A Brief History of Burrell Jewelry

By W. Craig Burrell

Front Window of Store in 1960s

Burrell Jewelry

Wilfred Burrell established Burrell Jewelry in 1937 shortly after arriving in Utah from England. He and his wife Kathryn made it a success, and it gave them a livelihood for 45 years. This is a brief history of Kay and Wilf and their store.

Wilfred has written a history of his years that prepared him for his future occupation and his emigration to America. “I might almost say that the Church had been the body of my life but not entirely. Life at the City of Norwich School was not empty. I cannot say that I was the Athletic Type, and I must admit that although I did not dislike English football or Cricket, I was a plain flop at it. The education I received there was very comprehensive and had a good background to most all fields: Chemistry, Physics , Geometry, Algebra and even higher math. I was also schooled in History, Geography, Art, Physical Education, Shop, English and one foreign language. I took French. I was 16 years old when I got through school, and there were no formal graduations in the schools. Up to that time, the only work I had done was selling records for a record store. I would be dressed in a page boy type suit and do the running at the store. About that time, talking movies and automatic record changers were just being introduced. I would go to the Movie Theatre where a new talking picture was being shown and stand in the lobby with a sack of records of the hit tunes. I would call out the songs, naming the store and would sell the records. The first one I sold this way was Al Jolsen’s ‘Climb upon my knee Sonny Boy.’”

Wilfred Burrell at his watch bench during his apprenticeship

Preparing to be a Watchmaker

“With school behind me, I would now have to face the world. I had always fooled around a little with electricity. I might also mention that only a few years previous to this, we had our first experience with electricity in our home. Now we had 220 V DC electric lights. Before that, we only had incandescent gas lights in each room. We had a gas oven to cook on and coal fires for heat. With this new hope for electricity, I wanted to be an electrician. The largest plant in all of England for the manufacture of generators and dynamos, Lawrence and Scott’s, was in Norwich. I applied for work there and got a job. It seemed so impressive at the time. They were making generators and electrical equipment for the luxury liner the Queen Mary. However, the job of stamping out armature plates for eight hours a day was not a thrill. I wanted to quit, but I can still remember Dad saying, “Never throw away dirty water until you’re sure you have some clean.” So Dad checked with Marsden Willmot, whose brother had married his sister Alice, to see about learning the trade as a watch maker. My eldest brother, Alfred, had been an apprentice to the same man many years before. I was apprenticed to this trade for three years. My first year I would receive 5 shillings ($1.25) a week, the next year 10 shillings ($2.50) a week, and the final year 15 shillings ($3.75) a week.”

“My first job was to dismantle and sort parts from old watches. I could cry to think of some of the beautiful hand made movements I had to destroy this way. England had just gone off the Gold Standard, and their cases had fetched a good price to be broken up for gold content. I learned to fix a lot of old English grandfather clocks and many French clocks for restoration. (Most of them were 100 years old back in 1930.) The store had been on Surrey Street, however, Mr. Wilmott had moved it to Prince Road a short distance from the Thorpe Railroad Station. In fact, it was just across the bridge.”

“I remember in the early part of my apprenticeship being in the company of an older employee, a Mr. Wiffle. We were sent to clean the clock in the tower of an old church at Postwick about three miles out of town. The Church was several hundred years old and had no electricity. We climbed musty stone steps to the belfry and tower. Then we climbed up a wood ladder to a platform where the clock works were. We had a flashlight and the Reverend provided us with some candles. We were to clean the clock with gasoline. (This was white gas.) I objected, but the older man was the boss. He put the candle on one end of the platform and the gas can on the other end, right at the top of the ladder. Suffice it to say that the open can of gasoline caught fire. The old man panicked and was about to jump out of the tower about 15 feet to the ground. I said a quick prayer. He had a long smock on. I pulled it off of him and smothered the flames. I do not know why it did not explode to this day.”

