Manistee Watch Company

The Manistee Watch Company made watch mechanisms in Manistee, Michigan. They were put into cases by a watch case manufacturer. Joseph M. Bachner (1853–1929), an inventor born in Alsace, France,[1] designed the movements for production to compete with other watches on the market.[2] He also designed and constructed many of the one-of-a-kind machines needed to make the watch parts.[3] The mechanisms produced by the company were shipped to Ludington, Michigan, about 30 miles away and put into cases made by the Star Watch Case Company where Bachner previously worked.[3]

Bachner partnered with William Rath in 1905–06 to enter into a contract with Manistee city officials to build a manufacturing plant there. The city put up a portion of a $50,000 bond issue to help construct a brick building. The factory building was built in a location where a dust free environment was given priority.[1] It was constructed on park land adjacent to Manistee Lake at 123 Arthur Street just outside downtown Manistee.[4] Rath was the president of the new watch company and Bachner was its general manager. The three-story factory building was constructed in 1908 and watch production started in March 1909.[4]

Rath was a business associate of Warren Cartier. Cartier was the secretary of the Star Watch Case Company in Ludington, and because of this relationship the companies worked in partnership. The Manistee Watch Company factory looked identical to the Star Watch Case Company which was built in Ludington in 1906.[5] The Manistee Watch Company building was constructed with reinforced concrete, a new technology in construction at the time.[1] It was built of the Kahn System invented and patented by Julius Kahn in 1902.[6] The main building was made with the reinforced concrete and had no wood except for the window frames.[1]

In 1909, at the peak of production, there were 90 employees making 100 mechanisms per day.[4] Disagreements came up in 1910 between Rath and Bachner as to how the Manistee Watch Company should be run. Rath made a contract early in 1911 to buy out Bachner's share of the business in a payment contract.[7] The sales of the watches had slowed and there were insufficient funds for Rath to make his required payments to Bachner.[8] In July 1911 Bachner sued Rath in federal court and the company was forced into bankruptcy and had to close.[9] Additional funds were raised in August to reopen the factory.[10] The company ultimately ceased production and permanently closed in 1912. The Manistee Watch Company had produced 60,000 pocket watches during its three-year existence.[4]

A Chicago investment firm bought the machinery for $3,800 at an auction on August 6, 1912.[11] The land and the factory building (which were valued at $30,000) were sold for $5,300 at a second auction a month later on September 13.[12] The old watch factory building of 70,000 square feet was then occupied by the Manistee Art Furniture Company in June of 1916 when they moved there to make wood-drying kilns from their previous location in Muskegon, Michigan.[13] In 1917 the plant became the home to A.D. Joslin Manufacturing Company to make machine tools.[4]

The first floor of the Manistee watch factory building housed the presses, drills, and lathes that formed the basic watch parts. The second floor had the machines used to make the small parts of the watch mechanisms.[1] The third floor employees carried out the assembly and inspections of the watches and any final work that was required, including adjusting.[1]

The dials, jewel bearings, and hairsprings for the mechanisms were purchased from European watch manufacturers, but all other parts aside from the outside case were produced at the Manistee Watch factory.[1] Most of the jewels for the watches were from heliotrope garnet and manufactured in Switzerland to the sizes needed for the Manistee watches.[1] The first watches made sold for five dollars each and later ones sold for more depending on style features and amount of jewels.[2]

The first watch movements made were 18 diameter size or about 0.60 inches (15 mm) in watch dial face width measurement and had 7 jewels.[2] The company name was emblazoned on the back plate of most 18 size movements.[14] The next watch size manufactured was 16 diameter size or about 0.67 inches (17 mm) wide.[15] The 16 size watch movement mechanisms were jeweled. The factory put out various grades of watch movements, being 5 jewels, 7 jewels, 15 jewels, 17 jewels, and 21 jewels.[14]

The Manistee watch was the first time a non-magnetic hairspring was made for a pocket watch in the United States.[16] The hairspring was made of an alloy that did not involve a ferrous material that otherwise would be magnetic. The alloy was as strong as and had a life expectancy similar to steel, but contained no iron. The inexpensive alloy was gold in color.[16]

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  Manistee watch showing
  9 minutes after 10 o'clock
• 
  Manistee watch case intact with
  watch display under case cover
• 
  Manistee watch with the cover removed showing mechanism
• 
  Manistee watch frame and gears
  in a jig ready for the repairman
• 
  Manistee watch main parts used
  for internal mechanism assembly

There are less than fifty pocket watches known to exist in the United States of those produced by the Manistee Watch Company.[14] The Henry Ford Museum has one in their collection that was made around 1910 that is 17 jeweled.[17] The name "Manistee Watch Company" is on file in Manistee as being owned by two businessmen, however no watches have been made by them.[14]