Fine American 18K gold hunting cased lever watch Circa 1890
- Kenmerk
- AL2757
- Diameter
- 55 mm
- Estimate
- € 3.250 - 4.500
- Price sold
- € 2.400
Gold full hunter pocket watch with chased decoration
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A fine American lever pocket watch in 18 carat yellow gold, with chased and engraved hunting case, made by Dueber-Hampden Watch Company, circa 1890. The watch features a mechanical lever movement with manual winding. The white enamelled dial displays Roman numeral hours and is signed Hampden Watch Co. It includes a subsidiary seconds dial at 6 o’clock, a Breguet style hour hand, and a spade minute hand. The 18 carat yellow gold case has a cover and caseback richly chased with a dog and a landscape within a starry scroll frame.
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Diameter: 55 mm
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Weight: 129.4 g
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Signed: Hampden Watch Co.
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Dueber-Hampden Watch Company,
In 1876, Hampden bought the New York Watch Company in Springfield, Massachusetts, and changed its name to the Hampden Watch Company in January 1877.
In 1886, John C. Dueber, through the Dueber Watch Case Company, bought a share of the Hampden Watch Company. This led to the creation of the Hampden-Dueber Watch Company. In this partnership, Dueber Watch Case Company got watch movements from Hampden and supplied Hampden with watch cases.
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In spring 1888, after moving to Canton, Ohio, the Hampden-Dueber Watch Co. split into the Hampden Watch Co. and the Dueber Watch Co., both based in Canton. Watches made there were marked ‘Hampden Watch Company’ or ‘HWCO,’ and sometimes ‘John C. Dueber,’ ‘Dueber,’ or ‘the Dueber Watch Co., Canton, Ohio.’ In 1889, Dueber took a majority stake in Hampden Watch Co. The two companies merged in 1923 to form the Dueber-Hampden Watch Co. in Canton.
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The sale of expertise to the Soviet Union
In 1929, the whole factory in Canton was sold to Armand Hammer of Amtorg Trading Corp. for about $325,000. Amtorg Trading Corp., founded in 1924 and located on Broadway in New York City, was a foreign trade agency for the Supreme Economic Council of the USSR. Its mission, with the motto “Catching Up with and Overtaking America,” was to transfer expertise from the West to the East and provide financing. [1] [2] The Ansonia Clock Company was also bought as part of this project.
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In 1930, Amtorg Trading Corp. shipped all its machinery and parts to the Soviet Union. Twenty one American workers moved there to teach Russian workers how to make watches. That same year, the Russians used this new knowledge to start the First Moscow Watch Factory (Poljot). In 1932, the First State Watch Factory in Moscow made movements from Dueber-Hampden designs:
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McKinley Watch
The William McKinley Edition watch was made in 1905 by the Dueber Hampden Watch Company. William McKinley (1843–1901), the 25th president of the United States, was born in Niles, studied law, and opened a law office in Canton. He became president in 1897, was reelected in 1900, and was assassinated in 1901 by the anarchist Leon Czolgosz. Dueber was a personal friend of McKinley and served as chief pallbearer at his funeral.
The Dueber-Hampden Watch Co. in Canton, Ohio, closed in 1931.
Signed: Hampden Watch Co.






























