Fred McIntyre Sales Diary for McIntyre Watch Co.

Mch. 14.1910 Called on Alsted-Kaston Co. Met Mr. Alstead. Middle age sandy hair and mustache, fairly heavy, about 5’8”. Pleasant and intelligent talks that it is not worth the effort to push any high grade watch or carry in stock. Sells only Swiss goods. Said ours was the first fine watch he ever saw of American manufacture. Says he could not sell our 16s, but could do business with 14s. Introduced to watch-makers and told them to look at the first fine American watch ever made. Said its only fault was that it was too good.

Watchmakers both spoke in terms of highest praise. Their names Joseph Wibbert, old, white hair and beard, Gustaf Ljungstrom Swede and evidently good man.

Called on Beuide, Upmeyer Co. Met buyer, Chas. L. Carlson. Practical man. Evidently much pleased with watch. Desirous of Agency but wanted to wait for 14s watch. Said had not sold fine 16s in two years. Have Patek Agency, Carry good fair stock of watches. Said our prices were not too high and that they would sell, but greater part of sale would be to R.R. men.

Mr. Carlson, man about my size, smooth shaven, dark complexion. About my age.

Mch. 15. Closed Agency with C Preusser Jewelry Co., 438 E. Water. Buyer Zedler. About 5’11” dark, smooth shaven, good looking. Had sold the Mailon (Meylan) for best watch. Told me all best trade was for 12 size but that felt satisfied that 16s. would give better results. Five watch repairers and good run of work. Apparently progressive house.

Mch. 15 Visited Madison. Town evidently a live one with large number of business houses carrying good stocks. Impression of town good. Called on F. A. Averbeck who lives in California. Watch-maker C. L. Stark. Young man, ordinary ability and intelligence. Stock looks cheap. Buyer W. H. Dietrich in Chicago to-day.

Called on W. J. Gameses (sp?). Found he was in Chicago. Finely equipped stock. Mahogany fixtures, large stock good mdse. Carry Howard for best watch. Watchmaker much pleased with our watch. Business worth seeking. Head watch maker must be humored. Says they carry Howard stock and diamonds in safe to show only to special customers. Asst. watchmaker, ordinary man, agreeable.

Mch. 1? Called on Geo. B. Rose, LaCrosse Wis. Old gentleman, white Vandyke, short and stocky. Walter B. Rose buyer. About 5’11” smooth shaven. Evidently sell number of Pateks. Good town with well to do residents. Business section indicates good class of trade. Apparently disposed to push our watch if running qualities of sample were satisfactory. Other son apparently the watch (maker) although all are practical men. Walter student at Chicago school in 1893. All admitted watch ahead of anything they knew of.

.Mch. 16. Called on S. W. Morgan at Winona. Has large stock and sells nice goods. Both he and son loud in praise of watch. Ordered two watches. Believe they will push the watch as they are not favorable to Howard or Swiss. 

Mch. 17. Visited store of Hudson and Son. Mr. Hudson in California. Lawhead, one of Company refused to look at line. Handle good line of Pateks. Mr. Hudson one who would decide on agency. Head watch-maker Garret said our watch was finer than anything he had ever seen. Found him to be an intelligent and well posted watch maker. Suggested that watches taking large motion would develop banking error when used on autos and R.R. trains. Suggested lighter springs and less motion and claimed this cured the evil. Thought any find watch should be sold with guarantee of variation. Suggested 20” per mo. For our watch, considered size & price right for high class line piece. Not in favor of small watches. Beautiful store and high class stock. Sold Howards and said they did well.

Visited S. Jacobs & Son. Appearance would indicate had about same class of trade as Hudson. Large beautiful store. Huntingdon, head watch maker loud in praise of watch. All others in department said it was ahead of anything they had seen. Remarked that we had started where others left off. Mr. Metzer in New York, agreed to send sample movement on y return from trip. Fine prospect. Large beautiful store. They suggested buying six to start if agreeable to Metzer.

Stores of White and McNaught and Winter have nice appearance, but Hudson and Jacobs evidently two leaders. No one to date has said a work in criticism of watch. Jacobs had number of Howards in stock.

