Illinois - Art Deco Cushion - The Last Year of Springfield - 1932

In 1932 the Depression reached its bottom. Banks were failing by the thousand, a quarter of the country was out of work, and the factories of the Midwest were going dark one by one. In Springfield, Illinois, the watch factory on the north side still had its lights on, and the serial inside this watch dates it to that year, the last year the factory ever ran. Dealers who handle Illinois wristwatches say plainly that they seldom get them, and collectors count these last Springfield wristwatches among the finest America ever made.

Springfield was Lincoln's town. He practiced law there for twenty-four years, kept his office on the square, and left it for the White House. John Todd Stuart, the lawyer who had lent the young Lincoln his first law books and then taken him on as a partner, was still there when the town built its watch company five years after Lincoln's death, and Stuart became its first president. For sixty years its watches carried the name Illinois. Hamilton bought the company in 1928 and turned Springfield's benches from pocket watches to wristwatches, and in November of 1932 the lights went out for good.

Its dial is a warm cream around a silver center panel, the silver semigloss and shimmering when the watch turns. The numerals stand in black outline, hollow Deco figures drawn large, with Illinois in a ribbon under the twelve and the seconds in their own square frame above the six. The hands are original, and their lume no longer matches: one aged to a deep pumpkin, the other to a paler cream, a single hand relumed by some watchmaker decades ago. I left it exactly as I found it. Scattered age spots mark the cream, plain in the photographs.

Inside is the grade 307, seventeen jewels, its nickel plates cut with damascening that still catches the light, signed Illinois Watch, Springfield.

The case is a cushion made by Keystone, stamped Nickeloid inside its back, with a geometric frieze engraved along its flanks and stepped ridges cut at the corners of the bezel. Its back carries a previous owner's monogram engraved in a diamond, the letters interlaced in the fashion of the day, and inside the back, watchmakers' marks are scratched from services across its life. The nickel shows spotting and small pits on the back and at the bezel's edge, and the engraving on the flanks is still crisp. It comes on an authentic military issue canvas strap in olive, made by Brite Co, with hand-sewn eyelets and a steel buckle. The watch runs, and its service history is unknown.

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.