s watches were
exceedingly good; the poorest were very bad, and much worse to own
than a poor American watch because it costs more to repair a Swiss
watch than an American watch.

[Illustration: _Courtesy Waltham Watch Co._

WHERE WATCHES ARE MADE

Once a single man made a whole watch by hand. Now one watch may be
the product of a hundred hands, each man doing his particular part.]

Even though in America the parts of watches are made by machinery,
an apprentice has to undergo just as careful and just as extended
training here as in Switzerland. A poor watch is worse than none at
all, and careless work would not be tolerated in any watch factory.
Of late even Switzerland has been importing American machinery in order
to compete with the United States. These machines do such careful,
minute, intricate work that, as you stand and watch them, you feel
as if they must know what they are about. One of them takes the
frame,--that is, the plates to which the wheels are fastened,--makes
it of the proper thinness, cuts the necessary holes in it, and passes
it over to the next machine, which is reaching out for it. The feeder
gives the first machine another plate; and so the work goes on down
a whole line of machines. At length the plate is taken in hand by a
machine, or rather a group of machines, which can do almost anything.
Before they let it go, they actually perform one hundred and forty-two
different operations, each bringing it nearer completion. These
machines are automatic, but nevertheless they must be constantly
watched by expert machinists to keep them in order and make sure of
their turning out perfect work.

While one line of machines has been perfecting the plate, others have
been at work on screws and wheels and springs. As many of these as are
needed for one watch are put into a little division of a tray and
carried to another room for its jewels and the rest of its outfit.
The jewels, which are pieces of rubies, sapphires, garnets, or even
diamonds, are very valuable to a watch. When you know that the little
wheels are in constant motion, and that the balance wheel, for
instance, vibrates eighteen thousand times an hour, it is plain that
a vast amount of wear comes upon the spot where the pivots of these
wheels rest. No metal can be made smooth enough to prevent friction,
and there is no metal hard enough to prevent wear. The "jewels" are
smoother and harder. They are sawed into slabs so thin that fifty o