Elgin 16s watch case sizes and good places to find old Elgin parts?

[levine98]

Hi,

New member here (and new to the hobby of repairing pocket watches and my first post .

i purchased a couple of non-working Elgin 16s Grade 291 movements off eBay recently (1904 and 1917) so I can practice and learn basic pocket watch repair as a hobby (also taking Mark Lovik's on-line watch repair video series on WatchFIX.com--very straight forward, for the basics).

I picked the Elgins because affordable movements for parts seem somewhat plentiful on eBay. However both movements were sans cases and winding stems, and I'm hoping to find additional sources for parts and cases beyond eBay.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Lastly, do all Elgin 16s movements fit into the same size case? Re: I do see an case or two on eBay but they are not from the same grade as the movements I've been focusing on.

thanks again—great forum.

levine98

 

[Rick Hufnagel]

HI Levine and welcome to the forum

Nice to see someone getting into the mix!

I started out the same way, with a bunch of Elgin movements from eBay. It's a great way to practice and when you get one running, of course you will want to case it up!

A little before the turn of the century, many American companies started producing 16s movements that all fit the same size cases. Prior to this there were a few different sizes of 16s.. (go figure).

So with Elgin, you have a 16s model 7. The model 6 and 7 are some of these standard sized movements and will fit the most common 16s cases available. The crown and stem will be built into the case since these are negative set. I just typed in 16s pocket watch case into eBay and got a ton of hits. Any Elgin, Waltham, Illinois, South bend, New York Standard (made around the turn of the century of later) and many others all fit these same cases. For your model 7 you have to make sure it is a pendant set case, which most of them are.

As for Elgin parts, Dave's watch parts has movements, cases and parts, of course ebay, Otto frei and esslinger are a few sources. If you need something specific there is a parts wanted section here and maybe someone can help you out. I'm sure there are members here with a bunch of 291s in the boneyard.

If you see a case you like and want to ask about compatibility, feel free to send me a private message. We are not permitted to talk about active auctions on the open forums.

Good luck with your repairs and feel free to ask any questions that pop up!

 

[geo.ulrich]

welcome to the forums