Hello Ryan,
Thank you for sending in this family pocket watch to mearto.com for an appraisal.
TITLE:
Gent’s, 16s, Art Nouveau era, pendant wound and pendant set, gold filled, savonette, hunting case pocket watch with fancy dial, S/N 9498384, Grade 247, Model 6 movement made by the Elgin National Watch Company, Elgin, Illinois, circa 1902. Accompanied by a gilt twisted rope pocket watch chain.
PROVENANCE:
“Inherited from grandfather”
DESCRIPTION:
CASE: Size 16, four leaf, gold filled, hunting case pocket watch with a fluted suppressed gilt ball pendant and oval bow placed at the three position (savonette) opposite the case hinge. One of the outer covers is shown with its knurled edge circumference and engraved floral and foliate pattern design. This is all very much in the style of the Art Nouveau era in America, c. 1880-1910, which stressed all forms of natural beauty, flora and fauna included. The inside of the covers carries the marking No 957108 AW, but no gold hallmarks. There is an unengraved cuvette overlying the movement compartment.
DIAL: A round white enameled dial with radial black enameled Arabic hours with gilt rosette half hour markers and from each rosette a drapery of ornamental scalloped gilt necklaces. To the outside of the hours is a closed bar minute track with Arabic markers placed every five minutes around the circumference of the dial and having gilt foliate ornaments between the five minute markers. There is a subsidiary continuous seconds dial @6 and gilt rococo fenestrated Louis XVth style hands. The upper dial center is marked ‘Elgin’.
Movement: This is a size 16, nickel, damascene decorated bridge-plate movement with a half plate having exposed crown and ratchet wheels and three arrow shaped parallel finger bridges. The is the Grade 247 movement, model 6, Class 93, made by the Elgin National Watch company, Elgin, Illinois, with serial number 9498384, made in 1902, in a run of 3000 such movements. The movement is pendant wound and pendant set, made with fifteen jewels, some in screw settings. There is a going barrel (implies that while winding the movement the watch continues to run and keep time), a quick train (a watch that vibrates at least 18000 beats per hour), gold center wheel, Breguet hairspring, bimetallic balance wheel and Mosely regulator, made with zero position adjustments and not of railroad grade. {Moseley regulator was patented by Charles S. Moseley and George Hunter, Patent Date: Nov 17 1874.}
Condition: Case – Appears to be in very good condition with some wear to the engraving and some loss of gilding on the pendant bow.
Dial: Excellent. No hairlines.
Movement: In very fine clean condition. Fully functional.
Bracelet is a gold filled double strands of rope twist watch chain, in good condition.
HISTORY:
Elgin History: The Elgin National Watch Company was founded in 1864 in Elgin, Illinois as the National Watch Company. In 1874 the name was changed to the Elgin National Watch Company. Between 1864 and sometime in the 1960s, Elgin manufactured tens of millions of pocket and wrist watches. The Elgin National Watch Company was for a time, one of the largest industrial concerns in the world. Elgin pocket watches from the early years are particularly interesting because of the methods and philosophy of the Elgin Company. Elgin used what were at the time quite advanced tools, techniques and labor practices to achieve a very high quality product, in high volumes, at a relatively affordable price. Elgin watches were created using mechanized, repeatable processes, organized quality control and standardized, interchangeable, parts. These things are all common practices in industry today, but not so at that time. The result was a product of high quality made in large quantities that dwarfed that of Elgin's competitors. Prior to Elgin's time, watches were made completely by hand, frequently by a single craftsman, from start to finish. Repairs could only be completed on such watches by someone with sufficient skill to fabricate replacement parts, from scratch, from raw material. Elgin watches on the other hand, were mass manufactured and highly standardized. Spare parts were provided by Elgin that were drop-in replacements for the originals. Elgin was extremely successful with this strategy. In fact, the company introduced more than half the watches made in America from 1920-1928. An Elgin advertisement in 1928 claimed that there were more than 14,418 retail jewelers in the United States and all but 12 carried Elgin.
PRICING:
This is a very handsome early 20th century keyless pocket watch. The pocket watch database finds, with my condition inputs, that the fair market value of this heirloom pocket watch is in the range of $125-$175, and I have added $50 for the watch chain so that the final fair market price is in the range of $175-$225.
Thank you for choosing mearto.com for this appraisal.
My best,
David