Elgin Illinois "Bunn" Watch
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The
face bears the name "ILLINOIS"
in upper-case lettering, arced
around a small circular indent
in the face. The outer bezel,
which unscrews to reveal the
setting lever, bears a leafy
motif.
The case is believed to be a Crescent Watch Co. Case. The 905 on the rim matches the last three numbers on the other case part. It was advertised, at the time of issue, as follows: Hunting or open face; nickel, 17 fine red ruby jewels, gold settings; adjusted to temperature, six positions and isochronism, 'carefully timed'; highly polished, hardened, beveled steel escape wheel, chamfered teeth; compensation balance, gold screws, including four timing screws; hand finished conical pivots on balance staff; best quality Swiss Breguet hairspring, Philippe coil; patent micrometric screw regulator; all steel parts highly finished; best quality Swiss mainspring; double sunk glass enameled dial; handsomely damaskeened, gold lettering. Especially adapted for railway service. |
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The
back bears a matching leafy
design around the circumference,
plus another leafy design around
an irregular-shaped "shield."
Inside are the crescent moon
with five-pointed star
trademark, above which is
engraved "PAT.APL
2.2.79 C.W.C.CO." and beneath it
is the number "230905."
The watch production run was 1335,201 to 1335,500 (so it was in a run of 300 movements). |
The movement bears several
engravings:
The rim of the body immediately surrounding the movement is stamped with the number 905. Fairly scarce Illinois movement, as production of this grade is 3200 movements in 18 different runs from 1893-1897. Runs for this grade are from 50 to 400 movements/run. From the extra set of screw marks on the side of the case, it appears like this case was used for another movement prior to seeing this movement. F.A. Fielder is probably the jeweller that the movement was purchased from. |
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