Sick day, what watch history book or articles should I read?

Play on the internet and explore the history of American watches.  What happened to a thriving industry that was the rival of any in the world?

Elgin, Waltham, Hamilton, Bulova, Benrus, Clinton, Wittnauer, Timex, Helbros, Welsbro, Ball, and Gruen have all died and been reborn with varying degrees of success.

By the end of the day you will be bidding for Gruens on eBay.

Actually, that is really fascinating.  What happened to the American watch industry?  Why did it all die out or shrink until it became a specter of its former self?

Americans switched to war production from watch production.. while Swiss remained neutral.  

It is not monocausal.  Each of these companies had their own Achilles Heel. The Second World War played a big part. Tariff and trade policy played a big part.  Hong Kong and later Japan had competitive labor advantages.  The founders of these companies died and their successors lost their way. One tried a leveraged buyout of another that failed badly.

And it wasn't about sales.  Elgin and Timex never lost watch sales.  They lost profitability.  As best as I can tell, the one that should have made it, Bulova, just gave up and took an offer that they could not refuse.

By the end of the day you will be bidding for Gruens on eBay.

Good gravy, I hope not. 😂😂

A pre-1958 Gruen might be the best watch ever produced in the United States.  For a brief time they shared movements with Rolex. Gruen tried to import the Medieval guild system into the United States. Gruen was sui generis. 

I always find interesting stories and history over at worn & wound.

Chase up the story of the missing Moonwatch... What happened to the first watch on the moon. Then for a bit of fun and sillness checkout The Moonwatch by Steven WF Aston. It's a ebook. link to the various places https://books2read.com/u/3nE0w5

"A man and his watch" is a great book. It's not about any particular brand or model. It's a collection of stories about men and their relationship with their watches. Great watches not only tell time--they also tell stories ;)

YouTube has a lot of this type of content, but you have to search and sometimes dig deep.  I'm a life long New Yorker and was very surprised to see Bulova has a museum in the Empire State Building, that I will be paying a visit to soon and I love Times Ticking channel, which does excellent work on the history of watch companies.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChLmvwbXUwBvV5LTMTamHeA

I particularly loved their deep dive into the history of Timex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBeyb24-3uw

Enjoy!

This is a rough book (spelling, grammar & formatting errors abound), but the plot is interesting