1. Watch Case Serial Number Lookup

Instructions for using our vintage watch serial number look. Tables that are found on many of our watch company. Serial number from the watch case. 37 rows  How to Use our Vintage Watch Serial Number & Date. Look-up tables that are found on many of our watch company. Serial number from the watch case. The Star Watch Case Company was a company in Ludington. History of the American watch case. Library of Congress Card Number 74-152358, Whitmore Publishing 1971.

They did not make the watch, only the case. The hand etched numbers are from former watchmakers. When one of them worked on a watch, they would put down the shorthand in case they worked on that same watch again. There was no standard shorthand.

From page 7: '. After a series of mergers in 1904 the name became the Keystone Watch Case Co., Riverside, N.J.'

Their gold supply in bars was held in a local Ludington bank, then as need some bars were transferred to the factory for melting down. The factory always held around $200,000 worth of gold at any one time for watch cases of 10, 14, or 18 karats. Designs [ ] An early popular design was of the battleship that had a well known slogan of Remember the Maine, to Hell with Spain! Star Watch Case Company brick The beginning of the end of the company came when decided in the 1950s that a single vendor should not supply more than a third of the company's needs.

Were made between 1851 and 1957 in the city of Waltham near Massachusetts in the USA. There are many collectors of these antique watches and as a general rule of thumb the rarer and older the watch is then the more value it will have. The best place to start in terms of identification is to find out what type of watch you actually have. There are three types of antique pocket watches which are: • Side Winder – You can identify this as it has no cover on the face and the winder will be positioned at 3 o’clock • Open Face – It also has no cover but the winder is positioned at 12 o’clock • Hunter – This will always have a closed case that covers the front of the watch. Although difficult try to avoid touching the actual movement with your fingers as this can cause problems. You should now be able to get a note of the serial number though you may need a magnifying glass to see this properly. Take a note of this number and match it in the table below.

Other like models of Star's were worn on various space missions. Pantograph machine [ ] Andrew Hallberg invented a machine that allowed up to 32 watch backs to be engraved at the same time. Star watch Case Company was the patent owner of this invention since Mr. Hallberg was an employee of the company. The cutting-edge technology was kept secret so competitors would not learn of this mass-production method. This gave the company an advantage in fast watch case production.

You can usually tell if you have a complete watch case by seeing if these serial numbers match. Sometimes, the watch case companies would mark the bezels with the last few digits of the case number using Roman numerals. Usually the Roman numerals are scratched in by hand. For example, a case with a serial number of 153069 that has a screw on bezel might be marked 'X VI VIIII'. This code is kind of strange since each digit is written as one block of Roman numbers, the 'X' is for zero, not ten, and the 9 might not be written as 'IX'.

Engravers [ ] Fritz A. Baumgartner was the company's key hand engraver from 1906 in the Ludington factory. Other hand engravers were Emil Allemann and Otto Starke. Factory [ ] •. Stamping presses Military [ ] Pocket watch cases were 90% of Star's production up to 1938. Upon the entry of the United States in the Second World War the factory was converted to making brass compass cases, small weapons, and submarine parts. The company had a reputation for making quality military stainless steel military watch cases and cases for military compasses.

Goldberg: I don’t have a hard and fast date, but really any watch made after the 1930s isn’t going to interest me. Even the later made in the 1940s, 1950s, at that point they were really cutting the corners and they just don’t appeal to me. One thing I loved about the old watches is the workmanship and as they got away from that they became less interesting.

Some of the companies it made watch cases for were,,,,, and. Quelf game board description. Pocket watch cases were the only product made to World War I. They were solid gold or gold filled, sterling silver, rolled nickel-silver and brass. They included open face style and hunting style cases. After this time wristwatch cases were additionally produced. The company also manufactured certain military items during World War II. Trade Marks [ ] The company's trade mark is a five-pointed star and also the double-headed eagle.

And second, they made pretty much every type of watch, which no other American company did. They made high-end, repeater watches that chimed on the hour, high-end chronographs, stop watches. The company itself went out of business about 1953. The Waltham name has been either acquired or stolen by various companies over the years, so sometimes you’ll see a modern, cheap battery operated watch that has a big red W on it, but that has no relation to the Waltham Company. Collectors Weekly: How many watches do you have in your collection? Goldberg: I’d have to count, but I’d say about 40 or 50. Over the years I’ve had hundreds, but over time I’ve traded up to get better examples.

• For Elgin watches, case serial numbers on solid gold watches will usually be only 10% or less of the serial number on the movement. So, if someone is selling a watch as solid gold, and it has a movement serial number of, say, 3,870,123 and it has a case serial number of 1,073,678, a red flag should go up in your mind and you should be even more cautious about the claim. The reverse, however, isn't true, a small serial numbers doesn't mean it is solid gold. • Case serial numbers, if they are recorded, can help if the watch is ever stolen. Both the movement and case serial numbers should be written down, since the movement and the case can be easily separated. All of these are rules of thumb, not absolutes, there are many exceptions, especially for rule 2. Again, for the most part, case serial numbers just serve to confuse people.

The building was demolished in 1995. See also [ ] • Primary sources [ ] • Baumgartner, Fritz A., Memoirs of a Watch Case Engraver, Morrisville, N.C. Lulu.com, 2007, Secondary sources [ ] • • Ludington Daily News, April 16, 1994; p. 1 and 2 • Ludington Daily News, March 20, 1995; p. 10 & 11 • National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors (NAWCC). Reprinted with permission. 360 @2006 from article 'Star Watch Case Company 1897-1982 by Jack Linahan with photos and comments from Dimitry Grabbe.' • Niebling, Warren H., History of the American watch case. Library of Congress Card Number 74-152358, Whitmore Publishing 1971 Footnotes [ ].

