Henry Pitkin

[1] Pitkin, with his brothers John, Walter, and James had a successful jewelry manufacturing business in Hartford, Connecticut.

Pitkin and his two older brothers, John and Walter, had been apprenticed as silversmiths and watch repairmen, probably under Jacob Sargeant of Hartford.

Pitkin came up with the idea of making pocket watches by mass production methods using mechanical manufacturing equipment.

[4] The plates for the Pitkins pocket watches were punched out with stamping dies but many times had to be finished to close tolerances by hand.

They imported from Europe many of the dials, hands, hairsprings and balance jewels needed for their watches, even though they tried to avoid using foreign-made parts.