bonus wildlife photo
I love these old canteen watches and know others would like their own, but there are many repro parts being sold as legit watches in recent years. I decided to make a very basic and quick reference here to help avoid some of the obvious fakes.
Like most watches, there are dozens of details to be aware of, but I will try to keep this basic while still being useful. Take note of the case bezels here. I am showing the Elgins and the Hamiltons together. The Hamilton cases will be plated and will usually show some pitting. The Elgin cases are solid steel with the finish shown in the photos. Any other finish is not correct.

The crown covers have been reproduced. Maybe I'll do another thread on those if there is interest, but the 3 shown in my photos are authentic. You can use them for comparison. Legit. watches appear on ebay once every month or two. The others are junk made from new and old parts.



The case backs will be very useful in determining authenticity. Be sure the Hamilton includes the "H2" on the outer back with "USN BUSHIPS." The inner back is blank. Also, very important is the "W" stamped between the lugs on case bezel. It MUST be present or you have a fake.
Inner case backs are a great way to catch a fake with the Elgins. There are many fakes stamped on the outside, but I have yet to see a fake with the inner markings. See photos. You will note Elgins were produced in two main batches. The earliest were marked "U.S.N. XXXX. C" (Xs are numbers) and the later were "USN BUSHIPS"(some examples have unit numbers added after production). Inner markings for the early watches will have 7 digit number starting with 260 made by Star. No exceptions are legit. This is the fastest way to test a caseback. On the later units, the 7 digit number begins with 223, also made by Star. See photos.


The movement for the later Elgin units has a cal 647 and will be marked with the E to the left on that plate. They were hacking movements. The early Elgins used cal 539 with serial generally beginning with T. The Hamiltons used cal 987S. All were hacking movements. I may add more details later.

Below a look at solder on an Elgin.

I'm sure the photos will need to be rearranged as I am hurrying. My wife just informed me that our geese have 6 new goslings. I included the last two photos, closeups of the Hamiltons to show the solder used to seal the crystals to the case bezels. This is very important to watches with original crystals. Elgins and Hamiltons had very thick glass crystals with the solder to waterproof. I have yet to see anyone duplicate it or the crystals.

And I just realized I left out dials completely. I'll add that later. The Hamiltons had USN BUSHIPS in white above center as you can see and maker name below center subdued. Elgins had maker name, USN BUSHIPS, and insignia subdued.
The later photo of the W is to show the Hamilton's marks between lugs.

 

Excellent information…and thanks for posting.

I reallly enjoyed seeing your canteen collection in the metal when I visited a few years ago.

 

My brother found an Elgin in our grandfather's foot locker. He was a pilot in World War 2. No crystal and it needs work.