Elgin Lady's Watch

[chasbaz]

Hi, I'm a clocks guy and don't know much about watches. A lady brought me a small gold-filled Elgin today and I'd like to know the age. It's nicely engine-turned and in beautiful condition. The case has a surround at the front, also engine-turned, which gives it a half-hunter sort of look. The serial number is 5285253. Do the serial numbers run per model or through the whole range? How would we work out from the serial# what its age is? I'm guessing about 1920's.
Thanks,
Charles

[chasbaz]

Hi, I'm a clocks guy and don't know much about watches. A lady brought me a small gold-filled Elgin today and I'd like to know the age. It's nicely engine-turned and in beautiful condition. The case has a surround at the front, also engine-turned, which gives it a half-hunter sort of look. The serial number is 5285253. Do the serial numbers run per model or through the whole range? How would we work out from the serial# what its age is? I'm guessing about 1920's.
Thanks,
Charles

[Kent]

Charles:

Wayne Schlitt has a great web site devoted to Elgin watches at: <span class="ev_code_brown">www.midwestcs.com/elgin/</span>
(you should copy this address and paste it in your browser address bar - <span class="ev_code_blue">if this doesn't work the first time, try opening a new window for your browser, one without a previous visit to the NAWCC website</span>)
One can spend hours going through the comprehensive information contained there, including old catalogs and advertisements.

You can look up your Elgin watch, using the serial number on the movement (the "works") - not the case, by choosing "Elgin Databases" and then "Serial Number Lookup." After typing (keyboarding - whatever) the serial number into the "Serial Number off the movement:" field, add a space and type v=13 and then click on the "search" button. This will cause the program to report notes on all of the observations of examples that were reported to Wayne (or that he noted) when the data was entered. Choosing "Watch Codes" from the menu in the left-hand column opens a series of explanations of the abbreviations used in the "Serial Number Lookup" report. There is a lot of other good information on the site explaining the data found by doing a "Serial Number Lookup" and on pocket watches in general. Its worthwhile to spend a few hours exploring the site.

Having done a quick lookup of serial number 5285253 (hopefully, that was the number on the movement), I can tell you that it was built in about 1893.

Only a small percentage of American watches (or Swiss watches for the North American market) were cased at the factories prior to the mid-1920's. Most watch companies just made movements (the "works") in industry standard sizes. The case companies made cases in those same sizes. The practice at that time was to go to a jeweler, select the quality of the movement and then pick out the desired style and quality of case. The jeweler would then fit the movement to the case in a matter of moments.

Or, watches were sold by mail-order. Large outfits such as Sears, Roebuck & Co., Montgomery Ward, or T. Eaton (in Canada), would offer the movements in a variety of cases of different design and quality in their catalogs. Smaller mail-order retailers would case the watches, typically in a 20-year gold filled case and offer it only that way, with the buyer not having a choice of cases.

If you think that the watch dates to the 1920's (and that was the serial number from the case), check out the Advertisements For Elgin Watches at:
<span class="ev_code_brown">www.elginwatches.org/scans/elgin_ads/m_index.html</span>

(again, you should copy the above addresses and paste them in your browser address bar - <span class="ev_code_blue">if they don't work the first time, try opening a new window for your browser, one without a previous visit to the NAWCC website</span>)

Good luck,
Kent

[chasbaz]

Kent,
Many thanks for a great response.
As I spend a lot of time replying to Clocks postings I know I really like it when people say Thank You!
The serial number was the one on the movement.
Actually the watch really looks like new, and was in its original jeweller's case [forgot who the retailer was but will ask] from Minnesota.
Incidentally I measured the case and the diameter is 1 5/8".
I will check out the website.
Thanks again.
Charles

[Kent]

chasbaz:

How do you know that its "... in its original jeweller's case ..."?

[chasbaz]

Actually, I didn't mean 'case', I meant 'box', sorry. I got all the required info from the website - thanks again.