![]() If the time was off, the train was off schedule. In those days, keeping time to railroad industry standards was a serious issue. The Elgin pocket watch was known for keeping “Railroad Accuracy” and was one of the most well-known railroad pocket watches. Elgin Expansion and Innovationīy 1910, huge sales of the Elgin pocketwatch enabled the company to construct their own Observatory to keep precise times for all Elgin watches. If the company were to grow, it needed to service watch owners with replacement parts quickly, efficiently, and at lower cost. ![]() Not only was mass-production important for new watches, but also critical for servicing existing watches with replacement pieces and spare parts. The factory covering 170,000 square feet would allow the company to focus on machined, interchangeable parts. ![]() To become the largest American watch manufacturer, Elgin would need to mass-produce watch parts on-site. Just a few short years after its formation, Elgin employed over 2,000 workers and turned out more than 7,000 watches per week. These high volume production numbers make the company the largest American watch manufacturer by volume. The company would produce over 60 million high-grade Elgin watches over the next 100 years. New Elgin watches sold for around $120 brand new. The company began selling pocket watches as the American Civil War was coming to an end around 1867. Raymond.” The Elgin Pocket Watch Dominance The very first Elgin movements the company produced were labeled the “B.W. Since the city of Elgin donated 35 acres to the group of watch entrepreneurs for their new headquarters, they decided to name the company after the city. Adams, who was working at the Waltham Watch Company at the time, to invest in a new watch company. Shortly after that, he was convinced by J.C. Next, Raymond was president of the Fox River Railroad. He started the first woolen factory in Elgin, Illinois. Raymond has a successful business career. Ladies' timepieces with pocket watches converted into wristwatches are also interesting finds.One of the Elgin Watch Company founders was B.W. Many ladies' watches made with gold-tone cases can be purchased much more affordably. Others with platinum cases and diamond embellishments are also attractive. One fairly costly version has an enameled lady and tiger as part of the case décor. Army also created specifications dated Novemand October 24, 1916, choosing the watch features their soldiers would wear."Īrt Deco ladies watches also have appeal. According to "Elgin Trench Watches of the Great War" by Stan Czubernat, "While Elgin was known as a company that would allow buyers to pick and choose among features for their personal watches, the U.S. With so many Egin watches to choose from, many collectors focus on subsets such as World War I trench wristwatches that came with protective covers. Most pocket watches are marked Elgin on the face, although a few are marked only on the case. These brandings include Lady Elgin and Lord Elgin on wristwatches. The firm discontinued its watch production at that time.Įlgin watches are identified by the name Elgin in one of a few different iterations on the face. The name of the business changed again in the late 1960s to Elgin National Industries. Elgin was, in fact, ahead of many other manufacturers of wristwatches by several years.ĭuring the last leg of the company's life from the late 1950s through the '60s, Elgin imported most of its movements from Switzerland and assembled the watches in the United States. They captured a large segment of the middle-of-the-road pocket watch market until 1910, when they began to make wristwatches of the same caliber. Elgin specialized in using machine-made parts that were interchangeable to make servicing their timepieces more easily accomplished. The name was changed to the Elgin National Watch Company in 1874.Įlgin made more than one million timepieces each year during peak production and rivaled Waltham Watch Company in volume. Located in Elgin, Illinois, the business opened a factory there in 1867. The company that manufactured Elgin watches began as the National Watch Company in 1864.
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