“I stayed with Mr. Wilmott for one year after my apprenticeship was up, and then figured that I should get some more experience in another shop. I secured employment with Mr. and Mrs. Tillott and their two sons. One of them was an Optician. I worked out in the shop with a Mr. Lewis Brady. I enjoyed working there very much. They were very fine people. After about 2 years, I decided I was ready to go to Utah.”

Marsden Willmot's son and Wilfred during apprenticeship

We Emigrate to America

“My Dad had retired, and it was a hard decision for my parents to make, to leave their homeland and join the rest of the family in Utah. As I have grown older, I can appreciate much more the decision they had to make. We left on May 8, 1937 on the S. S. Manhattan. It was a pleasant trip. There were several missionaries aboard on their way back home. While I watched them playing on deck, I hummed “Come Come Ye Saints.” Then we introduced ourselves. They were grateful to see us since we were the only English family aboard. There was one French family and 800 German Jews who were fleeing from the Hitler Nazi Cleansing.”

“While we were aboard the ship, King Edward VIII abdicated from the English throne. Things were starting to boil in Europe. Mother was very nervous the whole trip. Bert was at New York to meet us, and it was a very happy reunion. We visited around New York and then took the train to Chicago where we stayed overnight and rode the bus around town.”

“In 1937, the United States was not completely over the depression. Franklin Roosevelt had made great strides, but jobs were still hard to find. I could not find any work in Ogden. Then I heard of a small store that was up for sale. Mr. Brian Sear had not been in business for long but decided to give it up for a good job with Ford Motor Company. He asked $900 for the inventory in stock and almost new fixtures. I borrowed $600. I had $300 in savings. I was in business for myself at 22 years of age, new in town, not known, but with high hopes.” Wilfred made a profit that first year in business. Although he made less than $1000, he was determined to make a success of Burrell Jewelry. Little by little, he established a reputation as a watchmaker. He was able to get the contract as a watch inspector for the Western Pacific railroad. The situation slowly improved.

Building a Partnership

In 1939 Wilfred met Kathryn Hardy. When they were married, Kathryn became his partner not only in the home but also in the store. Kathryn had grown up in Salt Lake City and graduated from East High School in 1936. The next year she attended LDS Business College. The following summer she was able to get a job in the office at Salt Lake Glass and Paint.

Her cousin, Naomi, wanted her to attend BYU the next year with her. Mr. Moore, the credit manager for Salt Lake Glass and Paint, had a friend that managed the book store at BYU. He was able to get Kathryn a job at the BYU bookstore. She was able to attend BYU and work part time. She loved working there because she was able to meet everybody on campus. She did some book keeping in addition to waiting on patrons. The task she remembers most was having to make the bank deposit. She would place the deposit in her purse and walk all the way from the old lower campus to the bank on Center Street in Provo. She never had a mishap. It was a safer world then.

The summer after Kathryn’s first year at BYU, she had appendicitis and ended up having surgery. She decided to remain in Salt Lake and attend the University of Utah that fall. After three quarters at U of U, she secured a good job with Mountain States Supply. She made $80 per month. This was top wages. Good stenographer positions usually paid only $60 per month.

On July 27, 1939, Kathryn went to a canyon party up Mill Creek Canyon. We will tell this story in her words. “I was with a group of my friends, and my friend Marjorie Ludlow invited a group of friends.

The young people in the group Wilfred was with were friends of Durston Hardy (my second cousin) and Marjorie Ludlow (My good friend since junior high school). Wilfred was asked to sing the “Pig Song.” I was pleased to hear him sing that funny song. Wilfred told Marjorie and Durston that he would like to take me on a date.

Marjorie talked to me, and I said I would like to go out with him. On Saturday July 1, 1939, I went to Saltair dancing with Wilfred, Durston and Marjorie. I enjoyed a fun evening.”

Wilfred proposed to Kathryn on April 15, 1940. He explained, “My business was not exactly flourishing, and I did not feel I could support a wife for a while. After an enjoyable courtship and a year’s engagement, we were married April 11, 1941 on my parents wedding anniversary in the Salt Lake Temple by no other than Elder David O. McKay."

