Elgin Self-Winding Shockmaster - 1950s - Champagne Sunburst Dial - Red Sweep Seconds

By the 1950s, the American watch industry was losing a fight it had once dominated. Elgin had been building watches in Elgin, Illinois since 1864, millions of them, and for a time it stood among the largest watchmakers in the world. But the Swiss had moved ahead on the self-winding automatic, and Elgin could not catch up. So in 1953 the company began doing something it had never done, buying movements from Switzerland and selling them under the Elgin name. This Self-Winding Shockmaster, from the mid-1950s, is one of those watches. The name on the dial is American. The movement inside is Swiss.

The dial is champagne, and the sunburst is not a flat finish but a 3 dimensional one, raised ridges radiating from the center so the light shifts across it as the watch moves. The hours are marked with applied gold Arabic numerals. ELGIN and SELF-WINDING sit below twelve, SHOCKMASTER above six, and SWISS at the very bottom. The hands are gold, and a slim seconds hand crosses the dial with a red arrow at its tip. The dial has aged, with some soft spotting and toning across its surface, the kind a watch of seventy years comes by honestly, but the raised sunburst and the gold still carry it.

The case is round, ten karat gold filled, with broad fluted lugs that fan out from the body and a domed crystal over the dial. It was made by the Star Watch Case Company, whose stamp sits inside the back, a firm that had itself begun in Elgin, Illinois making cases for the Elgin Watch Company down the road before it moved its factory to Michigan. The gold fill shows the polishing and fine scratches of long wear.
Inside is the Elgin caliber 643, seventeen jewels, unadjusted, an automatic that winds through a rotor and drives the sweep seconds directly. It is a Swiss movement, built on the A. Schild 1361, one of the first automatics Elgin began importing in 1953.
The watch is on a gold toned expansion bracelet with a woven, textured pattern. It is not original to the watch and it shows its own wear, with some plating loss along the links, but it suits the period.

The watch is running, winding, and keeping good time.

Terms: Please review all photos carefully as they are a part of the listing. This is a vintage timepiece. Accuracy, power reserve, and water resistance are not guaranteed. Vintage watches may require periodic service. Performance can vary with wear, temperature, and position.

I am happy to service any unserviced watch listed on the site, please inquire about service charges when purchasing.

All sales final.