Elgin SN7244858

Kevin's Notes

I love this watch. I'm glad it's not very expensive, because I carry it around as my daily use pocketwatch. People love the fancy dial when I show them.

I guess you could say this watch sparked my interest in pocketwatch collecting. Shortly after I purchased this watch, I built this web page, started checking horology sites on the Internet, started checking prices of other watches on eBay, and spent more in pocketwatch identification books than I spent on the watch itself.

Watch Identification

For more details see the entry for this watch in the Elgin Database.

• the bezel
• the inside of the watch back
• the inner frame around the movement that attaches to the watch back on a hinge

• "Elgin Nat'l. Watch Co. U.S.A." stamped on the movement.
• Safety Pinion. stamped on the movement.

Dial Information

• "Elgin Natl Watch Co." written in script with silver design flanked by two gold triangles below the script.
• Silver coloured inlaid dots forming circles around digits. The area within this circle is white, with black roman digits. The area outside these circles but within the "chapter ring" (the area where the digits are displayed) is pink.
• Gold dots marking hours.
• Lines marking minutes.
• Gold stars between inner side of circles.
• Separate second hand at 6:00 position, digits in arabic every 10 seconds, tick marks every second with extended 5 second mark.

Case Information

• Watch is a "side-winder" with the crown at the 3:00 position. This indicates this may not have been the original case, as side-winder movements were designed for a hunter case, not a swing-out case.

Movement Information

Watch Size: 18
Grade: 96
Model: 2
Setting: Lever
Style: Hunting (winds at 3:00)
Number of Jewels 7
Regulator Type: Micrometric
Total Production: 566000
Number of Production Runs: 106

Watch Condition

Details:

The bezel shows a bit of wear. There's supposed to be two rings of dots around be bezel but this has worn down to one set of dots around the 10:00 to 2:00 position. The crystal has a few minor scratches that are only visible when you take the bezel off and shine a light behind the crystal.

The case has a few minor dings on it, nothing too serious.

The dial has a large chip at about the 7 o'clock position that a previous owner tried to hide by using a pen to draw in the lines for the minute markers. Luckily the chip did not damage the gold hour markers.

There are two hairline cracks going from this chip straight up to the 53 minute and 54 minute position. There is another hairline crack that curves from the 34 minute mark through the centre of the second hand then down to the 5 o'clock position.

The watch runs flawlessly. I'm not sure if it has been previously repaired or not, and if so what replacement parts or alterations were made to the movement.

Known Watch History

Date of Manufacture

Watch built between Oct. 28 1897 and May 14, 1898 according to serial number. (Approximate dates).

Watch Damaged

At some point the watch dial was damaged as described above. I suspect the case was also changed then, because it is a "sidewinder". The movement was designed for a hunter case but instead put into a swing-out case.

Unknown Time

Watch came to the possession of a store called "Indefinate Article" on Victoria avenue in Saskatoon.

November 27, 1999

Purchased from "Indefinate Article" antique shop in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan by Kevin Lowey.