Life, 1896-12-05 · page 33 of 34
Life — December 5, 1896 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a **Waltham watch advertisement** disguised as editorial content, not a political cartoon. The "satire" is implicit: a Swiss official's 1876 speech praising American Waltham watches is presented as news, lending credibility to an advertisement. The joke for readers would be recognizing this as bald advertising dressed up as a foreign dignitary's endorsement. **Key context:** This represents 19th-century American industrial pride. The Centennial Exhibition (1876) was a showcase for U.S. manufacturing. By publishing a Swiss official's admission that a *randomly selected* Waltham watch outperformed typical Swiss products, the ad argues American manufacturing had surpassed Swiss watchmaking—historically the gold standard. The advertisement weaponizes foreign praise ("taken from the enemy") to suggest American superiority in precision manufacturing, a significant claim at that moment in industrial competition.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
“TAKEN FROM THE ENEMY.” The following is a translation of part of a speech delivered in Switzerland, November, 1876, by M.. Edw. Favre-Perret, the chief Commissioner in the Swiss department and member of the International Jury on watches at the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia, and is worthy the attention of every good American. “Gentlemen, here is what I have seen. I asked from the manager of the Waltham Company a watch of a certain quality. He opened before me a big chest. I picked out a watch at random and fixed it to my chain. The manager asked me to leave the watch with them for three or four days that they might regulate it. On the contrary, I said to him, | want to keep it just as it is to get an exact idea of your workmanship. On arriving at Locle | showed this watch to one of our first adjusters * * * who took it apart. At the end of several days he came to me and said literally: ‘I am astonished; the result is incredible. You do not find a watch to compare with that in 50,000 of our make.’ This watch, I repeat to you, gentlemen, I myself took offhand from a large number, as I have said. One can understand by this example how it is that an American watch should be preferred to a Swiss watch.” The watch movement M. Edw. Favre- Perret picked out at random was a “RIVERSIDE,” and all that he said of it then, and a good deal more, is true to-day. Do ixot be misled or persuaded into paying more for a Swiss watch which is not so good as a “WALTHAM.” Be sure that the name “Riverside” is engraved on the plate. For sale by all retail jewelers.