llinois Trench Watch - White Enamel Dial - Cushion Case - 1912

Nine days after Pearl Harbor, the United States had just entered WWII. The shock of December 7 had already hardened into mobilization, but the scale of what lay ahead remained unknowable. The radio had carried the news into every kitchen in the country, the recruiting stations had filled, and everyone was suddenly measuring their lives in days. It was during that week when the whole country was holding its breath that Russell turned the watch over and cut his name into it.  The watch in his hands was twenty-nine years old, a relic of the first world war that perhaps a family member or a soldier had worn, and the war beginning was the second one of its lifetime.

The watch had been born into a quieter world. The Illinois Watch Company of Springfield made its movement in 1912, two years before the First World War, in the last days when a fine watch still meant a pocket watch. Then the war put watches on soldiers' wrists, and the trench watch took its shape there: a cushion case, a bold readable dial, a strap. The case is a cushion of steel-toned metal, with three fine flutes cut at each corner and a band of scrollwork engraved down both flanks. After a hundred years of wear the engraving has softened, scratches cross the surfaces, and the crown has worn through to the brass beneath.

The dial is white enamel, glass fired onto metal, and it has held its white for over a hundred years. Bold black numerals circle the hours, a ring of small red numerals counts the minutes by fives outside them, and the seconds turn in their own sunken register above the six. Two dark spade hands cross it. I see what appears to be a fine hairline beside the seconds register, and the printing everywhere is sharp.

Under the back, the movement is signed Illinois Watch Co Springfield across nickel plates finished in damascening, fine bright ribbons of pattern laid edge to edge on metal no owner would ever see. It is a grade 33, 0-size, eleven jewels, wound by hand, and the factory's surviving records place its serial, 2458467, in a run of just six hundred built that year. Interestingly this watches setting works backwards. To wind the watch you press in and wind at the same time. When your finished winding the crown pushes out with spring tension to the setting position where the time is set.

The strap is my own pairing, an authentic military issue by the American Strap Co, khaki canvas with hand-finished eyelets and a steel buckle, made for the same war Russell dated on the back. 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.