Early History of the New York Watch Company: Part 16 – Estimated Total Production for Every Grade and Model

Now that a preliminary reconstructed serial list for the New York Watch Company has been compiled along with a serial lookup engine, we can begin to provide the first glimpses of the estimated total production for each grade offered by the company.

These metrics are expected to be adapted over time as new observations are made and runs are refined with ongoing research. As a result, these production tallies should be considered rough estimates.

Production Scope

These production totals contain all production below serial 58,000 (the last serial block included in the 1875 inventory list). While this serial breakpoint represents the most reasonable line between the New York Watch Company and the Hampden Watch Company production, some Hampden-finished movements are inevitably included in these metrics. When the New York Watch Company closed the factory in 1876, production lines were halted, leaving unfinished movements and stagnant inventory.

When the company reorganized as the Hampden Watch Company in 1877, the unfinished movements were restarted, and the existing inventory was sold by the fresh company. However, a few runs within the New York Watch Company serial blocks were entirely Hampden production – notably the backfilled runs marked “Hampden Watch Co.” that appear around the 41,101-42,200 serial block. For the purpose of this exercise, these are all included in the figures below to comprehensively evaluate all serial numbers under 58,000.

Production Gaps and Unidentified Production

(As of January 2024)

A number of runs are still unidentified and could add to certain grade production totals in the future, but serial blocks might also been terminated early, leading to unfinished production runs.

Production Gap (Likely No Production or Backfilled Later): ~4,730
18-Size Model 1869 Unidentified Production: ~40
16-Size Model 1869 Unidentified Production: ~1,050
16-Size Model 1872 Unidentified Production: ~20
18-Size Model 1870 Unidentified Production: ~3,610

Total Unidentified Production: ~4,720

New York Watch Company Estimated Production by Model

Image	Size	Model	Runs	Est. Quantity
	19	Springfield Stemwind	5	380
	19	Springfield Keywind	2	90
	18	1869	25	2,255
	16	1869	29	2,590
	18	1870	182	33,510
	16	1872	6	300
	18	1873	69	13,990

New York Watch Company Estimated Production by Grade

If you have a New York Watch Company watch that has not been logged in the registry yet, please consider uploading it to the Pocket Watch Database to assist in ongoing research efforts.