Tremont Watch Co
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Dial.jpg (110953 bytes)  Movement.jpg (116289 bytes)

Front, Back, Hallmark, Cuvette, Cuvette mark, Movement, Closeup of movement.

The Tremont Watch Co. was founded by Aaron L. Dennison and a consortium of Boston jewelers with the intent of producing watches that were a combination of Swiss precision escapements and plates and trains manufactured in America. B. D. Bingham seems to have been the key watchmaker in the Boston operation. His patented dustband was featured in this early 1867 ad for Tremont After a period of 2 or 3 years,  the investors decided they could make more money producing the entire watch in the U.S. Dennison in the meantime had begun work on a new design 3/4 plate model and the company had invested heavily in tooling to support the Swiss side of the operation.

Dennison and the U.S. investors parted company and Dennison was given the job of disposing of the Swiss equipment and material. Eventually the equipment and material were sold to the Anglo-American Watch Company and Dennison settled in England where he was successful in founding the Dennison Watch Case Co.

Several of these 3/4 plate Tremont watches have shown up with distinctively English finishes and English cases and dials. I believe these are the earliest output of the Anglo-American Watch Co. or alternatively were jobbed out by Dennison to convert remaining material to salable watches.

The Tremont watches were the first of the eventually long line of co-operative ventures between the Swiss and Americans. Dietrich Gruen and Savage followed up on the concept many years later and Gruen with his sons eventually developed the model that dominated the American watch market from the 1950's on.