As I mentioned a week ago, I seldom buy IWC pocket watches today, since I look almost exclusively for pre-1900 models, and ones that I don't have seldom appear. This one was one lucky find, and I really had no idea what I had found.
I was out of town when someone wrote me about an IWC pocket watch. It looked extraordinarily ordinary from the dial side, although the dial was in good condition:
But one clue were the Roman numerals --that us usually means the watch is pre-1900, since after that Arabics were more popular.
The case also wasn't anything special. It was almost black with tarnish, but after much careful polishing it looks like this:
Opening it up revealed the movement --and I could tell right away it was a so-called Elgin I from the mid-1880s. The seller thought its low number, 681, meant it was the 681th watch produced by IWC, but I explained it was from the second numbering, when IWC started over.
I couldn't tell what the calibre was, since I was out of town and couldn't hit the books.I knew it wasn't a Calibre 33, which I already own and show on my pocket watch site at www.iwcpocketwatch.com/elgin.html. So I just bought it.
I then wrote the real experts, Ralph Ehrismann and David Seyffer. Ralph told me:
"This is an ultra rare c.34. Elgin I with hidden winding wheels (à bascule).
I think there are just few known (less than 10, now one more) all with numbers below 700." He later wrote me that "There are now 6 known of this caliber." He believes there were only about 200-400 of the calibre built in total. All known ones have only three chatoned-jewels, and none on the center wheel.
David Seyffer gave me more information, with the understated comment that he's seen "only a very few in my life." He wrote me:
"I guess the movement with the number 681 was made in August, September 1884. As you guessed, the records are missing and so I can’t tell you the correct date.
"There were the four different types of Elgin I:
Cal. winding Type Name
32 á vue open face Elgin I
33 á vue Hunter Elgin I
34 á base open face Elgin I
35 á base Hunter Elgin I
"A base, means that the wheels of the winding mechanism are hidden.
"As far as I understood or interpret the sales records retailers could choose if they want e.g. a jeweled centre wheel or not. Therefore there are movements with or without
"A really beautiful watch. Would be a nice thing to share with the others in the forum. Probably we could start one more time a “Elgin” discussion ."
It is, certainly to me, a beautiful watch, with beauty on the inside. The movement is nickle-plated, and with interesting stripes. But to me the knock-your-socks-off part is the hand-engraved balance cock. Here's a close-up:
I'm one lucky guy.
