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It's well known that Henry Ford loved to tinker with and repair mechanical watches all through his life, even as proprietor of Ford Motors. Let's assume that this love of horology became what seized him and drove him...

The young Ford, a self-taught watchmaker, found work in a jeweler's store in growing Detroit in 1881. He had learned the watchmaker's trade on his own, and by all accounts was quite adept. But he chafed at not being his own boss. But striking out on his own was equally uncertain and unsettling. He continued to ply his trade, often working on his own after hours on designing a timepiece of his own: he was convinced he could come up with a design that would be easier and cheaper to build, and thus available to the average man.

He managed to come up with approximately a dozen copies of his own design, which he offered to his employer on consignment to be sold as what we today would call entry-level watches. The jeweler, however, wanted no part of this, fearful that the far-less-expensive models would cheapen his wares by comparison. After no small amount of arguing, Ford quit, to begin on his own.

At the time, New England--most commonly Connecticut for clocks and Massachusetts for watches--was the center of the American timekeeping industry. Ford, however, realized that the competition would be fierce, and hiring competent workers would not come inexpensively. At the same time, there was a growing light industrial base in southeastern Pennsylvania / northern Delaware / southern New Jersey. Ford explored the area, and settled on some property on the Brandywine in New Castle County, DE--not far from the Du Pont works at Hagley Mills.

The Brandywine would drive a turbine that would in turn deliver belt power to Ford's machine shop, and there was a cadre of skilled labor in the area that Ford knew could be trained in the trade to make the delicate parts needed for watches. Opening his factory in 1886, his first run was made available late in the year: largely in time for Christmas. Shunning the larger stores catering to the carriage trade, Ford as itinerant salesman sold lots of a dozen or so here and there in the area, mostly at general and hardware stores. He took the interesting step of including a postcard with each watch, asking the buyer to write a short note on how well the watch performed. For simplicity, he termed this initial design his Model A watch.

Sales were slow at first through November and December 1886. But shortly after the new year, postcards began to trickle in, nearly all with positive comments. Most of the buyers were working class types: farmers; blacksmiths; mechanics; constables. However, a number were of the white collar occupations: a few teachers, a few young lawyers just starting out, etc. Ford used the comments to tweak the design and as advertising copy. It worked: within two years, Ford needed to expand his operations, and was selling his upgraded Model B watches along the eastern seaboard from Washington to northern New Jersey, and inland as far as Johnstown and Altoona.

I'll add to this at whim.
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