Wilf and Kay after thier engagement. Dad intended to take it 'slow.'

I always thought that it was clever of my Dad to marry a qualified book keeper. Right from the start of their marriage, she helped him one day a week at the store and kept the books. She also helped him wait on customers. She liked to work on the window displays. The window silk would get sun bleached and dirty in a short time. It was a constant project to keep the displays looking fresh. The old silk was brought home for us kids to use for Super Man capes and royal robes. Mom was a little more conservative than Dad on money matters. However, they never argued. They counseled together and worked things out. One of them did not dominate the other. As the younger children grew up, Mom started going to the store twice a week. When there were no longer children to care for in the home, Kathryn went to work with Wilfred every day. They had a very special relationship.

Burrell Jewelry is a Success

Dad waiting on a customer about 1940 

In the early days of the store, there was an upstairs room. There were a couple of extra watch benches and a lot of “interesting old stuff.” After World War II, Dad trained two veterans that had been injured during the war. Their names were Ed Leslie and George Hatch. They became Wilf’s good friends. He had many good fishing and hunting experiences with them. They were only there a few years for the training experience. With this exception, the only workers at Burrell Jewelry were Kay and Wilf.

During the years of 1956 and 1957, extensive remodeling was performed on the Utah Oil Building. Automatic elevators were installed eliminating a need for an elevator attendant. (Kaylene, Charley and I were fascinated with the new elevators.) The lobby was changed extensively and so was Burrell Jewelry. The upper level was eliminated, and the lower level lost a corner. It did make the store smaller even though it was more appealing.

Burrell Jewelry never advertised on radio or television, in the newspaper or on billboards. They never had special sales or used other promotional schemes. However, when Wilf and Kay retired and closed the store in 1982, there were customers that had been coming to the store since 1938.

Why did people come back to Burrell Jewelry? “Well we’ve tried not to be greedy on prices, and we’ve tried to give as much attention as we could to our customers,” Wilf said once to a newspaper reporter. “Wilf is an excellent repairman who takes pride in doing his work well. Our business was built on his excellent reputation, the dependability of his work and our genial attitude toward customers. The major part of our business through the years has been from repeat customers who have confidence in Wilf’s craftsmanship,” Kay related to the same reporter, “People who have moved away from Salt Lake City often send watches from all over the United States. We were one of the few stores left that has its own repairman. A woman came in here yesterday and reminded us, ‘I’ve been coming to you since 1938.’”

It was always fun to spend the day working at the store with Dad. I would clean things up, and he would put me to work cleaning Big Ben alarm clocks. If a customer asked me if I was learning to be a watch maker, Dad would say. “There is no future in watch making. Watches in the future will be disposable and won’t require repair.” He would send Kaylene or me across town to jewelry supply houses and other stores. Back in those days, Dad wouldn’t worry about sending a ten or twelve year old kid across town with several hundred dollars of jewelry in their pocket, my how times have changed. The most amazing thing about working in the store was to observe Dad interacting with customers. It seemed that he knew them all by their first name. He always remembered what watch the person had brought in. When a young man came in for an engagement ring, he never was intimidated with high pressure because dealing with Dad was fun. Nevertheless, the lad always got a good deal and some loving fatherly advice.

Wilfred was a watch inspector for the Western Pacific Railroad. He checked and maintained the watches for engineers and switchmen every two weeks. This was especially critical during World War II.

There were some misadventures over the years. During one especially frightening period, the store was broken into three times during a six-week period. Once, Wilf was held up. A man came in the store and confronted him. The man had something in his pocket (It turned out to be a homemade blackjack). He ordered two young men that were in the store to step behind the counter and into the back room. Wilf asked the man if it was a stick up, and the man assured him that it was.

Burrell Jewelry was next to the lobby of what used to be the Utah Oil Building. The FBI had offices in the building, and Wilf knew many of the agents. As they came thru the lobby, they would often stop to talk or they would wave as they walked by the windows of the store. As the man stood threatening Wilf, Agent Wenger walked through the lobby. Wilf whistled and motioned to him. The agent entered the store and soon figured out what was going on. The stick up man was placed in custody. Burrell Jewelry was in the paper that night. The ‘would be’ robber spent one year in jail. When he was released, he came by the store and apologized for any anguish that he had caused.

