New Spring for Waltham

The Waltham Watch Co., which closed down its plant four months ago, had the cash to get started again. But there was one last obstacle. It had on hand 185,000 watches, enough to satisfy the market for some time, and block the new line Waltham wanted to bring out. Last week Waltham found a quick way to get rid of them. It made a deal with the Associated Merchandising Corp. to clear out all the watches it could at half-price through A.M.C.'s 24 retail outlets.

When Boston's William Filene's Sons Co. opened the first sale, the idea worked fine; 1,500 watches were sold in a day. But the plan made no friends among jewelers. Waltham tried to placate them by authorizing them to clean out their stocks of Walthams at half-price, too. But the jewelers still complained. The price-cutting was playing hob with their business just before graduation, normally their best watch-selling season.

From the sidelines, Columnist Drew Pearson also threw some grit into Waltham's newly cleaned works. Waltham's new boss, John Hagerty, had left his $10,000-a-year job as Boston manager of the RFC to take the $30,000-a-year Waltham presidency. Since it was RFC which had lent Waltham $6,000,000 to pay debts and resume production, Pearson asked: "Did Waltham offer the lush salary to Hagerty because he deserved it, or as a reward for helping swing the RFC loan?" Retorted RFC: Hagerty did recommend the loan, but RFC headquarters in Washington had the final word. What job he took was his own business. Last week a federal court gave final approval to the deal with RFC, a whistle blew at Waltham and the company started making watches again.

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