Named Grades

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Of all the different text found on the plates of Seth Thomas watches, it appears that only four of them were generated in-house, which are known as named grades. This was not new; other firms chose to name some of their watches after their presidents, like Elgin's BW Raymond or Illinois's Bunn Special, and factory workers or superintendents like PS Bartlett, who worked for Waltham. The Seth Thomas named grades are Centennial, Century, Henry Molineux and Maiden Lane. 

The origins of some of Seth Thomas's contract grades were already known, such as the Edgemere being produced for Sears Roebuck & Co, or the Montgomery Ward, which wasn't too hard to figure out, but researching these sources is getting easier, thanks to old publications constantly being digitized and made public. Here are some of the known retailers behind the contract names: