Elgin Trench Watch - Engine-Turned Silver Dial - An All-American Wristlet - 1913

In 1913 the world was being remade. Electric light was reaching streets that had never had it, motorcars were beginning to fill the streets, and in the cities towers were going up taller than anything built before. New ideas came just as fast. At the dinner table revolution was talked about as a real and coming thing. America felt the new century tilting its way. No one yet knew that in a matter of months the guns of August would open and take that whole bright world down with them. This watch comes from the last moment of this era, and the beginning of WWI.

It is an Elgin wristlet, a small round watch on wire lugs from 1913. Most that survive from then are plain service pieces in silver or nickel, made to be used and nothing more. A gold-filled one wearing a dial cut and finished like this, made to be admired is incredibly rare.

The dial is gold/silvered and two-toned, its center engine-turned in a guilloché of fine waves that catch and sparkle in the light as the wrist turns. The Elgin name sits in a raised cartouche near the top, a small seconds dial is sunk at six, and ornate Breguet numerals ring the edge under blued steel hands. There is light toning and a few small spots across it, for a dial past a hundred years its in excellent condition, and the printing and engine-turning are still sharp. 

Behind it sits Elgin's grade 355, a fifteen-jewel movement of the small size these wristlets used, the nickel plates decorated in a stunning damascened wave, a finish cut into each surface. Its serial places it firmly in 1913.  Only 2000 355's were produced in this particular run around 110 years ago!

The case is marked inside as a Bates and Bacon Royal, made in Attleboro, Massachusetts, two plates of fourteen-karat gold over a brass core, guaranteed when it was new not to wear through for twenty years. An American movement in an American case. Its color runs between rose and yellow gold, under a domed crystal. It rides today on a custom bund built custom for it, a broad leather pad that lifts the watch off the wrist, dark brown with amber stitching.

The gold shows honest surface wear on the high points and the bezel edge. It still runs and keeps excellent time.

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.

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