Charles Vander Woerd, then the mechanical superintendent at American Watch Co., invented the first automatic screw machine in 1871. The first few machines made were a smaller version used to make jewel screws. This machine, however, could be set up to make any size watch screw, from tiny jewel screws to the case screws used to hold the movement in the case.
There were 45 of these machines built at a cost of $2,000 each between 1871 and about 1876 to be used in the screw making department at Waltham. The 30th machine built was exhibited in Machinery Hall and attracted the attention of crowds of visitors for the whole duration of the great Centennial Exhibition held in Philadelphia in 1876. This was the first international exhibition where the products and methods of the American System were displayed.
A single operator can readily attend six or more of these machines and produce 50,000 to 60,000 screws per day while by the older method a man might make 1,200 to 1,500 screws per day with a little aid from a boy. The basic design of this machine was copied by other watch factories. In 1895, the Waltham Screw Co. made some for their own use and the B. C. Ames Co. in Waltham made some almost 50 years after it was invented. None of these later copies exhibited the fine finish workmanship of the original. The Waltham Watch Co. featured this machine in company advertising as late as 1919. This machine represented the triumph of Charles Vander Woerd's mechanical genius.