Customers selected their watch cases separately at the retail shop, so the important number is inside on the mechanical part of the watch. The watches were sold as bare movements only. Numbers on any part of the watch case, such as a serial number on the inside of the back cover, is a number that goes with the watch case only, and reveals nothing about the watch movement. The serial number on the watch works, called the 'movement', can be used to look up production information on watches made by the Elgin National Watch Company. Using this site you can learn a good deal about your antique Elgin watch. Even though it had been, for a time, one of the largest industrial concerns in the world, today many people have no idea that America was once the world leader in quality timepieces. The Elgin National Watch Company went completely out of business in 1968. Between 1867 and sometime in the 1960s when domestic manufacturing tappered off, Elgin made 10s of millions of pocket and wrist watches. The company's first model was a large, 18 size, movement priced at $117, which was a high price for that time. The National Watch Company, later known as the Elgin National Watch Company, was founded at the end of the Civil War, in 1864, in Elgin, Illinois. Keep this in mind when comparing your watch to others. So the outside of these watches just reflects the selection of the original buyer, or a case a watch has been moved to over its history. A small watch may be cased either way, as a pocketwatch or a wristwatch. Also, for early wristwatches, there is no distinction in the movement. In those days, the common practice was that a customer would pick out a movement and a case separately at the shop and the watchmaker or jeweler would assemble them together. This is because the watch movement, inside, and the case do not go together in any way. When looking at photos of pocketwatches here and elsewhere online, you may or may not see watches that outwardly appear like yours. Pendent wind and set.įor information about Elgin's grade, class and model numbers, click here.

Hunter case movement, three-fingered bridge (this applies to the movement, not the case the watch happens to be in). Elgin serial number 13880420 is a grade 339, 16 size, 17 jewels, made about 1909.

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