SCARCE EARLY ENGRAVED COIN SILVER 1882 POCKET WATCH

KEY WIND & KEY SET MOVEMENT ~ GOLD BOX HINGE & GOLD GILTED INSIDE

7 JEWEL MOVEMENT ~ BY ILLINOIS WATCH COMPANY ~ 1,450 MADE

WITH ORIGINAL WATCH CHAIN / FOB / KEY

The Swiss and the British were the watchmakers of the 1700s, 1800s and up to about the 1850s when the American system of manufacturing watches started taking over; and American makers soon prevailed over Swiss and British manufacturing. The Illinois Watch Co. was co-founded by industrialist John Whitfield Bunn who had been a close friend of Abraham Lincoln. The history of the Illinois Watch Company contains three distinct institutional chapters.

The original company, the Springfield Watch Company. was founded on December 23, 1870, in Springfield, Illinois and in 1873, the corporation established a corporate office in New York City. The Springfield Watch Company encountered severe financial difficulty and had to undergo reorganization in 1877. In July 1877, the corporation changed its name to the Illinois Springfield Watch Company and was reorganized again in the fall and winter of 1878 and renamed the Illinois Watch Company, the final name of the corporation. By 1890 the company had established corporate offices in Chicago, New York City and San Francisco. Although Illinois was the third-biggest American watch company by production volume during the 1920’s, trailing only Elgin and Waltham, the Illinois Watch Company was at the vanguard of a vibrant American watchmaking industry; crafting Art Deco-styled timepieces that rivaled the best from Switzerland in both accuracy and artistry, and helped pioneer the logistical technology that served the enforcement of standard time for railroads throughout the world. The company was sold to Hamilton Watch Company in 1927 and ceased to manufacture watches in the USA in the mid-1930s.

This fine, coin silver with gold accents, early key wind & key set features, size 18, open face pocket watch with an early watch movement #409816, is made by the Illinois Watch Co., Springfield, Illinois, America. Size is about 3 1/8” tall x 2 1/16” x 3/4” and hefty for its size at 5.2 ounces or 149 grams. The top stem is solid and does not wind the watch and just houses the top key chain ring. The top knob appears to be the same color as the gold hinge but is untested. This watch case has the early style double box hinge with 2 gold hinges that are set in panel inside the ornate housing at the case bottom with stylized mounts on both sides with knob protrusions at the ends. The bottom of this mount is cast with small panels with a center X and hand engraved cross hatch patterns. The front and back sides of these protrusions are hand line engraved in vertical pattens that extend to the front and back edges of the cover plates. The front bezel has double hand engraved borders in a v and line engraved pattern. The back silver cover has a hand engraved border of diagonal hash marks with small intersecting accents. This border engraving on the soft silver back non display cover remains. As expected, the border has worn from removing and replacing the watch in a vest pocket over time, and is the only visible sign of pocket wear. This back cover has one tiny ding at 7 o’clock that may just be a heavier impression mark made by the engraver. There is one tiny ding to the back edge at about 2 o’clock and a minuscule light grey speck on the adjacent side channel. The top mount that secures the faux winding stem that hold the watch chain ring is en suite in pattern with the bottom mount but smaller; and with different ornate geometric patterns that also extend to the front and back edges of the cover plates. The top swivel ring is tight inside the stem and is an indicator of the light wear to the watch overall. The cast coin silver case has two large rings that are actually the front and back cases that help to hold the watch securely by the sides when pressing outward on the one or both of the rings adjacent to the top mount for either the front or back cover plates to open either the front bezel to adjust the watch hands, or to wind the watch from the back through the hole in the inner cover plate without opening it and exposing the watch movement. The tops of the both the front and back covers have the same protrusion shape as the watch case. When closing the both the front and back cover plates, one should press on one of the two protrusions into the frame, then press the other protrusion to seal the cover plate into the frame and seal it with a click. Both inside covers  and the front bezel snap into place properly as does the inside cover plate with a nail nick for opening, that protects the movement.

The watch is wound from the back side after opening the box hinged outside silver engraved cover and revealing the inner cover with the key wind hole for the original small key. The insides of both the outside and inside silver covers are gold plated, with the outside cover stamped Warranted coin (silver) and 1522 and the number 3. There is also minuscule pin scratched numbers 0615 and 2 initials on the bottom edge that appear to be an inventory or craftsman notation. The time is also set from the front after opening the box hinged front bezel of the watch using the same key on the center square pin that manually adjusts the long & slender charcoal blued hour and minute hands. The off-white enamel watch face dial is clean and free of lines, cracks, and chips, and is in minty condition with elongated Roman numeral hour markers, an outside border with minute increments and a sunken small minute sub dial with one second increments.

The watch crystal is very thick and extends above the top front of the bezel about 1/16“ and is also mint with one minuscule air bubble at 9:30. The 16" (double length) original matching silver chain and fob is unmarked and untested but matching in color and has (6) links of 2 different sizes double flat links that are connected by regular chain links. The end spring loaded clasp appears to have a silver lion hallmark that holds the spring-loaded gold colored key with a stamped 8. The chain has a round connector with 2 attachments; one is a large round spring-loaded clip to attach to a vest button or buttonhole, and a small round 2 sided clear glass working compass with a fancy outer ring with 12 directional marks. Total weight of the chain and fob is 1.1 ounces or 32 grams.

The inside watch movement is gold plated and hand engraved in beautiful large Old English Script lettering AMERICA, SPRINGFIELD, ILL and the movement number 409816. The Illinois Watch Company only made 1,450 of this pattern watch. The movement has a F(ast) & S(low) lever that is attached to a small hand scroll engraved panel with 2 screws that has engraved +/- increments for adjustment. This movement has the early style flat balance arm that secures the Master fly wheel pin and is beautifully hand engraved in a scroll pattern with fine attention to detail and charcoal blued screws. I am listing this pocket watch as having 7 jewels. However, I understand that the 7 minimum - 11 maximum jewels in this watch refer to the actual number that varies over time during the life of a watch manufacturing; and the actual number of jewels can only be determined by removing the movement from the watch case to be inspected.

It is very hard to take images of a shiny reflecting object, and I had to take dozens of images to get the ones in the listing. This handsome, eye appealing, early key wind key set coin silver Pocket Watch is 100% original, with a matching silver chain, is in fine+ condition for its extreme 141-year age, runs perfectly, and can still be used today. I wound the watch 1 turn of the key and 5 hours later, the watch showed the correct time.