Elgin National Watch Company

Dueber Pocket Watch Case Serial Numbers Online

In the spring of 1864 half a dozen ambitious Chicago businessmen decided that if Massachusetts could build a factory that built watches – Illinois could, too. Harper’s magazine summed their sentiment perfectly: “It was the genuine, audacious, self-reliant Western spirit.” By August of that year this consortium, including then-Chicago mayor Benjamin W. Raymond, purchased an abandoned farm 30 miles north of Chicago and built a watch factory there. After a year of designing and building the lathes and machines to achieve seemingly impossible levels of precision, a team of watchmakers and mechanical engineers produced their first pocket watch movement, named for mayor “B.W. Raymond.” The watch was exquisite: Elgin National Watch Company was born.

At about this time an anti-trust law was passed and the watch case manufacturers formed a boycott against Dueber. In order to remain in business, Dueber bought the Hampden Watch Co. In Springfield in 1888, then moved it to Canton. By 1890, the company was producing 600 watches a day, had 1000 employees, and possessed net assets of $2,600,000.

Lie to me season 3 subtitles. By 1910, word of Elgin’s obsession with precision had spread around the world. Elgin engineers built their own Observatory to maintain scientifically precise times in their watches. Later, their accurate “wristlet” watches proved to be vital to the WWI war effort, helping to fuel a craze back in the states for something called “The Wrist Watch.” By the opulent Jazz Age, if you weren’t displaying the exuberant symmetry of an Elgin wrist watch or carrying a svelte, distinctive Elgin pocket watch, then who were you? Elgin had helped define the American pocket watch as unsurpassed in “Railroad Accuracy.” By 1930, the post Civil War dream factory imagined by a handful of American entrepreneurs had produced 32 million “time machines.”

I have a 1914 Hampden Sweetheart watch, serial #(NNN) NNN-NNNN 1 1/4' diameter Dueber engraved gold case, white face with second hand, working condition, serviced in 2003, very goo to excellent condit. Pocket watch is in used condition but it does run. Per serial number 631580 movement was manufactured in 1880. Watch is size 16 with 15 jewels (per research from elginnumbers. Hunter style dueber 14k gold filled watch case has serial number 1680423 (see pictures).

During World War II, all civilian manufacturing was halted and the company moved into the defense industry, manufacturing military watches, chronometers, fuses for artillery shells, altimeters and other aircraft instruments and sapphire bearings used for aiming cannons.

While their altruism was vital to the war effort, Elgin’s patriotism ironically opened an opportunity for the Swiss. By 1964, after a Mid-Century decade that saw the rise of the elite “Lord and Lady Elgin” series, the original Elgin factory closed. Over the course of a century, the dream factory just north of Chicago had produced half of all jeweled pocket and wristwatches manufactured in the United States.

The legendary Elgin watch has become woven into the fabric of America:

Robert Johnson, pre-eminent Delta bluesman, sang “She’s got Elgin movements from her head down to her toes” in his 1936 recording of “Walkin’ Blues”.
NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor was named after the Elgin National Watch Company.
Daniel Beard’s sketches of an angel at the end of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court are based on the Elgin National Watch Company’s logo.
The Steeleye Span album Bloody Men contains a track titled “Lord Elgin”: ostensibly a love song, it is, in fact, about the Lord Elgin Watch.
Elgin Watch Company is referenced in the video game L.A. Noire, which takes place in post-World War II Los Angeles.

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Dueber Pocket Watch Case Serial Numbers By Name

The Hampden Watch Company was known for its high quality watches while it was in business. Today, many of the watches made by this company are collector items. If you collect Hampden watches, you'll appreciate knowing more about the company history. Read on..

Company Origins

The Hampden Pocket Watch Company began its existence as the Mozart Watch Company in 1864. Established by Donald J. Mozart, the company was originally located in Providence, Rhode Island. After several failures, Samuel Rice joined Mozart and the name was changed to the New York Watch Company. It moved to Springfield, Massachusetts in October, 1867, where they produced two grades of watches; the 18 size, ¾ plate Springfield and the 16 size, ¾ plate State Street. In 1877, the company changed its name to the Hampden Watch Company.

Meanwhile, in Newport, Kentucky, John C. Dueber had established a company that made watch cases called the Dueber Watch Case Manufacturing Company. In 1886, he bought controlling interest in the Hampden Watch Company in order to protect his business from the Watch Case Trust. In 1888, Dueber moved the company from Massachusetts to Canton, Ohio. The watch company and the case company were housed in separate factories located right next door to each other. Advertisements for the company listed it as the Dueber-Hampden Watch Works, although the two companies were not formally merged together until around 1925.

The Watch Trust

The Watch Trust included many different watch making companies. They formed the trust to restrict trade so that watch movements could not be sold without cases. It was common practise at the time for the watch case to be made by a different company than the movements, as was the case with Dueber's watch case company and Hampden Watch Company. They also made it difficult for jewelers to purchase movements and cases from any company that was not part of the trust. Dueber suffered from this practice and sued the companies involved, claiming that they wanted to form a monopoly and keep his company from competing in the market. Dueber won the case after several months' deliberation, but in 1896, the Trust was close to forming again. The Sherman Anti-Trust Act played an important role in bringing down the Watch Trust and the government filed suit against many of the companies that were in violation of the anti-trust legislation.

Railway Watches

Railroad pocket watches were an important staple for most watch companies. Standards had to be met in order for a watch to be used by railroad personnel. It had to be open faced, keep accurate time and have clear Arabic numerals in black on a white face. In its previous incarnation as the New York Watch Company, Hampden had an 18 size, 15-jewel Railway pocket watch that was one its highest grades. It remained at the top of the Hampden line after the reorganization. Soon a new model was introduced that used the stem to wind the watch. It was first made only in a hunting case. A hunting case is one that opens to show the watch and closes to protect it. The same watch was offered open face, but instead of being listed as a Railway grade, it was listed as grade 60. After the factory was moved to Ohio, the company began making an open faced Railway grade Hampden pocket watch. Years later, this grade was discontinued when Dueber introduced his new line of 17-jewel watches. Railway watches in the new lines were known as Special Railway and New Railway grades.

Some facts about Jeweled Watches

You may hear of a 17 jewel or a 23 jewel watch, but what does it mean? The jewels are not for decoration; they are put into the mechanism to act as bearing