Illinois 18-size open-face watch, 1876

Gilt brass full-plate movement with dust-band and compensated balance, jewelled to the fourth wheel on backplate only, signed Illinois Watch Co / No. 139360 / Springfield, Ill. Stem-wound with alternative key-wind facility; lever set. Very heavy undecorated silver case with hinged back, bezel and cuvette, stamped inside back NEWPORT and COIN with serial number 443699. White enamel dial with roman chapter-ring and large subsidiary seconds dial with sunken centre; blued steel spade-&-pointer hands. Worn ownership inscription of J. W. Davis on back.

Although mechanisation was already far advanced in American watchmaking, the dial is still hand-painted. The use of 15-second rather than 10-second markers reflects Swiss practice, but the matt enamel surface and the use of a separate seconds panel soldered in place are derived from English usage. The broad bezel is a specifically American touch; in 19th-century Old World cases the bezel is almost invisible from the front.

The back is still slightly convex; this style, extinct in Britain and Switzerland by 1850, lasted into the next century in the U.S.A. — Engraving on American cases tends to be rather lank and straggly – oddly reminiscent of the archetypal loose-limbed ‘ Uncle Sam’ or ‘Brother Jonathan’ figure as portrayed by the caricaturists of the day..

The jewels are pressed in and secured by ‘rubbing’ or burring over the surrounding brass, following Swiss practice; in Britain they would have been held by screws. The unjewelled pivot-hole visible above the regulator quadrant indicates an unusual construction feature: the second-hand is not mounted on the end of the third-wheel arbor but instead has its own shaft, driven via a pinion from the fourth wheel. The bimetallic balance was already common in America; Britain and Switzerland would not generally adopt it for another 15-20 years.

From the back this has the appearance of a 15-jewel movement, but this under-dial view reveals the truth: the train-wheels are jewelled only at the visible end, and the inner pivots are left unprotected. The winding-gear occupies the place where the third-wheel bridge would normally have been. The dial is still held to the pillar-plate by pins in the traditional fashion.

Left The massive case (the complete watch weighs 190gm) is an early product of John C. Dueber's factory at Newport, Kentucky, which later moved to Canton, Ohio, and absorbed the Hampden watchmaking firm. Watch-case making became a highly organised business in America at an early date; even before the rise of the local watch industry, imported English movements were being cased to a very high standard (see the Morris Tobias and Yates examples).

Right The escapement is still entirely English in style, with side-lever (arrowed) between its guard-pins and brass escape-wheel with pointed teeth to the left of the lever.

The Illinois watchmaking enterprise was founded in 1872 and is best known for its ‘Bunn’ and ‘Sangamo’ grades of the early twentieth century. This watch is an early example of the Model 3 grade 2 (the grade, numbered rather than named as was usual, indicates the number of jewels).

Thanks to Russ Snyder and Ed Ueberall, who between them have provided all the solid facts on this page.