Lancashire Watch Company
Encyclopedia
Prescot
Prescot is a town and civil parish, within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It is 8 miles to the east of Liverpool city centre and lies within the historic boundaries of Lancashire. At the 2001 Census, the population was 11,184 .Prescot marks the beginning of the...
was founded in 1889 by Thomas P. Hewitt as a rival to the large American and Swiss watch companies. It failed in 1910.
History
Until the late 19th century, Prescot had been the centre of the watchmaking trade in England. The workers produced watch parts in small workshops attached to their cottages and were paid by piece workPiece work
Piece work is any type of employment in which a worker is paid a fixed "piece rate" for each unit produced or action performed regardless of time...
. By 1889 the American System of Watch Manufacturing
American System of Watch Manufacturing
In the mid 19th century Aaron Lufkin Dennison became inspired by the manufacturing techniques of the United States Armory at Springfield, Mass. The "armory practice" was mainly based on a strict system of organization, the extensive use of the machine shop and a control system based on gauges...
meant that the Waltham Watch Company
Waltham Watch Company
The Waltham Watch Company, also known as the American Waltham Watch Co. and the American Watch Co., produced about 40 million high quality watches, clocks, speedometers, compasses, time fuses and other precision instruments between 1850 and 1957...
and others could produce watches at a much lower price and the town fell into decline.
In 1889 a company was formed and eventually a large factory was built to create complete watches under a single roof. The products produced had more in common with earlier American designs than traditional English fusee watches. Because of economies of scale
Economies of scale
Economies of scale, in microeconomics, refers to the cost advantages that an enterprise obtains due to expansion. There are factors that cause a producer’s average cost per unit to fall as the scale of output is increased. "Economies of scale" is a long run concept and refers to reductions in unit...
the Lancashire Watch Company struggled to compete with the larger American and Swiss factories. It could not make a profit and went bankrupt in 1910.