Elgin BW Raymond, 16S, 19-jewel, grade 455

[Brad Maisto]

Received this fantastic Elgin BW Raymond, 16S, 19-jewel, grade 455 from the infamous on-line auction website this past Friday. Thanks to the fuzzy pictures posted by the seller, I was able to acquire this “jewel” for not much more than it probably originally sold for back in 1919. Even though it is lever set and railroad grade, I doubt this watch ever saw the insides of an engineer’s overalls ! My wife even really likes this one because of the “art-deco” look and the the Star Watch Case Co. 14K WGF case is in pretty immaculate condition. However, I was not sure all three parts of this case matched (as the body of this case is much darker than either the bezel or the back cover), but low and behold, I was finally able to decipher the case number on the body of the case, #6177149 and all three matched. And when I did get the movement apart for a cleaning, I could not believe the amount of oil that I found, it was like the last person who had this watch apart had dunked it in a quart of synthetic blue-green viscous oil? I’m sure others have encountered this, but it does run like a top and seems to be keeping pretty accurate time. Hope you enjoy these pictures.
Brad Maisto, Indiana Chapter 18 President