New England Chapter met April 14 at the Holiday Inn in Worcester, This was the first Sunday meeting ever held by Chapter 8. in response to many requests to try Sundays. With a registration of 250, results were inconclusive but another Sunday event is planned for August. An active mart with 70 vendors provided plenty of action.

Our first program featured Antique Watchmaker Tools from the 1900 era. Harry Blair and Mel Smith, both from New Jersey, set up and outstanding display of every conceivable type of tool used by turn of the century watchmakers. Both speakers have extensive collections and are extremely well versed in how the tools were used.

Included for all of us to see were wheel cutters, fusee cutters, bow cutting engines, general and special lathes. There were all types of measuring instruments, staking sets, a screw head polishing machine, and a vibrating tool for hairsprings. Not only were the tools well displayed, but Harry and Mel had overhead projections to show greater detail of the machines. They pointed out that the 1900 watchmaker worked with greater accuracy than the watchmaker of today. Of particular note, our speakers lamented over the present scarcity of watchmakers, despite the $75,000 pay range today!

Robert Cheney presented a workshop titled "Roxbury Eight-Day Movements and the English Connection: 1785-1825". The result of twenty-five years of research, Cheney's thesis is that the Willards and their apprentices used sub-contracted movement components in their clocks rather than doing their own manufacture. His starting point was, why are the movements of their clocks so diverse and how was the Simon Willard Clock Manufactory able to offer such a vast array of products?

Archival records on Willard's methods are non-existent. While the work of other clockmakers shows obvious use of patterns resulting in consistency of design, that of the Willards does not and the mechanical diversity in Boston and Roxbury clocks shows no continuing improvement.

The dials used on the Willard clocks were made in Birmingham, England. Birmingham was a renowned center for the manufacture of painted clock dials at the time. Many clock parts were available from trade suppliers in England and Cheney's research led him to conclude that the mechanical parts used by Willard were sourced from makers in the town of Prescott, Lancashire, just north of Liverpool. Prescott was at that time a town of small workshops and more than half the homes in the town had workshops attached to them producing clock components. John Wyke, for example, published a tool and parts catalogue, and sold complete eight day clock movements. Brass components, supplied in "clock sets", were imported into America in large quantities through New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Davis and Brown, a warehouse operation in Boston, was one importer and Willard is know to have bought supplies from them although Cheney believes that the Willard Manufactory probably imported most of their requirements directly from England themselves.

His conclusion is that the movements were assembled from components imported from England and set into cases with Birmingham dials and sold as the work of the Willard Manufactory.

His research was published in Antiques magazine in April 2000 and is being accepted by many now as probably the real way Willard produced in contrast to the many myths and unsubstantiated theories associated with his clocks.

After lunch, Bob changed hats and as a NAWCC Museum trustee (currently he is secretary of this group), he presented to the chapter a slide show of the new facilities at Columbia.

Bob pointed out that in 1943 a small watchmakers collector's club has now evolved into an association of 182 chapters and 32000+ members.

The Museum has over 6000 donated and purchased items. It was rebuilt in 1999. He gave much credit to the role of Warner Bundens in getting all this started. Bundens was the sixteenth President from 1975-1979. During this term, the Museum became a reality.

There was a general review of all the services offered today by the NAWCC plus a pictorial tour of the Museum with the new layout for the exhibits, Library, and Horological School. The slides also showed the diverse variety offered to both the serious horologist and the casual visitor. Bob urged one and all to visit Columbia and take advantage of this unusual treasure.

-- Harold Lincoln and Dick Trepp