This stem-winding watch was made by E. Howard and Company of Boston, Mass. The firm was an American pioneer in building the high-quality stem-winding watches that replaced key-wound watches in the last quarter of the nineteenth century.
Company founder Edward Howard began a clockmaking business in 1842, branched out into watchmaking about 1850 with partners in what would eventually become the American Watch Company in Waltham and then left to form his own watch company in 1858. Howard retired in 1881, but the firm carried on under various names until the early 21st century.
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