Northern Partners

Brief History: Elgin Watch Company
Elgin, Illinois
1864 - 1964

The Elgin Watch Company (also known as the Elgin National Watch Company) was the largest US watch company in terms of production. In fact, Elgin produced approximately one-half of the total number of higher-quality pocket watches manufactured in the United States. Total production over their 100 years of operation reached 60 million watches!

The company was founded in 1864 in Elgin, Illinois as the National Watch Company, and some of the organizers were J. C. Adams, P. S. Bartlett, D. G. Currier, Otis Hoyt, and Charles H. Mason, with financial backing from former Chicago Mayor Benjamin W. Raymond. The factory for the National watch company was completed in 1866, and the first movement produced was an 18-size B. W. Raymond which sold in April of 1867 for the astounding price of $115. This identical watch, serial number 101, was sold at auction in New York in 1988 for $12,000. In 1874, the company officially changed their name to the Elgin National Watch Company, and that name remained until they stopped producing watches in the early '60's.

Elgin was not known for making the highest quality watches, though some of their higher grades were exquisitely made timepieces. Together with Waltham Watch Company, they dominated the huge market for mid-grade watches. Elgin watches remain extremely popular with collectors today because they are plentiful, can be obtained at reasonable prices, and can be relatively easily repaired due to the large number of watches and parts available.

Elgin shipped their first wristwatch in 1910, and later manufactured the first wrist watch to be qualified for railroad service, the grade 730A B. W. Raymond. Throughout their history, the Elgin National Watch Company was known for horological innovations. In 1958, they introduced the "DuraBalance," an ingenious design for a free-sprung balance (no regulator pins) which used spiral balance arms and small weights to govern the moment of inertia of the balance. They also produced the only American-made automatic wristwatch movements: grades 607, 618, 760, and 761. These movements featured bi-directional, full-rotor winding, and had two automatic winding gear ratios, which were automatically engaged as the mainspring tension increased.

The contributions of the Elgin National Watch Company to American Horological industry cannot be overstated. Many Elgin watches that were made over 100 years ago are still providing reliable and accurate daily service to their proud owners.

Note: The Illinois Watch Case Company of Elgin, Illinois should not be confused with the Elgin Watch Company. The Illinois Watch Case Company was a major manufacture in the city of Elgin, Illinois. It manufactured watch cases under many brands, such as "Elgin Giant," "Elgin Pride," "Tivoli," "Spartan," and "Elgin Commander." The use of the name "Elgin" in their brand names, or marking the cases with "Elgin USA" has often led people to believe that a watch was made by the Elgin National Watch Company when it was actually made by another manufacturer, or to think that a watch no longer has its original case because it is "now in an Elgin case."

Elgin National Watch Company
Approximate Serial Numbers and Dates

Year	S/N		Year	S/N		Year	S/N
1867	9000		1897	7,000,000		1927	30,050,000
1868	25,001		1898	7,494,001		1928	31,599,100
1869	40,001		1899	8,000,000		1929	32,000,000
1870	50,001		1900	9,000,000		1930	32,599,001
1871	185,001		1901	9,300,000		1931	33,000,000
1872	201,001		1902	9,600,000		1932	33,700,000
1873	325,001		1903	10,000,000		1933	34,558,001
1874	400,001		1904	11,000,000		1934	35,000,000
1875	430,000		1905	12,000,000		1935	35,650,000
1876	480,000		1906	12,500,000		1936	36,200,000
1877	520,000		1907	13,000,000		1937	36,978,001
1878	570,000		1908	13,500,000		1938	37,900,000
1879	625,001		1909	14,000,000		1939	38,200,000
1880	750,000		1910	15,000,000		1940	39,100,000
1881	900,000		1911	16,000,000		1941	40,200,000
1882	1,000,000		1912	17,000,000		1942	41,100,000
1883	1,250,000		1913	17,339,001		1943	42,200,000
1884	1,500,000		1914	18,000,000		1944	42,600,000
1885	1,855,001		1915	18,587,001		1945	43,200,000
1886	2,000,000		1916	19,000,000		1946	44,000,000
1887	2,500,000		1917	20,031,001		1947	45,000,000
1888	3,000,000		1918	21,000,000		1948	46,000,000
1889	3,500,000		1919	22,000,000		1949	47,000,000
1890	4,000,000		1920	23,000,000		1950	48,000,000
1891	4,449,001		1921	24,321,001		1951	50,000,000
1892	4,600,000		1922	25,100,000		1952	52,000,000
1893	5,000,000		1923	26,050,000		1953	53,500,000
1894	5,500,000		1924	27,000,000		1954	54,000,000
1895	6,000,000		1925	28,421,001		1955	54,500,000
1896	6,500,000		1926	29,100,000		1956	55,000,000

Be sure to use the serial number on the movement of the watch itself.
Do not use the serial number from the case.

A Quick History of the Elgin National Watch Company

Elgin was founded in 1864, right as the civil war was coming to an end. The first watch Elgin made, an 18 sized B W Raymond railroad grade watch, was finished in 1867 and over the next 100 years, they went on to produce about 60 million watches. Elgin produced their first wristwatch around 1910, leading most other American watch companies by many years.

