Waltham Speedometer Odometer Numbers?

1941 - 1945, MB, GPW Technical questions and discussions, regarding anything related to the WWII jeep.
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Jerry Hudgens
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Waltham Speedometer Odometer Numbers?

Post by Jerry Hudgens » Mon Feb 23, 2015 7:23 am

I am working on restoring a Waltham short needle speedometer.

In preparing to silk screen the trip and odometer cylinders, I have found that the fonts for the numbers is the same as Arial except for the number 7 and they are the same as Microsoft Sans Serif which has the correct number 7 and they are the same as Zurich Ex BT with the correct number 7.

However, all of the above 3 fonts have a very slightly different 0 (zero).

Does anybody know for certain what font was used for the Waltham speedometer?

Thanks
Jerry Hudgens


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Chuck Lutz
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Re: Waltham Speedometer Odometer Numbers?

Post by Chuck Lutz » Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:04 am

Jerry...I don't know what font Waltham used...but I wonder if they designed the font in-house? If so then they may have patented it and there would be a record of that somewhere....if there is a patent they would have given the font a "name" and once you can find the name you can find it somewhere to copy....then you just need to size it to the scale if their patent does not include that info.
Chuck Lutz

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Bantam T3-C 1947

Jerry Hudgens
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Re: Waltham Speedometer Odometer Numbers?

Post by Jerry Hudgens » Mon Feb 23, 2015 4:08 pm

Chuck,

I didn't know if perhaps someone had already researched this and knew the answer.

I am sure that I can get the numbers correct by using a combination of fonts. I have found a total of 14 fonts that are almost identical to the Waltham numbers. Also, these fonts/numbers are almost identical to each other.

I also had this problem with the dial face. I had to use numbers from about three different fonts to get the correct ones plus I had to modify the number 6 to get it correct.

Since these were made back in 1942, they probably just rolled their own numbers by hand and obviously did not use a computer. But with me, I am lazy and instead of hand drawing each number I am using fonts that I have on my computer. Also there is the problem of number size, weight or thickness and the spacing which is a nightmare to get correct.

I am slowly making progress on this but its tedious. Word to the wise: just pay a professional to do this. Its a pain in the a^& to get it right.

Jerry

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Re: Waltham Speedometer Odometer Numbers?

Post by vynx » Mon Feb 23, 2015 8:01 pm

Also if you have a good quality photo of the faceplate you can digitalyze the numbers To match them perfectly cause you are using the original and not a font that can change slightly from the original... Take a look in this post maybe will give you some ideas :wink:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=247961


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