Antique Ingersoll Radiolite Trench Military Wrist Watch Face For Parts

Description

Antique circa 1925-1930 Radiolite wrist watch by the Ingersoll Watch Company, works numbered 65095935. Scratched name of previous own inside case (Sadie Dietz).

“The Radiolite wristwatch, introduced in 1919, incorporated another newfangled technology in its design: luminescence through Radium. Madame Curie's discovery was first used on watch dials produced by the U.S. Radium Corp in 1917, and Ingersoll started using radium on Radiolite pocket watches that same year. Luminescent dials proved invaluable in the low-light conditions of tanks and airplane cockpits, and after the War, watches with radium dials found use in civilian occupations such as motoring and camping. Just as Ingersoll became a watch word for value (the brand's Liberty watch, introduced in 1896, retailed for only one American dollar, which Ingersoll touted as ""the watch that made the dollar famous""), the Radiolite became the brand's most prolific model. In fact, an advertisement in an issue of Popular Mechanics from 1917 states that ""nearly one-third of the Ingersoll watches now sold are Radiolites.""

“In about 1880, Robert Hawley Ingersoll and his brother Charles Henry, operating in New York as a mail-order business, recognized the need for an inexpensive watch that nearly anyone could afford, to be sold for around one dollar. Both the New Haven Clock Company and the Waterbury Clock company had already produced inexpensive ""clock-watches"" that could meet the need that Ingersoll anticipated, but they had achieved neither mass-market success nor widespread distribution. In 1892, Ingersoll placed an initial order for 10,000 watches from the Waterbury Clock Company, at a cost of 85-cents apiece, to be offered in their 1892 Ingersoll mail-order catalog at a price of $1. The Ingersoll clock-watch was also offered at the 1892 Columbian Exposition for $1.50, where it is estimated they sold 85,000 watches! The positive response prompted Ingersoll to return to Chicago for the World's Fair in 1893, where a new clock-watch with the World's Fair emblem stamped into the case was a huge success.

Manufacturing was carried out by contract with the Waterbury Clock Company and at two new factories owned by Ingersoll at Waterbury and Trenton, New Jersey. The Ingersoll company is credited with perfecting an efficient system of distribution which included uniform pricing at all retail outlets. By 1899, their production was 8000 watches per day, and in 1901 Ingersoll advertised that their watches were sold for $1 by 10,000 dealers across the USA and Canada. Their advertising slogan was ""The Watch that Made the Dollar Famous.""

Ingersoll purchased the Trenton Watch Company in 1908 and the New England Watch Company in 1914. In 1917, the company introduced the ""Reliance,"" a higher-grade jeweled watch (later Reliance models were not jeweled). In 1919, Ingersoll pioneered another innovation with the introduction of the ""Radiolite"" with luminous radium dial.

Ingersoll declared bankruptcy in 1921 during the post WWI recession. They were purchased by the Waterbury Watch Company in 1922 for $1.5M. In 1942, Waterbury was acquired by U.S. Time Corp, which continued to use the Ingersoll name.

Condition

Fair Condition - Spots/dust under glass; tarnish/oxidation, not tested.

Dimensions

1.75” x 1.75” x 0.5” (Width x Depth x Height)