GregB
135
Imported movements to the U.S......
... were charged an extra 50 cents for each adjustment (plus additional charges for high jewel count movements) under the Smoot-Hawley Taffif Act. Thus a watch with 6 adjustments would be taxes an extra $3. This was a considerable sum in the 1930s (when the tax took effect) when the retail price of the watch of the entire watch might be only $25-50.
Below is a table that shows examples of how much import taxes increased under the new Act:
(table credit: Jones, Joseph M., “Tariff Retaliation: Repercussions of the Smoot-Hawley Bill”, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1934.)
Swiss watch exports dropped dramatically after the enactment of the new tariffs, as the chart below shows:
(chart credit: Greg Steer - November 2001)
Were vintage JLC watches adjusted?
Hi everyone, a friend of mine recently bought a Bulova from 1958 with a nice movement that reads "6 ADJ. heat cold isochronism" and that made me wonder. Were (some of the) vintage JLC's gifted with any accuracy adjustments? I've already searched this foru...
Adjusted ... Unadjusted...
Hi, Thomas, Here are some elements of answers. If you remember well the recent discussion about the History under the LeCoultre and Jaeger Lecoultre name, the reason is the same between Adjusted and unadjusted movements: Importation taxes. So, for the US ...
Imported movements to the U.S......
... were charged an extra 50 cents for each adjustment (plus additional charges for high jewel count movements) under the Smoot-Hawley Taffif Act. Thus a watch with 6 adjustments would be taxes an extra $3. This was a considerable sum in the 1930s (when t...
Great informations, as always, Greg!
This message has been edited by amanico on 2010-08-30 12:06:22
How can you tell from a photo?
Not that it makes any difference to whether they adjusted them or not....
Impossible to say, from a photo, indeed.
I'm far from being a watch maker, but my guess is that is also impossible to tell from the real movements, when you have them in your hands, no? Best, Nicolas
Thanks for the info Nicolas and Greg!
If all JLC's were adjusted, to which amount of positions would they be adjusted then? Five, six? After reading several references to Zaf Basha's book, I'm really considering buying one... Are there other significant books on vintage JLC's? Best, Thomas
Rather 4 to 5 than 5 to 6, Thomas.
Adjusted 4 or 5 positions, that is what I personally observed, Thomas. But I didn't make a compilation of adjusted movements, so I can't say if there are movements which are adjusted more than 5 times. As for Vintage JLC Books, I know that Zaf is working ...
