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Aaron Lufkin Dennison

The Boston watchmaker who, with Edward Howard, set out in 1849 to make watches by machine on the armory model, superintended the Waltham factory, and later took the method to Zurich and Birmingham.

Born 1812, Freeport, Maine, Died 1895, England

Companies Waltham

In the history America industrializes the watch

An engraved head-and-shoulders portrait of an older man with swept-back hair and a full white beard, wearing a dark coat.
Aaron Lufkin Dennison, from a 1905 history of the American Waltham Watch Company.5 From H. G. Abbott, A Pioneer (1905). Cropped here. View full original at Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · 1,025 × 1,158 px; Public domain (opens in a new tab).
A time line of Aaron Lufkin Dennison’s life, 1812 to 1895. Founded: Waltham in 1850.
Aaron Lufkin Dennison, 1812 to 1895, and the companies founded. The dots are key dates.1, 3, 6, 7, 8

A Maine apprentice

Dennison was born in Freeport, Maine, in 1812, and the family later moved to Brunswick, where in 1830 he was apprenticed to the clockmaker James Cary.3, 6

He went to Boston, ran a watch repair business from 1834 and worked for Jones, Low & Ball until 1839, then spent several months among Swiss watchmakers in New York before setting up in Boston again.3, 6

Wikipedia’s biography says he helped his brother Eliphalet start a paper-box business that became the Dennison Manufacturing Company.3

Watches by machine

He visited the Springfield Armory and took from it the idea of making things in quantity from interchangeable parts.1, 2

In 1849 he took a plan to make watches by machine to Edward Howard of Howard & Davis, and the two worked in a corner of the Howard & Davis clock factory at Roxbury on new watch designs and the machines to make them.1, 3, 8

He travelled to England in the early 1850s to buy parts and learn gilding.3, 6

When the company moved to Waltham in 1854 he was the factory’s superintendent; the Library of Congress survey credits the move to him. The company failed in 1857, and in 1861 the new owner, Royal E. Robbins, dismissed him.3, 4, 6, 7

Zurich and Birmingham

In 1864 he set up the Tremont Watch Company in Boston and went to Zurich to organise the making of its parts, leaving in 1866 when production moved to Melrose.3, 6

Wikipedia’s biography dates his move to England to 1871, where he helped organise the Anglo-American Watch Company in Birmingham, and records that his Birmingham watch-case business, Dennison, Wigley & Co. from 1879, supplied the London office of the Waltham company and traded as Dennison Watch Case until 1967.3, 6

He died in England in 1895, aged 82, according to Wikipedia’s biography.3

Key dates

  1. 1812

    Born in Freeport, Maine.3, 6

  2. 1830

    Apprenticed to the clockmaker James Cary.3, 6

  3. 1849

    Proposes making watches by machine to Edward Howard.1, 3

  4. 1854

    Superintendent of the new Waltham factory.3, 4

  5. 1864

    Sets up the Tremont Watch Company.3, 6

Where Aaron Lufkin Dennison leads

Facts and sources

Born
1812, Freeport, Maine3, 6
Died
1895, England3
Known for
The Roxbury and Waltham watch venture, with Edward Howard1, 3, 8

Sources

  1. 1

    American Watch Company Prototype (NMAH 1204764) (opens in a new tab), Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, public record

  2. 2

    American system of watch manufacturing (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia, independent

  3. 3

    Aaron Lufkin Dennison (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia, independent

  4. 4

    Waltham Watch Company, 221-257 Crescent Street, Waltham, Middlesex County, MA (HAER MA-31) (opens in a new tab), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division (Historic American Engineering Record), public record

  5. 5

    Aaron Lufkin Dennison, from a 1905 history of the American Waltham Watch Company. (opens in a new tab), Wikimedia Commons, public record

  6. 6

    The Watch Factories of America, Past and Present: A Complete History of Watchmaking in America, from 1809 to 1888 Inclusive (opens in a new tab), Henry G. Abbott; G. K. Hazlitt & Co., Chicago, 1888 (Smithsonian Libraries scan on the Internet Archive), independent

  7. 7

    Waltham Watch Company (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia, independent

  8. 8

    E. Howard & Co. (opens in a new tab), Wikipedia, independent

  9. 9

    American Waltham Watch Company Historic District (Waltham MRA, Area C), National Register nomination (opens in a new tab), National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places (NRIS 89001501, listed 1989), public record

  10. 10

    History of the American Waltham Watch Company of Waltham, Mass. (opens in a new tab), Henry G. Abbott; American Jeweler Print, Chicago, 1904-05 (Waltham Public Library copy on the Internet Archive), independent

Sources read November 11, 2026.