The Maiden Lane
1895 to 1913
Seth Thomas's highest grade was the Model 5 Maiden Lane, named for the company's street address in New York City and offered in jewel counts up to twenty-five. The first runs had incredible patterns with no two alike, changing on consecutive movements, but toward the end of production in 1911 the factory had clearly decided on a single pattern.
Maiden Lane
Maiden Lane was an actual location, a street in Lower Manhattan in New York City close to the Brooklyn Bridge, where many watch companies had offices. Seth Thomas occupied 51 Maiden Lane (and later #49), printing it on advertisements and letterheads. It was one of the first streets in the city to be illuminated by gas lamps and was regarded for years as the center of the jewelry district.
The Variants
Between 1,025 and 1,050 Maiden Lanes were produced in four jewel counts of 17, 21, 24 or 25, and all were lever-set with two-tone plate finishes and either chamfered or conical screws. Diamond cap stones were added to the balance wheel halfway through the second-to-last SN block, with the company address being marked on the barrel bridge at around the same time. All of the early variants were simply marked Adjusted, regardless of jewel count, with position counts starting at around SN 209780. The double-roller table feature debuted at SN 350101, giving the 25-jewel Maiden Lane three different variants.
Dial and Hands
The standard dial on any Maiden Lane was a double-sunk Arabic one with red 5-minute subs; no Roman dials were used since these watches were considered railroad-grade. Upgrades to the basic dial would be one with the Gothic signature instead of the usual block font, train tracks at the edge, a 24-hour inner chapter or a rare Montgomery dial.
Maiden Lane hands were a slender version of the standard #1282 hands and reserved for only the highest of grades; no factory part number is known. The seconds hand is a standard one that was used throughout.
The Private Labels
There are nine reported (seven verified) private labels, having similar patterns and jewel counts as the surrounding examples. Whether they can technically be called a Maiden Lane is open for debate, but the consensus is that it must be clearly marked to be one. To see all of the known private label Maiden Lanes, scroll back up to the charts section.
For the full list of all logged private labels, click the button below.
The Maiden Lane Patterns
17-jewel Adjusted
Earliest known Maiden Lane in any count
17-jewel Adjusted
Jewel count not marked
21-jewel Adjusted
Earliest known 21-jewel variant
21-jewel Adjusted
Jewel count not marked
21-jewel Adjusted
Jewel count now marked
21-jewel Adjusted
Note the jewel count - letter J only
21-jewel Adj 5 Pos & Temp
Third and final 21-jewel variant
24-jewel Adjusted
Earliest known count spelled out
24-jewel Adjusted
Jewel count spelled out from now on
24-jewel Adjusted 6 Positions
Now marked for positions
25-jewel Adjusted 6 Positions
Highest-grade single-roller variant
25-jewel Adj 5 Pos & Temp
Patterns now identical with double-roller
The 21-jewel Restart
The End of Production
The jewel count of the Maiden Lane started at seventeen, quickly rose to twenty-one and then to twenty-four, before peaking at twenty-five. The first four blocks of 25-jewel variants were all runs of a hundred and the last full block was a run of three hundred from SN 351001 to 351300; SN 351298 is the highest recorded 25-jewel example from that run.
At that point the factory apparently decided to reboot the 21-jewel variant, but at the same asking price as the higher count, given the period advertisements. SN 351301 and SN 351303 are the only known 21-jewel examples in that run, however big it was, before a large gap of nearly four hundred numbers appears in the data. At SN 351701 the factory returned to the 25-jewel variant, making at most a couple dozen movements, with SN 351716 being the highest-known Maiden Lane.
SN 351301 and SN 351303 both have the same attributes as the surrounding 25-jewel variants, specifically the factory address on the barrel bridge and diamond cap jewels on both ends of the balance. Note that the regulator has a chamfered edge and is the correct one.
The 22-jewel Maiden Lane
SN 205576
The Maiden Lane debuted in a block of a hundred from SN 205501 to 205600, starting with a jewel count of seventeen and finishing with twenty-one, making it a mixed run. It is not known exactly where the higher count started, but it happened somewhere around SN 205575.
The pendant-set 22-jewel SN 205576, pictured here, has almost certainly been altered from what may have been the very first 21-jewel lever-set variant. Two things are immediately obvious in this movement photo. The first is the diamond cap jewel on the balance, which was not present in any other reported examples in the first eight runs and would not become standard equipment until halfway through the ninth run somewhere around SN 351150, so it was likely added.
The second and more obvious issue is the barrel jewel, which raises the count by one and could be installed easily. All of the later 25-jewel Maiden Lanes had barrel jewels, of course, and the three-screw mount never changed from an inverted isosceles triangle with the two upper screws in parallel with the text on the barrel bridge. The barrel jewel screws on SN 205576 are rotated so as to miss all of this text.
Under the dial
The pendant-set mechanism on the Model 5 debuted at SN 229801 as the Grade 281, which used a large shuttle spring and shipper, visible in this photo, with a lockout for servicing when the movement was out of the case. SN 205576 somehow has this very same mechanism, even though it wouldn't be a regular production feature for a few years yet.
It would have been easy to do, since the shipper mount screw is in the same location as a setting lever, as is the rusty lockout toggle, which occupies the lever slot. Early Model 5s also had a lever spring, which sat in a milled pocket below the lever, which was blanked on this example by a small perlaged plate (red arrow) and was anchored in a drilled hole (red circle).
This would have been an intact and original 21-jewel Maiden Lane, possibly the very first one, if not for these deliberate alterations made by someone who was not happy with it as the factory intended.
Period Ad Cuts
1894 or 95
The earliest known ad showing the 17-jewel Maiden Lane for a whopping $62.50
1895
The earliest known factory trade list showing the 21-jewel Maiden Lane for $25.
1896
A C Becken advert for twice as much.
1905
Factory trade list; note that the count was already up to twenty-five.
1908
Factory ad cut showing the 24-jewel variant.
1909
Factory trade list showing the same price as four years earlier.
Unknown date
Dearborn & Co ad with an unknown date, though the diamond caps and the company address on the plates put it at after 1910.
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