Elgin was the General Motors of watchmakers.  Like GM for cars, Elgin used precise, mass production techniques to make quality timepieces for the masses.  At lower price points, Elgin made watches with 7 or more “working jewels” in plain cases.  [1]  At the high end, Elgin made extremely precise, chronometer-quality watches with 23 to 30 jewels in cases made of precious metals like solid gold.  [2]  In between, it made quality timepieces for middle America at a time when a watch was a significant purchase meant to be used for many years. Elgin made more watches with jeweled movement than any other company, ever.

Like GM, Elgin also made a lot of “common” products that are not of great interest to collectors today. GM is not Rolls-Royce, nor is Elgin is analogous to Patek Philippe. But GM made some incredible vehicles that are at the heart of major car collections, such as the 1930s V-16 Cadillacs and the 1960s Corvette Stingrays. Elgin also made some phenomenal watches, including the 27- and 30-jewel automatics and B.W. Raymond wrist chronometers around 1960, the art deco Parisienne women’s watches of the 1930s, some of the first battery powered watches in the 1950s [3], etc.

Elgin operated the world’s largest watch factory—the main plant in Elgin, Illinois—from 1866 until 1964, as well as several other U.S. plants after World War II.  For half a century, Elgin operated its own astronomical observatory that allowed its watches to be precisely “Timed to the Stars.”  It was the first watchmaker to make 50 million watches with jeweled movements, a feat celebrated in 1951 with an impressive 18k gold watch made in a limited run of 1,000 pieces.  

That was a rare milestone for a producer of jeweled movement watches.  Only in 2019 did Longines, a luxury Swiss maker that competed against the high-end Elgins, make its 50 millionth watch.  No other maker of quality jeweled timepieces has ever reached that figure.  Elgin produced about half the jeweled watches ever made in the U.S., with the remainder made by famous competitors like Waltham, Hamilton, and others.

In its advertising we can see the kinds of customers Elgin sold to and the aspirations they held.  Elgin made quality watches for the managerial class and professionals, graduating students, glamorous women, and sporty men:  an America that was on the move and on the make. 

In the mid-1950s, Elgin was one of the 500 biggest companies in America, producing around 1 million watches annually.  And it was generally profitable, albeit with some very rocky periods:  Elgin turned a profit in 20 of the 24 years between 1945-1968.  Nonetheless, unfair trade policies forced it to diversify away from its core watch business into other areas.  Huge losses related to its military defense business in the mid-1960s are largely to blame for Elgin disappearing as an independent company in 1968.  [4]

Today, the “Elgin” name is used to market lower price “fashion watches” made overseas that have nothing to do with the American Elgin company that existed for a century.  Nonetheless, there is much to be proud of: American Elgin created some of the most impressive watches ever made in the U.S., with fabulously decorated cases and dials, art deco and mid-century modern designs, technological innovations, and incredibly high quality movements which even today, when properly serviced, keep time exceptionally well.

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Footnotes:

[1]  “Jewels” refers to jeweled bearings.  They are not decorations; they are specially shaped stones (usually synthetic garnets, rubies or sapphires), that act as bearings to reduce friction around pivot points, and make mechanical watches more precise.  See https://elgintime.blogspot.com/2012/09/notes-on-elgin-watch-characteristics.html

[2]  A “chronometer is fundamentally a highly accurate mechanical watch movement that has undergone – and passed – strict precision tests over a period of time in a host of different circumstances.”  https://www.longines.com/en-us/universe/blog/what-is-a-chronometer  Neutral organizations do these tests.  For example, Elgin’s 23 jewel B.W. Raymond Railroad Wrist Chronometer was approved in 1960 after testing by railroads whose employees needed extremely precise watches for safety reasons.  See More Rails Okay Use of Wrist Watch, The Decatur Daily Review (IL), July 26, 1960, p. 8.  Elgin’s 30 jewel automatics from the same time period are also considered “chronometer quality” by experts like Ranfft, the most complete watch movement database.  https://ranfft.org/caliber/3525-Elgin-760 

[3] https://www.elgin.watch/enwco/events/watch-of-tomorrow/ ; see also Watchmaker Enlivens a Dull Cocktail Party, The Berkshire Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.), Jan. 17, 1956, p. 3 (discussion with President James Shennan about electronic watch development at Elgin)

[4] Page 135 of the excellent Elgin Time: A History of the Elgin National Watch Company, 188 pages, available to order from the Elgin History Museum at https://elginhistory.org/product/elgin-time-a-history-of-the-elgin-national-watch-company-2020-reprint/