Elgin Tank - Engraved Two Tone Case - Double Hinged Art Deco Case - 1927

In 1927 the lights in American ballrooms burned late. Orchestras played into the small hours, the floors were waxed for dancing, and when the dancing started, cuffs came up into the light. Men dressed for those rooms in black and white, and the watch that went with the clothes was a rectangle, worn flat on the wrist and engraved like jewelry.

The tank here was finished in 1927, one of a run of three thousand, the last year Elgin made its grade 444. The case around it came from the Star Watch Case Company, a maker that had started out in Elgin, Illinois, casing that same watch company's pocket movements, and Star built this one the way it had built those. The back does not snap shut. It swings open on a hinge, the movement behind it rides in a ring that swings on a second hinge, and in the hand the watch folds out into three pieces still joined to each other.

The dial is off white. The numerals are the tall blocked Arabic figures of the twenties, drawn in black outline with reflective centers, and they change with the light, reading dark from one angle and flashing bright from the next. The minute track around them cuts inward at each corner to follow the case, and Elgin sits under the twelve. Two hands in bright metal cross the face, there is no seconds hand, and the surface carries fine hairlines and a scatter of small dark marks.

The movement holds fifteen jewels, wound and set from the crown, its plates damascened in broad ribbons. The serial cut across the lower plate, 29561500, is the number Elgin's records date to 1927.

The case is two colors of gold filled metal, marked 14kt inside the back. The bezel is white, and an engraved garland of leaves runs the whole way around it, a rosette cut into each corner and a line of beading along the outer edge. The frame that holds it is yellow, and it rises into small curled lugs at the top and the bottom. Inside the back, past watchmakers have scratched their service marks into the metal.

I bought this watch from another watchmaker who had purchased it out of an estate sale in Elgin, Illinois, from a collection built of only unique Elgin watches and nothing else. It has been fully serviced. It comes on a black lizard grain strap . The watch runs and keeps 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.

All sales final.