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Dueber Coin Case Serial Numbers
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My uncle has a pocket watch which he has had for a very long time. It
was given to him when he was very young and he retired several years ago
so it isn't young. He thought it belonged to a member of his mothers
family. But when I looked up the serial number of the watch, (it's a 17
jewell Elgin with what appears to be a metal face with painted numerals)
it turned out to be made in 1923 which would not fit with the age of the
individual he thought it came from. There is a serial number on the
case as well which is a 20 year Dueber which is badly worn. The serial
number is 118080 and it is a pendent at 12 o'clock type. I don't know a
lot about these things but in examining it, I wondered if the watch may
have been in a different case at some time. It does run, or at least it
was running when I took off the back of the case to look at the
movement. When I tried to wind it the hands turned instead. I tried to
push in the stem, but it felt as though it was on a spring like it would
if it was a hunting case movement. I never succeeded in winding it.
Any way with all these things not seeming to fit, I wondered if it had
been in a different case once.
He would like to have it running and usable, but I think I read once
where wind and set problems were the most expensive and difficult to
fix. Is that true? And is there some place I can find the date of the
case from the serial number?
Thank you very much.
Jim
was given to him when he was very young and he retired several years ago
so it isn't young. He thought it belonged to a member of his mothers
family. But when I looked up the serial number of the watch, (it's a 17
jewell Elgin with what appears to be a metal face with painted numerals)
it turned out to be made in 1923 which would not fit with the age of the
individual he thought it came from. There is a serial number on the
case as well which is a 20 year Dueber which is badly worn. The serial
number is 118080 and it is a pendent at 12 o'clock type. I don't know a
lot about these things but in examining it, I wondered if the watch may
have been in a different case at some time. It does run, or at least it
was running when I took off the back of the case to look at the
movement. When I tried to wind it the hands turned instead. I tried to
push in the stem, but it felt as though it was on a spring like it would
if it was a hunting case movement. I never succeeded in winding it.
Any way with all these things not seeming to fit, I wondered if it had
been in a different case once.
He would like to have it running and usable, but I think I read once
where wind and set problems were the most expensive and difficult to
fix. Is that true? And is there some place I can find the date of the
case from the serial number?
Thank you very much.
Jim
What may be happening is you might be looking at the serial number on your case. Dueber-Hampden did not track serial numbers on the cases. The best thing would be to post up some images of your watch on our FACEBOOK (Dueber-Hampden page) so the collectors could take a closer look at your works/watch and help you to understand a bit more about your watch.Sounds interesting. Case- #5463163 The words DUEBER SPECIAL are on the inside of the case with an anchor in between them. The outside has a sail boat on the water with leaves and flowers surrounding it- really detailed. Watch- #1686123 The words saftey pinion appear under the serial number, also says HAMPDEN Canton, O.
Elgin National Watch Company
In the spring of 1864 half a dozen ambitious Chicago businessmen decided that if Massachusetts could build a factory that built watches – Illinois could, too. Harper’s magazine summed their sentiment perfectly: “It was the genuine, audacious, self-reliant Western spirit.” By August of that year this consortium, including then-Chicago mayor Benjamin W. Raymond, purchased an abandoned farm 30 miles north of Chicago and built a watch factory there. After a year of designing and building the lathes and machines to achieve seemingly impossible levels of precision, a team of watchmakers and mechanical engineers produced their first pocket watch movement, named for mayor “B.W. Raymond.” The watch was exquisite: Elgin National Watch Company was born.
By 1910, word of Elgin’s obsession with precision had spread around the world. Elgin engineers built their own Observatory to maintain scientifically precise times in their watches. Later, their accurate “wristlet” watches proved to be vital to the WWI war effort, helping to fuel a craze back in the states for something called “The Wrist Watch.” By the opulent Jazz Age, if you weren’t displaying the exuberant symmetry of an Elgin wrist watch or carrying a svelte, distinctive Elgin pocket watch, then who were you? Elgin had helped define the American pocket watch as unsurpassed in “Railroad Accuracy.” By 1930, the post Civil War dream factory imagined by a handful of American entrepreneurs had produced 32 million “time machines.”
During World War II, all civilian manufacturing was halted and the company moved into the defense industry, manufacturing military watches, chronometers, fuses for artillery shells, altimeters and other aircraft instruments and sapphire bearings used for aiming cannons.
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While their altruism was vital to the war effort, Elgin’s patriotism ironically opened an opportunity for the Swiss. By 1964, after a Mid-Century decade that saw the rise of the elite “Lord and Lady Elgin” series, the original Elgin factory closed. Over the course of a century, the dream factory just north of Chicago had produced half of all jeweled pocket and wristwatches manufactured in the United States.
The legendary Elgin watch has become woven into the fabric of America:
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- Robert Johnson, pre-eminent Delta bluesman, sang “She’s got Elgin movements from her head down to her toes” in his 1936 recording of “Walkin’ Blues”.
- NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor was named after the Elgin National Watch Company.
- Daniel Beard’s sketches of an angel at the end of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court are based on the Elgin National Watch Company’s logo.
- The Steeleye Span album Bloody Men contains a track titled “Lord Elgin”: ostensibly a love song, it is, in fact, about the Lord Elgin Watch.
- Elgin Watch Company is referenced in the video game L.A. Noire, which takes place in post-World War II Los Angeles.