I recently serviced two family watches owned by the late father of a ClockSavant customer and will be doing a post for each of them. Here I will discuss the Elgin 12 size (12s) pocket watch from 1924. During this era, more people could afford the luxury of a pocket watch to keep time based on more economical options, no longer entirely reliant on the gongs of town steeple clocks when on-the-go. The 12 size Elgin pocket watches of this era were enormously popular and provided a quality yet cost-controlled pocket watch option. While having fewer jewels than some other watches, they were still robust and well made. American manufacturers of this era maintained a good deal of pride in the presentation of their movements and customers were often shown the movements during the purchasing process. Here you see an example of the intricate decoration commonly found on American movements of the era. Many of these watches arrive to me in poor condition once an accident occurred and then later handled by a botch watchmaker who walked away from servicing. Someone had inspected this watch and appeared to improperly reassemble it. This left me with more difficult escapement work to have the watch running once again. Servicing was successful and the watch is ready again for future generations.