Every watchmaker had his own symbols and codes. If you can tell me what is written on the movement itself, I can probably tell you more about the watch. ---------- FOLLOW-UP ---------- QUESTION: Hello again Melvin.

The Encyclopedia article on Choosing a Pocket Watch Repair Person may be useful as well. Please feel free to ask about anything that isn't clear to you.

They’re real jewels like rubies, diamonds, and sapphires – the shaft of each wheel goes through this little donut shaped jewel to reduce the friction. On a very high-grade watch, every single wheel or gear would have a jewel, one on the front and one on the back and what they call cap jewels to prevent it from going up or down. Lower-grade watches would only have them on the gears that are moving the fastest and a really crappy watch would only have one or two jewels or maybe none.

Watch Case Serial Number Lookup

The other parts of the watch are nice, I really enjoy a finely made case and a fancy dial, but to be honest it really is the mechanisms or what we call the movements of the watch that inspire me. If you look on my watch pages you’ll see that I always include the movements of the watch.

During World War II the company also manufactured components of military navigational aides. One such military component was the top secret, used for dropping bombs accurately from airplanes in World War II.

Collectors Weekly: How do you do your research? Goldberg: I primarily use a variety of books. There’s a kind of watch collectors bible by Shougart called The Complete Price Guide to Watches. There’s also a whole series of books put out by a company called Heart of America Press, the owner recently passed away, but he had a good variety of watch books. Collectors Weekly: Is there a certain date of manufacture you won’t collect past?

Merged to form the American Watch Company. The dial department of the Waltham Watch factory. In 1860, as Abraham Lincoln was elected President and the country found itself in the throes of the Civil War, the American Watch Company was faced with serious financial problems. By 1861, business had come to a standstill and bankruptcy seemed inevitable. The factory was kept in operation through these years by cutting expenses to the lowest possible level.

Question QUESTION: Hi there. I saw a posting by another watch-inheritor and wondered if you could give me an approximate date for a watch my parents have. The other poster's watch was a C.W.C. Co watch with a serial number of 180825 which you said was probably produced around 1887-1888. I don't have quite as much detail about this watch, but inside one cover are the letters C.W.C. Co and the number 581555. Over near the side is scratched the number 19244 or 19744 in TINY hand-scratch.

That happens with Railroad watches, if I have a 21 jewel Vanguard and I have an opportunity to buy a 23 jewel Waltham Vanguard, I might sell the 21 jewel to help pay for the 23 jewel. Collectors Weekly: What’s a railroad watch?

For most collectors, if a doesn’t have an original dial, they don’t want it. I’m less picky, and because I can never afford the best of the best, I have watches in my collection that don’t have perfect dials, or they have a little crack or chip. I still prefer that over a perfect reproduction dial, because at least I know it’s original, it’s authentic. Collectors Weekly: What advice do you have for someone just starting to collect pocket watches? Goldberg: Learn as much as you can before you spend too much money. Buy the Complete Price Guide to Watches, because that’s a really good overview of what’s out there and the prices you should be looking to pay. Join your local chapter of the NAWCC, because the best way to get experience is to talk to other collectors.

I'm new to the forum and have been enjoying the vast amount of posts, history, and pictures! My wife has been combing our local estate sales and thrift stores since the mid 90's. We sell a lot on 'certain online auction sites'.

The jeweler would then put the movement and the case together. With only a few exceptions, the watch companies and watch case companies were completely unrelated business. In addition, watch cases tended to wear out much quicker than the watch movements. So, the owner would sometimes go through two or three cases over the life time of the watch. Obviously, these later cases can't be related to the movement serial number. Even after the 1920's, when watch companies started selling cased watches, the watch companies still bought the watch cases from outside sources and the serial numbers were still unrelated.

Thanks for reading this article on. I am not an expert on these watches by any means but I thought I would include a section on Waltham as that was where the Elgin company actually started from so in many ways their history is inter-linked. Waltham Pocket Watches Value The main question I always get asked is what is the value of a pocket watch. I can never tell you that with any degree of accuracy as there are just too many variables. There are so many things that contribute to the value of a watch that it would be unfair to even an offer an estimate. The bottom line is the value will always be determined by what someone is willing to pay for it and who can ever guess what that may be?

Some history: 'MR. THEOPHILUS ZURBRUGG bought out the watch case company of Leichty & Le Bouba in 1884, in Philadelphia, Pa.

16 size Hamilton model “992” Railroad dial I got started collecting partly because I hated wearing wristwatches; I used to carry my wristwatch in my pocket, so I thought; why not just try getting a pocket watch. I happened to find one at an antique flea market. I was impressed by it, over a hundred years old and still running. A couple months later I saw another very nice antique pocket watch with a pretty dial on it, and I thought, I’m not collecting or anything, but I’ll have two. Pretty soon they just started growing on me. I fell into it.

I was amazed at the workmanship. I love holding a little piece of history in my hands.

The Boston Watch Company failed in 1857 and was sold at auction to Royal E. It was reorganized as 'Appleton, Tracy & Co.' And watches 5001 - 14,000 were produced. The first movements carried the Appleton, Tracy & Co. Parker movement was reintroduced as the model 1857 and sold for $12, no small amount in those days! In January, 1859 the Waltham Improvement Co. And the Appleton, Tracy & Co.

Case serial number is highlighted For the most part, case serial numbers only server to confuse people about what kind of watch they have. To the best of my knowledge, there are no records from any case manufactures that can make these case serial numbers useful. There are a few minor things you can use case serial numbers for: • The case serial number is printed on several parts of the watch case.