IBM Vintage Watches Age Determination by Movement Numbers

What many collectors do not know: the now world-famous computer manufacturer IBM started at the end of the 19th century as a manufacturer of ballot counting machines, scales, time clocks, industrial, grandfather and wall clocks:

IBM traces its origins back to the Tabulating Machine Company, founded by Herman Hollerith in December 1896. At the time, this company manufactured the machines developed by Herman Hollerith for counting and recording data entered via punch cards . These included machines for counting ballots in US elections. However, IBM discontinued production of such machines after the manufacturers were held liable for votes not counted by their machines.

In June 1911, the International Time Recording Company and Computing Scale Corporation merged with the Tabulating Machine Company in Endicott , New York , under the name Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company (CTR). The new company, which employed 1,300 people, specialized in punched cards, commercial scales, and clocks.

Here is the age determination of vintage IBM watches by serial numbers as follows:

Serial number Year of manufacture

up to 55,000 before 1916

55001 - 145,000 1917

145,001 - 167,000 1918

167,001 - 193,000 1919

193,001 . 219,000 1920

219,001 - 228,000 1921

228,001 - 240,000 1922

240,001 - 265,000 1923

265,001 - 285,000 1924

285,001 - 305,000 1925

305,001 - 325,000 1926

325,001 - 345,000 1927

345,001 - 365,000 1928

365,001 - 395,000 1929

395,001 - 415,000 1930

415,001 - 435,000 1931

435,001 - 445,000 1932

445,001 - 462,000 1933

462,001 - 475,000 1934

475,001 - 490,000 1935

490,001 - 512,000 1936

512,001 - 536,000 1937

536,001 - 556,000 1938

556,001 - 585,000 1939

585,001 - 608,000 1940

608,001 - 649,000 1941

649,001 - 685,000 1942

685,001 - 713,000 1943

713,001 - 734,000 1944

734,001 - 767,000 1945

767,001 - 825,000 1946

825,001 - 884,000 1947

884,001 - 935,000 1948

935,001 - 999,999 1949

10,000 - 90,000 1950

90,001 - 164,000 1951

164,001 - 251,000 1952

251001 - 344000 1953

344,001 - 440,000 1954

440,001 - 535,000 1955

535,001 - 610,000 1956

Source: ibmhursleymuseum.info, Wikipedia