During the years from 1937 to 1982, many changes occurred in the watch and jewelry industry. Prices increased dramatically in gold and diamonds. Watches changed. The pocket watch lost popularity, and the market was dominated by the wrist watch. Automatic watches and electric battery driven watches were developed. The Bulova Acutron was invented and dominated the high end of the watch industry for several years. Timex sold inexpensive, disposable watches that had a sealed case and could not even be worked on. The quartz watch was invented and made all of the other watches collectors items. Wilfred had to adapt to all of these changes. He kept himself current on changes in watch movements.

He took schooling to keep himself current. At one time, he was the most qualified watchmaker in Utah to work on the Bulova Acutron. Mr. Shubach, who owned the jewelry store on the corner of 3rd South and Main, paid a very special compliment to Wilf. He brought his personal Acutron into the store for Wilf to service. He told him that he did not trust the watchmaker that he had employed, and he knew that Dad was the best in town.

The lower picture shows the Utah Oil Building in the 1940s. 

The picture above shows the changes that were made in the 1960s.

Burrell Jewelry a Legacy

Wilfred collected a lot of old pocket watches over the years. They meant a lot to him, and they are now being distributed to his grandchildren. They are meant to be a memory of Burrell Jewelry. They are a token of the example that Grandma and Grandpa Burrell set for them. If Grandpa Wilf were here, he would leave you with this advice to his posterity:

1. Prepare yourself to be serviceable to others. 

2. Take pride in what you do and do quality work. 

3. Always be dependable and honest. 

4. Never be greedy. Always be fair in your dealings with others.

5. Love your work and the people you work for. 

6. Always keep in proper perspective your commitment to God and your family.

Wilfred with one of his apprentices in the 1940s

A Brief History of the Watch Industry By W. Craig Burrell

Today most watches are mass produced quartz watches and are sold at a place like Walmart. The watch business has changed a lot over the years. I thought I would write a short history of the watch industry that was such a great part of Wilfred Burrell’s life.

Early History Prior to 1850

During this period of time, the English dominated the watch industry making the highest quality, most accurate timepieces in the world. Their greatest rival was the Swiss. Swiss watches varied greatly in quality but were more stylish than English watches.

Many inventions were applied in this period. In 1704, the Swiss Fatio de Duilier and the Frenchmen Pierre and Jean Debaufre invented bearings for watch movements. While living in England, they developed a technique that made it possible to drill holes in small jewels, usually rubies. These jewels were then used as bearings eliminating metal against metal friction and wear. Jeweled movements were costly and remained so until 1902 when Verneuil made the first artificial rubies.

During this period of time, the power for a watch was supplied by a mainspring. Nevertheless, the force supplied by the mainspring was erratic. In order to covert the raw power of the driving force of the mainspring into regular and uniform impulses, various escapements were invented.

An escapement mechanism creates a regular cycle of pause and forward that enables the mainspring to drive the movement at a constant rate. When you place a watch to your ear, you can hear the action of the escapement. It is what emits the ticking sound.

The first escapement invented was called the “verge“. It was developed in Italy in the 1500s and has been considered a crude device. Nevertheless, it was the only device used in watches for almost 300 years, and it was still used in cheap Swiss watches as late as 1880.

The “cylinder” escapement was invented by an Englishman, George Graham, in the 1720s. Its popularity was short lived, and it was replaced by more effective mechanisms. Wilfred had one watch with a cylinder escapement in his collection. It belonged to his grandmother Nevelia Brett Burrell.

The first “English Lever” watch was invented by Thomas Mudge in 1759. The function of the lever escapement is easily understood, however, its construction requires a lot of mathematics and precision work. Wilfred had several “Old English Levers” in his collection. Most of them needed parts, but he restored one to working order. These watches were made between 1834 and 1850.

