Burlington Watch Co.??

I have a Burlington Watch Co. the serial number is 2455260 its 19 jewels and it the movement says Adjusted Temp 8c. Can anyone tell me about this watch..

Thanks
James

[Bill B]

Please check your serial # the # you gave is to an 18 size hunter case 17 jewel movement. As far as I know Burlingtons were made by Illinois Watch and they were 16 sizs or smaller but I could be wrong. Please post a picture of the works for an easier id of your watch.

[Kent]

James:

The Burlington Watch Co., of Chicago, IL, was a mail-order sales operation. Almost all of the watches were made by the Illinois Watch Co. and privately-labeled for Burlington. A very small few were made by Henry Moser of Switzerland. Apparently these were only sold in Canada, as they seem to have all been originally furnished in Canadian-made cases. Burlington's Canadian office was in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Since the vast majority of Burlington watches were made by the Illinois Watch Co., information about them is contained in "American Pocket Watches Vol. 2, Illinois Watch Co., Encyclopedia and Price Guide," William Meggers, Jr. & Roy Ehrhardt, Heart of America Press, Kansas City, MO, 1985. In seeking information about a watch, it is the serial number on the movement (the "works") that is important.

In addition to printed references, and [colour=blue]Russell W Snyder's Illinois Data Base CD[/colour], which may be obtained by an email to Jon Hanson at jonontime@aol.com, there are Oldwatch.com's Illinois Production Date Chart and the PocketWatchSite's Illinois Date Table which are an online means for determining the very approximate production date of Illinois pocket watches. In general, we think of serial number lists (not just for Illinois, but for other watch manufacturers as well) to only be accurate within a year or two at best, and recognize that there are numerous exceptions wherein which the dates may be off as much as 3 years or more.

Burlington seems to have started up around 1908-1910 and lasted until about 1923-1924, possibly later. For about the first ten years, Burlington sold mostly 19-jewel watches, a lot of which were marketed as the "Burlington Special." The 1912 ad at the first link shows the classic open-face “Burlington Special” while the hunting-case model is shown in the second link:
[colour=brown]elginwatches.org/scans/non_elgin_ads/1912/m_05_burlington_special.html[/colour]

[colour=brown]elginwatches.org/scans/non_elgin_ads/1911/m_12_burlington_special_hc.html[/colour]

[colour=blue]To view, go to the [/colour][colour=brown]Elgin Watch Collectors Site Home Page[/colour] [colour=blue]at[/colour] [colour=brown]elginwatches.org[/colour], [colour=blue]then copy and paste the address in your browser's address bar and click on [/colour]'Go'.

Its difficult to know whether to call these watches Burlington Special's or just plain Burlington's. Burlington marketed their 19-jewel watch as the Burlington Special watch, but the only place that the "Burlington Special" marking appeared was on the dial. Thus the question arises, is a "Burlington Special" fitted with a different dial still a "Burlington Special"?

There were several models of 16-size "Burlington Special" made by the Illinois Watch Co.:
21-Jewel Model 5 Sangamo Grade Movement & Its Dial, courtesy of John Cote & his Interstatetime Co., which, being adjusted to temperature and 6 positions, was widely accepted for railroad service.
19-Jewel Model 5
19-Jewel Model 9. Please note that the movement in the Model 9's picture is missing its regulator whipspring with its associated mounting and adjusting screws.

Then, in February 1917, Burlington dropped the 19-jewel watches and introduced a complete line of Burlington 21-Jewel Watches, adjusted to temperature and positions (the number of which was unspecified).

So was the Burlington Special a RR grade watch?

[Kent]

Only a portion of the railroads seem to have accepted Illinois-Burlington watches for railroad time service. To quote from page 71 of “Railroad Watches Identification and Price Guide,” Roy Ehrhardt & William Meggers, Jr., Heart of America Press, Kansas City, MO, 1995,

Burlington Watch Co. watches were accepted in railroad time service by many railroads, notably the Union Pacific, until the early 1940’s.