Elgin National Watch Company

Info, specs, and value American antique pocket watches, with serial number lookups for manufacturers such as Elgin, Illinois, Waltham, and Hamilton. Info, specs, and value American antique pocket watches, with serial number lookups for manufacturers such as Elgin, Illinois, Waltham, and Hamilton. Oct 04, 2002 If you have a wrist watch, and the only number on the movement is a three digit number in the range of 500-999, then there is no serial number. You may be able to get some limited information by entering the query 'g=number' (where number is replaced with the 3 digit number). Elgin Pocket Watches 1880-1889; Skip to page navigation. Filter (4) Elgin Pocket Watches 1880-1889. Number of Jewels. Apr 12, 2017 The Elgin Watch Company began production in 1866 in Illinois and introduced the B.W. Raymond pocket watch in 1867. The company would go on to produce many varieties of pocket watches and wristwatches through the 1970s, and Elgin watches are now valuable collector’s items.

In the spring of 1864 half a dozen ambitious Chicago businessmen decided that if Massachusetts could build a factory that built watches – Illinois could, too. Harper’s magazine summed their sentiment perfectly: “It was the genuine, audacious, self-reliant Western spirit.” By August of that year this consortium, including then-Chicago mayor Benjamin W. Raymond, purchased an abandoned farm 30 miles north of Chicago and built a watch factory there. After a year of designing and building the lathes and machines to achieve seemingly impossible levels of precision, a team of watchmakers and mechanical engineers produced their first pocket watch movement, named for mayor “B.W. Raymond.” The watch was exquisite: Elgin National Watch Company was born.

The space in between marina abramovic full movie. By 1910, word of Elgin’s obsession with precision had spread around the world. Elgin engineers built their own Observatory to maintain scientifically precise times in their watches. Later, their accurate “wristlet” watches proved to be vital to the WWI war effort, helping to fuel a craze back in the states for something called “The Wrist Watch.” By the opulent Jazz Age, if you weren’t displaying the exuberant symmetry of an Elgin wrist watch or carrying a svelte, distinctive Elgin pocket watch, then who were you? Elgin had helped define the American pocket watch as unsurpassed in “Railroad Accuracy.” By 1930, the post Civil War dream factory imagined by a handful of American entrepreneurs had produced 32 million “time machines.”

During World War II, all civilian manufacturing was halted and the company moved into the defense industry, manufacturing military watches, chronometers, fuses for artillery shells, altimeters and other aircraft instruments and sapphire bearings used for aiming cannons.

While their altruism was vital to the war effort, Elgin’s patriotism ironically opened an opportunity for the Swiss. By 1964, after a Mid-Century decade that saw the rise of the elite “Lord and Lady Elgin” series, the original Elgin factory closed. Over the course of a century, the dream factory just north of Chicago had produced half of all jeweled pocket and wristwatches manufactured in the United States.

The legendary Elgin watch has become woven into the fabric of America:

• Robert Johnson, pre-eminent Delta bluesman, sang “She’s got Elgin movements from her head down to her toes” in his 1936 recording of “Walkin’ Blues”.
• NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor was named after the Elgin National Watch Company.
• Daniel Beard’s sketches of an angel at the end of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court are based on the Elgin National Watch Company’s logo.
• The Steeleye Span album Bloody Men contains a track titled “Lord Elgin”: ostensibly a love song, it is, in fact, about the Lord Elgin Watch.
• Elgin Watch Company is referenced in the video game L.A. Noire, which takes place in post-World War II Los Angeles.

Instructions for using our serial number look-up tables

This page contains INSTRUCTIONS for using the serial number look-up tables that are found on many of our watch company history pages. The example below uses information from the American Waltham Watch Company, but that is just an example. You should consult the serial number table for the specific brand of watch movement you are trying to date by selecting a company from the menu on the left.

Elgin Pocket Watches Values

Not all vintage watches can be dated using the serial number. Some American watch brands did not use a consistent series of serial numbers, but most of the big manufacturers did. Most vintage Swiss pocket watches did NOT have serial numbers and can't be dated by this method.

Can't find YOUR exact serial number in our lookup tables?

Many watch companies made hundreds of thousands of watches, and some companies made millions of watches! It would be impractical to list the individual serial numbers of EVERY watch made.. that would make some really long pages! Our serial number tables list RANGES of serial numbers. So to determine when your watch was manufactured, you will need to find where your serial number fits within the range of numbers. Coop flaired font free.

Serial number look-up example:

Let's say you have a Waltham watch with serial number 21,607,210 as shown in the photo below. Note that we're using the serial number from the watch movement, not from the watch case. Looking at the table of Waltham serial numbers (see example below), you can see that number 20,900,000 was made in 1917 and 21,800,000 was made in 1918 (marked in red in the table below). Since your serial number falls between those two numbers, you know that your watch was made in 1917 or 1918.

Not sure which serial number to use?

You must use the serial number from the MOVEMENT of the watch.. the working part with the wheels and gears.. not the serial number from the watch case. Cases and watches were often made by different companies and each usually has its own serial number. You usually have to take the back off the watch case to see the movement serial number which may appear anywhere on the watch movement.

Use the movement serial number. Do NOT use the case serial number!
This is an example only. Your movement serial number may not be in exactly the same location as the one in the photo, but you are looking for the serial number that is on the watch mechanism itself.. not the serial number on the external case.

Elgin Pocket Watch Serial Numbers And Value

This is an example using the Waltham serial number table. Be sure to use the table that is specific
to YOUR brand of watch when looking up your serial number.

Elgin Pocket Watch Serial Numbers And Value

Be sure to use the serial number on the watch movement (the mechanism).
Graveyard keeper artbook crack. Do not use the serial number from the watch case.