Mch. 18. Went to Hotel Boardman Saint Paul. Ordinary. First visited Harmon, Chief watch inspector for all roads entering Saint Paul. Found him to be courteous well informed gentleman now confining his time to wholesale diamond and watch business which is in charge of fine watch-maker Himmel by name. They sell Pateks and Vacherons. Next visited store of Emil Geist known as a good workman of the old school. Nice store, moderate size. Met son but did not show line as father was out.

Next visited Brown & Co. Fine store and first in city. Found that some foreign maker, evidently Koehn of Geneva had offered to send one watch which was to show a pocket error of only 10” per mo. for them to try. They stated that they had long been looking for a fine watch which they could feature and that ours was the first that really took their fancy. Watch-maker very warm in his praise. Sold three to be tried out with understanding that if they were satisfactory they would carry good stock and push them.

Next visited Bullard & Co. Mr. Bullard and Watch-maker gave much praise. Liked all special features. Patek Agents. Admitted that ours equaled the Patek in finish and excelled in design. Met Mr. Freund of New York in their store.

watch maker thought winding indicator best feature and urged Mr. Spaulding to buy.

Visited Klein. Small store and bunch of pikers, although they said watch was beyond reproach, said they could not sell high priced watches.

Visited Henricksen J. Co. Nice small store. Much interested in watch and wanted to order six watches and secure agency.

Took Trolley for Superior interested watch inspectors. Sold two. Said it was the finest watch they had ever seen.

Back to Duluth. Told Spaulding I would hold agency offer open for them.

Geo. C. Spaulding. 6’ fine looking, dark, a gentleman. Jno. Larson, watch maker very anxious that Bagley should have the line.

Spent Sunday in St. Paul at Boardman Hotel. Never again. Left at 8:05 P.M. for Sioux City. Arrived at 5:00 A.M.

Stopped at Hotel West. Very nice, good room and good restaurant. Visited all jewelers. Beck has fine stock and sells Patek. About to move to opposite corner to much larger room. Carries large stock good merchant. Beck Senior about my height, gray, mustache, about sixty. A little hard to approach. All admitted watch was fine. Had established trade on Patek. About to move, consider they can be gotten later. Some about 25, dark. (Son?)

Visited Thorpe and Hoberg. Met Hoberg, 5’11” 210 lbs. Smooth 50 yrs. Rather gruff but pleasant to me. Was in Elgin timing room 30 years ago. Wanted me to send samples of each on my return so that his partner, away for thirty days, could see them. Can be had at any time, but want Beck if we can get him. Second best store. Very nice and well kept. Pushing Maelon (sic. Meylan).

Visited Wm. Hiles. Tall large, gray hair & mustache, slightly bald, glasses. Had two 16s. and 3 14s. Howards in stock. Both he and watch-maker very much pleased with watch. Could not do us any good.

Visited Wissing and Anderson. Met Wissing. Man of 50. Too slow for us. Sell nothing but ordinary watches. Said watch finest he ever saw.

Visited H. R. Holman. Small store. Watch-maker said watch was finest he had ever seen.

Left at 7:20 A.M. for Omaha.

Consider Sioux City a good market for us. Looks thrifty.

Departed for Omaha, arriving at 10:30 P.M. and put up at Rowe. Very fair hotel. Room and bath 2.00 Frequented by traveling public. Place is growing. Several fine business buildings going up, one of sixteen stories. Rough and rather dirty place, but evidently good business place.

Store of C. B. Brown and Co. largest. Very nice. Features the Maelon (Meylan). Carries only their first grade. Short heavy man, pleasant and old time watch-maker. Both watch-makers very much pleased with watch both on account of beauty of finish and ease of repair. Brown said we had the finest watch he ever saw but thought his trade would not want the 16S. Sells Howards, Hamiltons and Elgin.

Called on Albert Edhafure (sp?). Very small store, high class stock. Patek Agents. Declined courteously to look and would not let me show line to watch maker.

Called on Brodeguard. Jewelry on one side, flowers on other. A big man physically and a good of a grandstander but pleasant. Said we had a very fine watch and one was confident could be sold by any store with good trade. Said he made runs on cheap watches and would not take the time to sell a good one. Watch-maker trained in Switzerland. Did not get to see Ryan who has nice store and sells Gruens.

Afternoon went to Council Bluffs by trolley. 30” trip. Called on Gerney. Nice up to date store. Gerney not practical. Favored the small watch. Both watch makers much pleased and urged him to buy. One of them wanted to buy a sixteen size for personal use.