Julius Rosenwald's Pocket Watch

One (1) gold pocket watch

Gold pocket watch with detailed adornment on exterior and white face and Roman numerals in black.

Illinois Watch Co. Hunter pocket watch. Manual winding signed "Stuart Springfield. "Julius Rosenwald."

This watch belonged to the Jewish American businessman and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (1862-1932). The son of German Jewish immigrants, Rosenwald grew up in Springfield, Illinois, before moving to New York City at age 17 to work in the clothing industry. After failing in a retail clothing and tailoring venture with his brother, Rosenwald moved to Chicago and, with capital from an uncle, opened a clothing manufacturing business. He thrived in Chicago, professionally and socially. Through his brother-in-law, Aaron Nusbaum, Rosenwald was brought into the Sears Roebuck retail catalog company as a partner. In time, Rosenwald and Sears bought Nusbaum out of the business, and Rosenwald and Sears developed a successful partnership. Thanks to his friendship with Henry Goldman of Goldman Sachs, Rosenwald arranged the financing for what was the second IPO in American history. Rosenwald and Sears gained fortunes, enabling Rosenwald’s extraordinary philanthropic career.

Rosenwald’s approach to philanthropy was rooted in Jewish values and, particularly, in Reform Judaism’s emphasis on making the world a more just place. His religious values dovetailed with the era’s Progressivism and his giving also reflected Progressive ideas about how to tackle the country’s problems. While Rosenwald gave to an array of causes, he particularly supported Jewish endeavors and, most notably, African American education. He famously gave millions to help build thousands of Black schools in the segregated South, using a matching-gift model (a model he favored generally) so that African Americans were invested in the schools. More troublingly, he accommodated segregation and worked with Southern White supremacists, along with Black leaders, as he pursued efforts to build Black schools. Yet he also took some steps to challenge segregation by supporting individual African American graduate and professional students’ attendance at predominantly white institutions, among other efforts. His support for Jewish causes likewise reflected his efforts to navigate in complex landscapes. Rosenwald donated to institutions in Palestine, while opposing the Zionist movement. Beyond the specific causes he supported, Rosenwald’s philanthropy was notable because he used a spend-down model of giving. Many of his peers established perpetual foundations and gave gifts on the condition that buildings or institutions be named for them. Rosenwald, by contrast, required that his philanthropic vehicle, the Rosenwald Fund, disburse all its assets within twenty-five years of his death from a belief, as Hasia Diner explains, “that each generation had to decide how to spend the wealth it inherited.” He died in 1932 and, by 1947, the Fund wound down.

Beyond Julius Rosenwald, this watch tells a story related to the donor, Tom Stern. As a young man, Stern, who had inherited some family money, was addicted to drugs and led a troubled life. When the money ran out – which it soon did because Rosenwald had given most of his wealth away – Stern found the strength to become sober and turn his life around. His father gave him the watch to recognize his sobriety and as an emblem of confidence in him as Stern moved forward. Stern went on to a very successful career as an executive recruiter and to some success in the entertainment industry. For him, the watch represents his experience of healing and helped to remind him of Rosenwald’s philanthropy as inspiration for a positive direction in his own life.

In addition, the watch is an example of high-end American watchmaking in the nineteenth century.

The watch movement by Illinois Watch Co., has a serial number that dates it from the late 1870s. A Stuart “grade” or design, it is a stem-wound, lever-set high-quality mechanical movement with a gilt finish. This grade was considered suitable for railroad use, where safety standards called for the highest levels of finishing.

Both dial and case were options that the watch buyer could specify to the jeweler where he was buying the movement. The Rosenwald watch case is, according to the appraisal, 14K yellow gold. It is open-face style, that it, it has no cover that closes over the dial. The dial is customized for Rosenwald with his name and initials.

Illinois Watch Co., headquartered in Springfield, IL, was in business there from 1870 to 1927, when Hamilton Watch Co., Lancaster, PA, purchased it.

This would have been a relatively expensive watch. As a man of commerce, Rosenwald likely wore it when he wore a suit. He probably also had a gold chain to fasten it.