Lindell V. Riddle
08-30-2002, 09:38 PM
Jake,
Welcome to the NAWCC Message Board, we enjoy discussing all sorts of time-keepers and everything associated with them here, we urge you and everyone reading this to bring us your questions and we'll do our best to answer them.
John C. Dueber began making watch cases in the 1860's and during the 1880's bought the Hampden Watch Company of Springfield Massachusetts and moved it west to locate it next to his case company in Canton, which is near Akron and south of Cleveland, Ohio.
Dueber made watch cases in all grades and sizes. Dueber was one of the better case makers, and the marking guaranteeing your case for 20 years means that it would have been replaced without charge if the gold outer layer had worn off during the first 20 years of use. That guarantee in and of itself identifies yours as a "gold-filled" case, which means a layer of gold on either side of hardened brass. Now think of it this way, your case has already out-lasted the guarantee by 5 times!
Patriotic symbols such as you describe were prevalent in Dueber and Hampden products, they named several watch grades after patriots such as William McKinley who was a popular president from Ohio that was assassinated, John Hancock who may be best known for his penmanship on the Declaration of Independance, and even Paul Revere, the Revolutionary War hero. Your case has an interestingly patriotic motif which to most of us adds greatly to its charm and collectability.
If you wonder about your Dueber case housing an Elgin, bear in mind that movements in those days were cased by the selling jeweler so the buyer chose what they liked from the jeweler's inventory. Ironically, the Illinois watch case company of none other than Elgin, Illinois was also in the case making business, so that only adds to the confusion!
Many collectors try to mate their watches up with cases that seem to "go" with a movement due to their geographical origins without realizing that nobody paid any attention to that when they were choosing cases for their watches all those many years ago.
You are correct that the Hampden Watch Company was purchased by the Soviets back in 1930 just as the Great Economic Depression began to grip the world economy. Even some recently built Russian made mechanical watches are basically similar in design to their Ohio-made Hampden fore-bearers.
Hope you find this of interest, now be sure to come by and visit us often!
________________________________________
Lindell V. Riddle
NAWCC Life Member# 253-150074
Member Chapters 10, 28, 37 and NAWCC-***
<southbend@adelphia.net>
________________________________________
Welcome to the NAWCC Message Board, we enjoy discussing all sorts of time-keepers and everything associated with them here, we urge you and everyone reading this to bring us your questions and we'll do our best to answer them.
John C. Dueber began making watch cases in the 1860's and during the 1880's bought the Hampden Watch Company of Springfield Massachusetts and moved it west to locate it next to his case company in Canton, which is near Akron and south of Cleveland, Ohio.
Dueber made watch cases in all grades and sizes. Dueber was one of the better case makers, and the marking guaranteeing your case for 20 years means that it would have been replaced without charge if the gold outer layer had worn off during the first 20 years of use. That guarantee in and of itself identifies yours as a "gold-filled" case, which means a layer of gold on either side of hardened brass. Now think of it this way, your case has already out-lasted the guarantee by 5 times!
Patriotic symbols such as you describe were prevalent in Dueber and Hampden products, they named several watch grades after patriots such as William McKinley who was a popular president from Ohio that was assassinated, John Hancock who may be best known for his penmanship on the Declaration of Independance, and even Paul Revere, the Revolutionary War hero. Your case has an interestingly patriotic motif which to most of us adds greatly to its charm and collectability.
If you wonder about your Dueber case housing an Elgin, bear in mind that movements in those days were cased by the selling jeweler so the buyer chose what they liked from the jeweler's inventory. Ironically, the Illinois watch case company of none other than Elgin, Illinois was also in the case making business, so that only adds to the confusion!
Many collectors try to mate their watches up with cases that seem to "go" with a movement due to their geographical origins without realizing that nobody paid any attention to that when they were choosing cases for their watches all those many years ago.
You are correct that the Hampden Watch Company was purchased by the Soviets back in 1930 just as the Great Economic Depression began to grip the world economy. Even some recently built Russian made mechanical watches are basically similar in design to their Ohio-made Hampden fore-bearers.
Hope you find this of interest, now be sure to come by and visit us often!
________________________________________
Lindell V. Riddle
NAWCC Life Member# 253-150074
Member Chapters 10, 28, 37 and NAWCC-***
<southbend@adelphia.net>
________________________________________