Elgin Watch Company

Clock making manufacture Elgin Watch Company (National Watch Company) was founded in 1864.

Some of the associated founders came from Waltham Watch Company, that is to say P.S. Bartlett, D.G. Currier, Otis Hoyt, Charles H. Mason and other pioneers of the clock making industrialization initiated by Aaron Lufkin Dennison. The idea to create an important clock making manufacture in the mid-West had been considered and discussed with J.C. Adams, Bartlett and Blake. Following a study trip to Waltham, Adams turned over to Chicago and approached Benjamin W. Raymond, a former mayor of the city, in order to constitute the capital necessary. Adams and Raymond succeeded in convincing of other investors to bring their financial support.

“The National Watch Co” (Elgin) was thus founded in August 1864. The factory was localized with Elgin, Illinois, where the city made donation of a site covering 35 acres (142 000 m ²). The factory was finished in 1866 and the first produced movement, of American size 18, “full punt design”, was marked “B.W. Raymond”. The company closed its doors in 1964, after having produced about half of the total of the watches of pockets manufactured in the United States (not counted watches “dollar-type”).

Source

Supplements Watch Guide, by Cooksey Shugart, Tom Engle, Richard E. Gilbert, Edition 1998, ISBN 1-57432-064-5

External bonds

The Elgin Watch Collectors Site

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