Vintage Watches

The Elgin watch company produced more jeweled watches than any other watchmaker in America. The company made low priced watches, all the way up to high quality railroad grades pocket watches. Elgin's Art Deco watches are highly collectible.

Elgin was formed in 1867 in The state of illinois. It was first named the National Watch Company and was changed for the Elgin National Watch Company in 1874. Elgin first pocket watch, the 18-sized BW Raymond, premiered in 1867, and then launched ladies' convertible wristwatches in 1912. Within 1917 they made a soldiers' watch which has a pierced anodized case, outlined luminous Arabic numbers and hands and a khaki strap.

Around 1926 followed a nice-looking cushion shape watch with an over-sized crown. In 1928 and 1929 arrived their popular Art Deco ladies' watches, that are well worth looking out for; they are Madame Alpha, Madame Premet, Madame Agues and Parisienne. Elgin manufactured it's fifty millionth movement in 1951 unfortunately by then Elgin was in it's final years.

Up until around 1850, their watches were made mostly by hand. This implied that if a part of the watch broke, you had to find someone with the necessary tools and skills to make a new part replacing it. Elgin realized it quite earlier that there was a good market for watches that could be repaired relatively cheaply using factory made replacement spare parts. Thus Elgin was founded on the ideology of bulk production of high quality pocket watches using machine made, replaceable spare parts.

Elgin produced its first watch in April 1867, and the B.W. Raymond was astonishingly successful. By the late 1880s, Elgin had improved to employ about 2,300 workers and produce around 1,200 watches per day. The company released its first pair of wristwatch “the Lord Elgin and the Lady Elgin” in 1910. [..Read More..]

Deals on eBay

In 1912, Elgin produced a convertible wristwatch for women. Due to its removable straps, this popular design could be interchanged from a wristwatch to a pocket watch, or it could be worn on a neck chain.
During the World War I, Elgin received a government contract with the U.S. Army through which the company trained 350 employees to produce precision and flawless watch repairs on the battlefield. This contract helped keep Elgin fiscally and monetarily sound during the war when the other companies went stagnant.
Elgin also helped with the war effort during the World War II, this time by producing specialized military watches, chronometers for the Navy, instruments for planes, and much more technical equipments. These endeavors set Elgin on a path of diversification and recognition that had its effects after the war, as the company started producing transistor radios, clocks, and other consumer related commodities, including more wristwatches of course.
At the time, the most stringent test of a watch’s accuracy was whether railroad companies would allow their employees to wear it because the inaccuracies of just a few seconds were as serious as to be the cause a severe catastrophic collision. For decades, only pocket watches were trusted enough to undergo the task to be allowed on trains, but Elgin produced a wristwatch that met railroad standards in 1961 - the B. W. Raymond Railroad Wrist Chronometer. Elgin was the first railroad wristwatch to be made in America with entirely American parts.