Around 1850, the “English Lever” escapement was improved upon when the “Swiss lever escapement” was invented. Watches with this escapement allowed for precision of plus or minus one minute a day. These movements became the standard of the industry and were used in Swiss, English and American watches up to the time Wilfred closed his jewelry store. Needless to say, most of the pocket watches in his collection have “Swiss lever escapements.”

English and Swiss watches were made in small batches by small companies. The parts were made and fitted by hand. For this reason, no two watches were exactly alike. Wilfred talked about his apprenticeship, and how one of his first tasks was to disassemble old movements and sort parts. He said, “I could cry to think of some of the beautiful hand made movements I had to destroy this way.” He had great respect for the old watchmakers that had made the wonderful hand made movements.

1850 The Americans Steal the Market

A major change occurred in the watch industry about 1850. The Americans pioneered the use of automated machines to mass produce high quality watches with interchangeable parts. The Henry Ford of the watch industry was Edward Howard who established the Waltham Company. An example of their ability to mass produce identical copies of precision parts was demonstrated at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Representatives of the Swiss watch industry were shocked by Waltham’s automated screw making machine. A spool of wire was fed into one end of the completely automated machine, and a steady stream of perfectly formed screws the size of pin heads were delivered out the other end.

Similar quality watch screws simply could not be made by the hand controlled machines the Swiss used. It wasn’t just screw making that the American’s had perfected. Almost every part of a watch had a specially designed machine that could make parts faster, more accurately and with less labor than anything the Swiss or English could do. Over 35 million Waltham watches were produced during the company’s long history, and many of them still exist today. Although they made many low and medium grade watches to suit the needs of the existing markets, Waltham also produce watches of exceedingly high quality.

The “National Watch Company” was founded in 1864 about the end of the Civil War. Its name was later changed to the “Elgin National Watch Company.” They shared the bulk of the market with Waltham producing good watches that could be sold and repaired relatively cheaply using factory made replacement parts that didn’t require hand adjusting. From 1867 to 1967, over 60 million Elgins were manufactured.  Wilfred sold a lot of Elgin watches over the years. I always had the impression that he was somewhat partial to them.

Several watch companies were established during the later part of the 1800s and early 1900s. Some companies failed, and their assets were sold out to more successful companies.

The South Bend Watch Company was actually owned by the Studebaker Company. Studebaker watches were identical to the South bend line and were made on the same production line. They had a great advertising campaign. Full- page ads showing the South Bend watch running in a block of ice were particularly effective. All watches carried an “insured for lifetime guarantee.” They produced watches from 1903 to 1929, and thousands of these watches are still running today.

The Illinois watch company was organized in 1869. They were well known for the number of railroad quality watches they produced. The company was sold out to the Hamilton Watch Company in 1927.

The Aurora Watch Company was organized in 1883. It failed financially in 1892, and the assets were sold to the Hamilton Watch Company.

The Hamilton Watch Company evolved from other smaller companies. In 1874 the Adams and Perry Watch Company was started, and it eventually turned into the Lancaster Watch Company in 1877. It was sold and renamed the Keystone Standard Watch Company in 1886.

Finally, it was sold to the Hamilton Watch Company in 1891. Hamilton bought out several other smaller companies. Hamilton produced many fine pocket watches of all sizes and grades, and some of their models were considered the main “Workhorses” of the railroad.

In 1877, John C Dueber established the Hampden Watch Company. The company made a wide variety of pocket watches of all sizes and grades. They were the first American company to produce a 23-jewel watch in 1894. In 1930, the company was sold out to a Russian Company.

Railroad Approved Watches

On April 19, 1891, a great train disaster occurred that would forever change timekeeping on the railroad. Two trains collided near Cleveland, Ohio because of an engineer’s faulty timepiece. Nine people lost their lives. Following the disaster, a commission was appointed to adopt a universal set of timekeeping standards by all railroads. Precision timing was now demanded in this enormous industry.

