Briefly that every part is stamped out of metal. The stamped pieces are then finished by cutters and with milling machinery. Each machine as a rule only does one operation, so that a factory will contain many hundreds of differ ent sorts of machines. The modern watchmaker, therefore, is not so much of an art craftsman as an engineer. The effect of making all the parts of a watch by machinery is that each is interchange able, so that one part will fit any watch. It is not an easy thing to secure this result, for as the machines are used the cutting edges wear down and require regrinding and resetting. Hence a tool is not allowed to make more than a given quantity of parts without being examined and readjusted, and from time to time the pieces being put out are tested with callipers. The parts thus made are put in groups and sorted into boxes, which are then given over to the watch-adjusters, who put the parts together and make the watch go. The work of adjustment for common watches is a simple matter. But expert adjusters select their pieces, measure them and correct errors with their tools. The finest watches are thus largely machine-made, but hand-finished. The prejudice against machine-made watches has been very strong in England, but is dying out—not before much of the trade has been lost to the country. A flourishing watch industry exists in Switzerland in
the neighbourhood of Neuchatel. A watch in a stamped steel case can now be made for about five shillings.
When one considers that watch and clock-making is capable of affording employment to thousands of artisans, that it is healthy, and above all that a considerable part of the work can be done by girls without any interruption to their home life, and again when one thinks of the millions of labourers over the world who have not got watches but who now can afford to purchase them, it seems very desirable that every effort should be made to en courage this industry. One of the wisest acts done by Voltaire was when he introduced watch-making into Switzerland, for a nation in which there are men and women trained to dexterity with the fingers, possesses an asset that may be very valuable in view of the ever increasing demand for delicate mechanisms.
The importation of watches into the United Kingdom is very large, although it was severely hit by an import duty of
In 1925 the British importation of watches and parts of watches was valued at £2,161,000; in 1926 it fell to a value of £961,000. The export of British-made watches is negligible, amounting in 1925 to a value of 113,0m and in 1926 to £24,000. (H. H. C.)