Life, 1919-06-05 · page 7 of 46
Life — June 5, 1919 — page 7: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is primarily a **Waltham Watch advertisement**, not political satire. The page features: **Main content:** An educational advertisement explaining how Waltham watches work. The top illustration shows a woman examining a watch mechanism. Below is technical text describing the "Time Train"—the gear system inside Waltham watches—and emphasizing that Waltham pioneered American watchmaking with mechanically perfect, interchangeable parts made by machines rather than hand. **Visual elements:** A pocket watch face is displayed, along with diagrams of the train mechanism. The left margin contains decorative fashion illustrations typical of Life magazine's design. **Marketing claim:** The ad concludes "Waltham placed America First in watchmaking," positioning the brand as patriotic and technologically superior. This is straightforward early 20th-century product advertising emphasizing manufacturing precision and American industrial innovation.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Before Selecting a Watch ETWEEN the two supporting plates of a Waltham watch, which together constitute a frame, is mounted a system of gearing, called a Time Train. The reader has learned that the motive power of the watch is derived from the mainspring. At one extremity of the train is a hardened and tempered steel barrel (another Waltham creation) which contains the mainspring. When the thumb and finger wind the mainspring, its stored energy is delivered to the next wheel in the train and from that to the next, and so on. . This train consists of four wheels and pinions. The center wheel is in the exact center of the watch, and directly connected through the cannon pinion (so called because it is shaped like a cannon) with the wheels that control the hour and minute hands; and through this center wheel the power of the mainspring is carried onward through the other wheels of the train to the escape wheel pinion, which we will illustrate in its proper place. The train of a Waltham watch — each wheel, each pinion —is cut to : S the fraction of a human hair—mechanically perfect, interchange- The Vanguard able for the serial watches they are made for — standardized in perfec- The Wosld's Finest Railroad 1% tion, in absolute exactness and quality, made by machines tuned to we aye © infinitesimal gauge-fit and untouched by human hands. pope ed ey The train” of the imported watch is made by the old hand process. It is not inter- we P changeable, and it is of varying quality. This vital part of the Waltham watch is another of those reasons why the horologists of great nations came to Waltham for time, and why your watch selection should be a Waltham. ‘Waltham placed America First in watchmaking. WALTHAM THE WORLD'S WATCH OVER TIME