Aaron Lufkin Dennison was born on March 6, 1812 at Freeport, Maine, United States; the third of ten children of Andrew and Lydia (Lufkin) Dennison. His father, a soldier in the War of 1812 and later a colonel of militia, was a shoemaker by trade who in his later years experimented with the making of paper boxes.
At the age of thirteen Aaron was earning his living sawing wood and at fifteen was learning the cobbler’s trade in his father’s shop at Brunswick, Maine. The boy, having a distinct mechanical bent, took little interest in cobbling, and his father, recognizing the fact, apprenticed him in 1830 to James Carey, a Brunswick watchmaker. Three years later Aaron left for Boston to perfect himself as a journeyman, entering first the employment of Currier & Trott, then of Jones, Low & Ball, and finally setting up for himself.
As his skill increased and his knowledge of watches widened he was astonished at the imperfections in even the best of the hand-made products and became convinced that watches could be manufactured by machinery under a system of interchangeable parts.
He predicted “in the year 1846 that within twenty years the manufacture of watches would be reduced to as much system and perfection and with the same expedition that firearms were then made in the Springfield armory.
He often visited this armory and took great interest in examining the various processes of finishing fire-arms”.
In 1849 Edward Howard, a clock and scale maker of Boston, tried to interest Dennison in the manufacture of locomotives, but instead he was himself persuaded to embark upon the manufacture of watches.
Samuel Curtis of Boston invested $20, 000 in the project, and while Dennison was on a tour of investigation in Europe, Howard supervised the construction of a factory in Roxbury. Here Dennison designed the first factory-made watches in the world.
The business was conducted first under the name of the American Horologue Company and later under that of the Boston Watch Company. Two or three years’ experience convinced the management that the atmosphere in Roxbury was too dusty, and a new location was determined upon at Waltham.
The expenses of these early years, however, combined with the effect of the panic of 1857, forced the concern into bankruptcy.
It was purchased by New York and Philadelphia interests and was continued after February 8, 1859, as the American Watch Company and finally as the American Waltham Watch Company, which developed into the largest watch company in America. Dennison continued as superintendent under the new management until December 1861, while Howard returned to Roxbury and continued the manufacture of watches there.
In 1864 Dennison interested A. O. Bigelow of Boston in the idea of manufacturing medium-priced watches, certain parts of which were to be made in Switzerland, the whole to be assembled in America. As a result the Tremont Watch Company was organized and Dennison went to Zurich to oversee production of Swiss parts.
The company prospered until 1866 when the management decided to manufacture all of the parts in America. Dennison thereupon withdrew, but remained in Switzerland until 1870, having taken a contract to furnish certain material for the firm. The company soon fell into financial difficulties and Dennison returned to America in the hope of reorganizing it.
Failing in this, he succeeded in selling the machinery to an English firm. He himself eventually moved to Birmingham, England, where he successfully manufactured watch-cases.
On January 15, 1840 Dennison married Charlotte W. Foster, by whom he had five children.
