Elgin Watches, 1867-1879, Part 4: the first stem winders and setters
by, 10-02-2013 at 12:52 AM (1426 Views)
- Part 1, introduction and list of references
- Part 2, the Great Named Grade Purge and the first 17 size watches
- Part 3, the dial name change
What the sources say
I'll just quote Crossman verbatim here:
I still haven't figured out whether the "model watch" mentioned in the quote is related to Moseley's US Patent 161,262 (1875).The first stem wind watches issued by the company were delivered June 28, 1873, the model watch having been made by Mr. C. S. Moseley. Between that date and May 6, 1875, stem winding attachments were applied to the "Raymond," "Culver," "Taylor," "Wheeler," "Laflin" and "Ogden" grades.
Abbot makes similar statements as Crossman; he omits the May 6, 1875 date, but adds that the first stem-winder "placed on the market" was a B.W. Raymond movement:
The Elgin AlmanacsOn June 28, 1873, the first stem-wind movement was placed on the market. It was a Raymond movement made over, and was shortly followed by the Culver, Taylor, Wheeler, Laflin and Ogden.
The Almanacs give us a timeline that is entirely compatible with Crossman and Abbott's accounts, but in addition also more detailed. Stem winders, which by Crossman and Abbott's accounts were introduced June 28, 1873, are first mentioned in the 1874 edition of the Almanac. However, this Almanac adds that the watches in question had stem winding but not stem setting:
I've cut off the Almanac's bragging about how Elgin watches are so good that you only need to set them once every six months.
The 1875 Almanac then mentions the introduction of stem setting watches:
The text highlights that the mechanism used is one of the company's own invention. This appears to be George Hunter's US Patent 152,113, which we will see below. (The excerpt also talks about things that are either errors or just hard to interpretó"14 size" ladies' watches, and ladies' stem winders that were either not made on schedule or just never made.)
The 1876 Almanac simply says (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. Culv