C. E. Simanton’s Precision Watch is a private label in Seth Thomas 18-size open-face Model 5.

Charles Edward Simanton was born on December 19, 1864, in Vienna, New Jersey. He worked at a jewelry store in Allentown Pennsylvania upon entering the trade. Mr. Simanton moved to Washington New Jersey where he opened his own jewelry store. In 1891 he married Fanny L. Edgerton and they had two sons. In July 1896 he moved his family to Saint Johnsbury Vermont where he operated another jewelry store in the Citizen’s Bank Block at 43 Railroad Street. He carried an extensive stock of watches, clocks, jewelry, silverware, optical goods, and diamonds until his retirement in 1935. Charles E. Simanton died on April 23, 1943, in Springfield Vermont of coronary disease.

The postcard photographs below show Railroad Street at the time when Charles E. Simanton operated his jewelry store there.

In the first photograph the building on the left side of the street with the conical roof is on the corner of Railroad Street and Eastern Avenue. 80 Railroad Street (presently 430 Railroad Street), the location of H. A. Belknap’s Jewelry Store is farther down on the right-hand side of the street, approximately where the farthest horse-drawn carriage is visible. In 2025 the building was home to the “Artisans Guild” emporiums, and the local Verizon Store.

The block-wide building shown on the right-hand side of the street in the second postcard photograph was on the corner of Eastern Avenue and was known as the Citizen’s Bank Block. Its street number was 43 Railroad Street, the location of C. E. Simanton’s Jewelry Store. It is directly across the street from the building with the conical roof shown in the first postcard photograph. The Citizen’s Bank Block was rebuilt in 1909 after devastating fire and it was renumbered as 364 Railroad Street in the mid-twentieth century when the street underwent a major renumbering.