Anyone know anything about this particular piece ? Bought it earlier today for $5. I had the caseback open at the time and the movement looked great. Then I closed the caseback and can't open it again. oops

Any knowledge about these would be appreciated.
Thanks !

 

I'm not familiar regarding that particular Elgin but the movement number can be looked up via www.elginwatches.org and/or www.pocketwatchdatabase.com as well as other Elgin sites. Also, if you're unable to remove the caseback, I would recommend the assistance of a local watchmaker.

 

Do you happen to remember what the model number was or the number of jewels? What size is it? Elgin made quite a few different models of varying size and quality.

 

elgin was a great company.

they suffer a bit now in vintage watch collecting circles because they made timepieces for every budget. whereas Hamilton made only 17 jewel wristies, elgin ran from 7 on up. but make no mistake, they offered up some interesting stuff during their existence. they produced railroad grade pockets- some very beautiful ones. they were, in my opinion, the first to manufacture a US made automatic. some argue that bulova did it first, but from what I can tell, they used swiss parts and assembled here. one of the most interesting specimens was the durabalance series of movements. these were the only free-sprung watches produced by an American maker.