watchmakers.
 Ordinary workmen at the bench 1T this city earn from S15 to SIS week A few earn from S25 to S30 a week and perhaps half q score of the best meE earn from so to $40 a week.
 Watch repairing in the big jewellers shops is not profitable if the work is done conscientiously, because custom CTS are seldom willing to pay the cost oi careful work. It often takes more time and greater skill to learn what is the matter with watch than to rene ly the defect. The ordinary workmeT in large establishment lack the skill to discover the defects of fine watch e. tn. II nc ha lf-nn nl lnt- ir q WatcEmakers.
 In the big shops really fine watch is often turned over to the most skilled man in the place for observation: a less skilled man may be trusted to correc the error when it is discovered. and | cheap watch in for repairs goes to ; cheap man.
 The most conscientious of the self employing watchmakers hesitate to un tiertake the repair of cheap watches Lerause the cost of repairs may he ; considerable percentage of the origina price of the watch. Such watch luaker the other day named third tn price of cheap watch as the cost o repairs. The owner thought the pric, high. but the job was not a very profit ! alsIt nllt lp tHt
 As a matter of fact there are reall. very few watchmakers in New York The business of making watches i left chiefly to the great factories an' they are not situated here. The bes watch repairers. however. can mak watches entire. because the earlier aI prentices learned the whole trade. am , every skilled watch repairer is ofteI called upon 10 make in his little sho ibc missing parts of fine watches. he , cause they cannot So satisfactorily b bought ready made.
 ,l OEce in long while such a man -ai!eG upon to make T watch cas' though case making long ago wa banded over to specialists working i large factories The factories do nc ( o-,,iuarily make eases to fit unusus and cd fashioned watches. and on thi | account such a task occasionally fall t,. the lot of skilled old watchmaker .ong since trained abroad. Such caS casts double or treble the price of
 factoIy made case.