They also produced the only American-made automatic wristwatch movements: grades 607, 618, 760, and 761. In 1958, they introduced the "DuraBalance," an ingenious design for a free-sprung balance (no regulator pins) which used spiral balance arms and small weights to govern the moment of inertia of the balance. Throughout their history, the Elgin National Watch Company was known for horological innovations. Elgin watches remain extremely popular with collectors today because they are plentiful, can be obtained at reasonable prices, and can be relatively easily repaired due to the large number of watches and parts available.Įlgin shipped their first wristwatch in 1910, and later manufactured the first wrist watch to be qualified for railroad service, the grade 730A B.
Together with the Waltham Watch Company, they dominated the huge market for mid-grade watches, producing over one-million per year during their peak years of production. Their success can be attributed to their huge production of low to mid-grade watches. The Elgin Watch Company's success was not built on its production of the highest-grade watches, though some of their higher grades were top-quality, exquisitely made timepieces. In 1874, the company officially changed their name to the Elgin National Watch Company, and that name remained until they stopped producing watches in the 1960's. This identical watch, serial number 101, was sold at auction in New York in 1988 for $12,000. Raymond model which sold in April of 1867 for the astounding price of $115. The factory for the National watch company was completed in 1866, and the first movement produced was an 18-size B. Mason, with financial backing from former Chicago Mayor Benjamin W. The Elgin National Watch Company was founded in 1864 in Elgin, Illinois as the National Watch Company, and some of the organizers were later to become the some of the biggest names in the American watch industry: J.
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