The watches used by the railroad had quality standards. These standards were: open face, 16 to 18 size, 17 or more jewels, adjusted to 5 positions, time to within 30 seconds a week, adjusted to temperature and isochronisms, double roller and a steel escape wheel.

Author notes: Many pocket watches have a “hunting case.” These cases would have a metal cover over the face of the watch. They were popular in the day of the Fox Hunt but were considered cumbersome for the railroad worker. The size 18s is the largest size pocket watch, and the size 16s is the second largest. Many of the ladies watches are only 6s.

Wilfred Burrell was appointed by the Western Pacific Railroad as an official watch inspector. Engineers and switchmen were required to bring their watches in at regular intervals for inspection. The watch was checked to make sure it met the standard of quality. It was inspected to make sure it was in good working order. If it needed cleaning or maintenance, Wilf put it in order. He regulated it to make sure it would keep time according to the stringent standard.

1937 to 1983 A Period of Change in the Watch Industry

During the lifetime of Burrell Jewelry, many changes occurred in the watch industry. The popularity of the pocket watch declined, and the wrist watch became the standard. The Swiss who had been badly beaten out of the market made a comeback with high quality complicated watches. As the Swiss built their industry back, many of American watches had Swiss movements.

Water resistant watches became the standard. The self-winding watches became very popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Calendars appeared on the faces of watches. A watchmaker had to keep up on all of these innovations.

A real blow came to the American watch industry with the introduction of the disposable watch. In 1962 one out of three watches sold in the U.S. was a Timex, and by 1973 Timex controlled 45% of the U.S. market and 86% of domestic production. The watches had no jewels, however, wear at pivot points was reduced by the use of hardened alloys. A blow that would break a jewel in any other watch would not hurt the Timex.

These timepieces were water resistant and promoted by advertising on the “electric television.” John Cameron Swasey did a wonderful demonstration on the tube that convinced America that the Timex was impervious to water. We used to sing a little song to the tune of “My Grandfathers Clock.” Here it is:

O my Grandfather’s watch is the best that is made by the Timex Company. 

It’s like, John Cameron Swasey had last night on the old TV. 

Oh, it works under water perfectly, and it still makes a ticking sound. 

I know cause my grandfather tried it last night, and that’s how the old man drowned.

Let it be known that Wilfred Burrell found no humor in Timex Watches. We normally never mentioned them in his presence. They were a definite threat to his profession.

The Bulova Watch Company had been importing its movements from Switzerland. However, in the 1960s they created the revolutionary electronic “Accutron” watch. This watch used a tuning fork to keep time instead of a rotating balance wheel, and the result was an incredibly accurate watch. It was the high-end watch in the industry from the early 1960s until the early 1970s. Working on an Accutron was a new challenge for a watchmaker. It worked on a different principle and required different tools for repairing and regulating it. Wilfred took special courses to qualify him, and he became one of the most qualified (probably the most qualified) Accutron specialists in Utah.

In the early 1970s, the Japanese perfected the quartz watch. It was a new paradigm in watch making. Nobody could challenge the accuracy of the quartz movement. The movement required virtually no maintenance. If something went wrong with one, it was either thrown away or sent back to the factory. The quartz movements were placed in very expensive and very inexpensive watches. Regardless of the price, the watches were accurate and dependable.

Wilfred Burrell was able to shift his paradigm. He did accept the quartz watches, and he sold a lot of them in his store. He stocked many different quartz watches and sold hundreds of Bulova Caravels. They were a high quality, relatively low priced quartz watch.

By the time he retired, good watchmakers were scarce. Wilf always had a supply of watches to repair. It was fortunate that he retired while there were still some of the older mechanical watches to work with. Dad prophesied the era of the disposable watch. He had prepared his sons for it.

A Very Special Watch

Pictured is a watch that belonged to Joseph Smith 

This watch has an old English lever movement. 
The watch was taken to Dayne’s Jewelry in Salt Lake City where Alfred Burrell repaired it.

(Photo by Alfred Burrell, Wilfred’s oldest brother)