One of the early employees of the Boston Watch Company, a precursor to the Waltham Company, was a man named Patten Sargeant Bartlett. From Henry G. Abbot’s “History of the Watch Factories of America" we learn that Bartlett’s family was one of the oldest and most famous puritan families in Massachusetts and that his great uncle, Josiah Bartlett was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. P.S. Bartlett left Waltham to assist in the organization of the National Watch Company at Elgin Illinois. He eventually wound up working for Waltham again as a salesman and then ran his own wholesale business.
Abbott tells us that some of the early Waltham movements were engraved “P.S. Bartlett”. Waltham will continue to use the name “P.S. Bartlett” on movement for many, many years, even through the time Bartlett worked for Elgin and well past his death in 1902. The author has no concrete proof but feels that more American watch movements were marked “P.S. Bartlett” than any other single indication of grade. There were over 400 runs of the Model 1883 alone with this marking. The competition in this area might come from Elgin's B.W. Raymond.
After making the Model 1892 in the Vanguard, Crescent Street, Appleton Tracy and a few other short lived grades, Waltham adds the P.S. Bartlett grade. It is a two tone movement that was made in one jewel count, that being 17. The first runs of P.S.B.s listed in the Gray Book are 12018501-9000 a run of open face movements and 12034001-500, a run of hunting case movements. However, the earliest known P.S. Bartlett is 10030194 which is pictured below. This movement is from run 10030001-200 which the Gray Book lists as a run of 15-17 Jewel "Special" movements. The only other movement reported from this run is 100300015, a 15 Jewel movement marked "Waltham Railway Timekeeper". One other P.S.Bartlett has been observed with the serial number in position 2 (next to the barrel bridge) .
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