Elgin was originally called the "National Watch Company". The name never really stuck and in 1874, they changed their name to the "Elgin National Watch Company" because most of the watch trade and public were calling them "watches from Elgin". They kept that name until the late 1960s when they stopped producing watches and changed their name to the "Elgin National Industries".

Elgin was founded on the idea of mass producing high quality pocket watches using machine made, interchangeable parts. Up until around 1850, watches were made mostly by hand, which meant that if a part broke, you had to find someone with the tools and skill to make a new part.  Elgin realized that there was a large market for good watches that could be sold and repaired relatively cheaply using factory made replacement parts that didn't require hand adjusting.

Elgin never made the very highest quality watches in the world, nor did they make the very cheapest, but together with Waltham (aka The American Watch Company), they dominated the vast middle ground of the watch market.

Today, collecting Elgin watches is quite popular. Because Elgin produced so many watches and produced so many spare parts, they can still be easily bought and fixed, so even a 100 year old Elgin can be used, with care, on a daily basis. While mechanical watches can't compete with quartz watches for accuracy, there is something about having a watch that ticks that a quartz watch just can't replace.

 

 

The National Watch Company of Chicago, Illinois was incorporated on August 27, 1864 with a capital of $100,000. The incorporators were Philo Carpenter, Howard Z. Culver, Benjamin W. Raymond, George M. Wheeler, Thomas S. Dickerson, Edward H. Williams and W. Robbins.

In September of 1864 a visit was made by some company representatives to the Waltham Watch Co. and seven of their key people where lured away to work for the newly formed company and they were nicknamed the Seven Stars. The bait used was a $5,000 a year salary for 5 years, a $5,000 bonus and one acre of land on the company's, soon to be acquired, 35 acre site (some things never seem to change). Since turn about is fair play, Elgin lost several of the Seven Stars to the Illinois Watch Co. a few years later in 1869.

The Seven Stars were all machinists first and watchmakers second. One of these men was Charles S. Moseley and he became the factory's first superintendent. He had been in the watch business since 1852.

The Elgin businessmen had been informed that if they wanted the company to be located in Elgin they would have to donate 35 acres of land. The towns people would also have to put up $25,000 (keep in mind that the war was on and all the young men where gone). The requested location for the company was on a farm with absentee owners. The owners refused to sell unless the entire farm property of 71 acres was purchased at a price of $3,550. Four local businessmen purchased the land and donated the 35 acres. The company was re-organized on April 25, 1865 with a capitol of $500,000.

The first movement was delivered from the factory April 1, 1867 and was named in honor of Benjamin W. Raymond. It was an 18 size, key wind, and full plate, with quick train and straight-line escapement arranged to set on the face and was adjusted to temperature. At that time watches took six months to complete and the B. W. Raymond model sold for $117 at a time when pork chops sold for three cents a pound (several years ago this watch was bought at auction by the city of Elgin for $15,000).

On July 16, 1867, a new watch was made and it was named the H. Z. Culver. The slow train was then adopted on all the new movements brought out and they appeared on the market as follows; J. T. Ryerson, October 14, 1867; H. H. Taylor, November 20, 1867; G.W. Wheeler, November 26, 1867 and Matthew Laflin, January 2, 1868. (Laflin and Ryerson both sat on the Elgin's board of directors and Laflin's family did so for more than 70 years.)

On May 20, 1869 the first "Lady Elgin" made its appearance and was the first of a series of 10 size movements and it was also key wind. This was followed on August 24, 1870 by the Francis Rubie, which was adjusted to temperature, on September 8, 1871 by the Gail Borden (of Elsie fame) and on December 20, 1871 by the Dexter Street.

Elgin and most other watch companies sold their movements to wholesaler's who then sold them to the jewelry shops. The customer would pick out the case of his choice, add the dial and then the jeweler would put them together. Only about 10% of the cases sold were solid gold.

The first stem wind movement was placed on the market June 28, 1873.

On May 12, 1874 during a special stockholder's meeting held in Chicago, the name of the company was changed to "The Elgin National Watch Company. This was thought to be advisable because the movements manufactured by the company were universally known as and called "Elgin Watches" or the "Watch from Elgin".

In 1888 the factory was producing about 7,500 movements per week, about one fifth of which were key wind and one tenth of the movements were nickel. The factory had 2,300 employees at this time and they were split 50/50 between men and women but not so their pay. The women earned about $6 per week while some of the men earned as much as $3 per day and this was for a 6-day workweek.)

During World War I the United States Army had the Elgin factory train more than 350 men to make the precision repairs required in the battlefields.

It was during the Second World War that all civilian work was stopped and Elgin made military watches, chronometers for the U.S. Navy, fuses for artillery shells, altimeters and instruments for aircraft and sapphire bearings used in the aiming of cannon. The Elgin Company was awarded ten Army-Navy "E" awards, for full filling contracts ahead of schedule.

The Elgin Company diversified after World War II making decorator clocks, transistor radios, wedding rings, but the heart's beat was the Elgin watch. That heart beat had been getting slower every year and Elgin ceased to depend on the watch factory as its main enterprise. The clock tower of the National Street plant was torn down October 7, 1966.

The world's largest watch manufacturing complex was located in several buildings from its inception in 1864 until the last Elgin movement made in the United States was completed in Elgin, South Carolina, in 1968.