Seldom found, the Reese watchmaker's lathe was manufactured by Thos. Haulton of Johnstown, PA in the United States of America. Of absolutely conventional and robust WW (Webster Whitcomb) design, the Reece could have been made in any year from around 1890 - a year after the introduction of the eponymous WW - to 1930.
The WW lathe was a seminal development and (except for the lighter "Geneva" type) completely displaced all earlier kinds including the well-known "Swiss Universal" (or English mandrel as it is also known) and the Bottum.
The great advantage of a Webster Whitcombe is that, with few exceptions, all are of identical dimensions with a 50 mm (1.968") centre-height (though very occasionally 65, 70 mm and other figures are found), a bed formed with a 37 mm-wide flat on the top, a 60-degree bevel along each edge and a headstock fitted with a spindle to accept 8, 10 mm or 12 mm collets (though odd, in-between sizes have also been discovered).
Having become the worldwide, de facto standard for watch lathes, many accessories from one make can be used on any other - a happy situation and why it is not uncommon to find machines equipped with a mixture of Boley, Lorch, Leinen, Marshall, Moseley and Peerless parts all working happily together..
While numbers of older WW lathes lack any form of identification, recognition of a Reese is straightforward: the bed foot beneath the headstock is in the form of a plain cylinder, the handle to clamp the tool rest down a plain, 4-spoke capstan wheel, the word "Reese" in a unique, double-line font engraved on the end of the bed and the maker's name on the underside.
If you have a Reese lathe, especially one in the maker/s box, or sales literature, the writer would be delighted to feature in the Machine Tool Archive.