 (again) that stem winding and setting is "now" available for the Raymond, Culver, Taylor, Wheeler, Laflin and Ogden grades:
George Hunter's 1874 patent ("slide lever set")
The stem setting mechanism mentioned in the 1875 Almanac is almost certainly George Hunter's US Patent 152,113 (available from Google). The drawings from the patent are worth reproducing here:
Charles Moseley's 1875 patent (stem winding)
I don't have much to say about this one at the moment, or how it fits into the picture. I'll reproduce the drawings here:
Google has a scan of the patent.
Jacques David (1876)
The one thing Jacques David has to say about Elgin stem winders is a rough estimate of relative production compared to key winders:
Elgin's records and Wayne Schlitt's databaseThe proportion of pendant wound watches produced by Elgin compared to the number of key wound watches is 10%. (p. 28)
In Elgin's serial number records (e.g., from the 1915 Material Guide), key wind/key set 18 size watches are usually classified as 18 Size Model 1, while the 18 size hunting stem winders are classified as 18 Size Models 2, 3 and 4. It appears that the motive for distinguishing between Models 2, 3 and 4 was forgotten at some point before 1915, so a lot of materials about Elgin refer to "Models 2-4" indistinctly as the equivalent of one model.
Elgin's records also assign different grade numbers to key wind and stem wind movements of the same grade name. However, we will see that the grade numbering of stem wind movements was far from consistent; for these watches, more so than others, same grade number does not mean same movement.
Wayne Schlitt's database is based on Elgin's records, and is the most convenient way of doing research on them. A simple search reveals that Elgin's records are somewhat crazy when it comes to the early stem winders. Here are the relevant recorded runs for serial numbers under 300,000 (search for "l l=16"):
Start # Run size Grade name Grade number 155,001 100 H.Z. Culver 61 155,101 4,900 H.H. Taylor 20 235,001 3,000 H.Z. Culver 61 246,501 12 National Watch Co. 70 246,513 88 B.W. Raymond 70 246,601 100 H.Z. Culver 61 246,701 100 H.H. Taylor 20 246,801 100 G.M. Wheeler 63 255,001 410 Mat. Laflin 68 255,411 90 G.M. Wheeler 63 255,501 100 Mat. Laflin 68 255,601 300 G.M. Wheeler 63 255,901 100 Nameless 68 256,001 1,000 G.M. Wheeler 63 257,001 1,700 M.D. Ogden 8 258,701 300 G.M. Wheeler 63
For most of Elgin's records, watch runs were assigned serial numbers in multiples of 1,000, but in this case we have lots of small runs. Stem winders clearly were low-volume items at first; if Jacques David's estimate is right, in 1876 only 10% of Elgin's watches were stem winding, and 1873-1876 were lean years because of the financial crisis of 1873.
Schlitt's database also has this interesting comment about the strange 12-watch run recorded at 246,501:
("1896 MC" refers to Elgin's 1896 Material Catalog.) Although I haven't seen a watch from this range, I think that Schlitt's guess that this is a typo appears to be unjustified. We already saw above that according to the 1874 Almanac, Elgin's first stem winders did not have a stem setting mechanism. And as I will discuss below, I actually do have a stem wind/key set Elgin that confirms that such watches were made.4th stem-wind but key set! only case of this, typo in 1896 MC?
I have the following Elgin stem wind watches ≤300,000:
Serial # Grade name Setting Winding 155,399 H.H. Taylor Key Stem and key 155,743 H.H. Taylor Slide lever Stem and key 237,604 H.Z. Culver Pull-out lever Stem and key 255,344 Mat. Laflin Slide lever Stem and key
I only just got started on my database of watches I've seen online, but I have recorded this one:
Serial # Name Setting Winding Notes 263,206 Raymond Pull-out Stem and key Serial # recorded as grade 69 key wind; looks funny, maybe hand engraved?
"Stem and key wind" means that these are so-called "transitional" watches that have both the stem winding mechanism and a key winding post in the movement. "Slide lever" refers to George Hunter's 1874 patent lever set mechanism, wh