The Waltham “Crescent Street” Movement: The Model 1870
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In 1869, Charles Vander Woerd designed the 18-Size movement that would eventually be known as the “Model 1870” from the “Nashua Department” at the American Watch Company in Waltham. The first movements were keyset from the back, a unique feature for an American full-plate movement.
When the watch was introduced in March 1870, it represented the finest full-plate movement ever delivered from the Waltham factory. Advertisements boasted of the new regulator, ratchet click, patent safety pinion, and dust ring.
The flagship “Crescent Street” was eventually adapted to a stem-wind movement as the market trended away from keywind watches.
As a result, the setting mechanisms also transitioned through a variety of concepts, including button-set, pin-set (sometimes referred to as nail-set”), and two different forms of lever-set mechanisms. According to factory records, production was finally terminated in 1883.
The Model 1870 Crescent Street is widely considered to be the first watch designed and marketed specifically for the railroad market. As soon as the Crescent Street debuted, the company began circulating advertisements that described the watch as “by far the best full plate watch ever made in the United States, and especially adapted for Railway Travelers.”
The fine quality of the Model 1870 Crescent Street watch and the connections to the early railroad industry make it quite desirable to modern collectors, especially with the intriguing subset of variants.
