I thought I would share a couple of photos of a 15 jewel aurora I just picked up.

Photo of the dial. Comments welcome and show us your Aurora.

Nice, Tony.

Nice one Tony

And here's yet another Aurora

regards,
bb

Nice looking Aurora, Tony!They look an awful lot like an Illinois.Beautiful dial.

Here is an Aurora Roman Numeral dial with the logo for the United States Jewelers' Guild

And the 11 jewel, Grade No. 45 movement Made Expressly for the Guild

An Aurora private-label dial marked "Armel Bros. Holten, Kan."

Hunter Pvt. label 15 jewel movement with checkerboard damaskeening

Nice watches! Wish I had one, I don't even have one like Buster's! At least Larry gave me something to do.

The Armel Brothers of Holton Kansas were probably Isaac O. & Edward L. Isaac was born June 1861 in Pa & Edward was born Oct. 1863 in Pa.

Both are listed as jewelers in the 1900 Federal Census for Holton. A third brother George (Oct 1857 Pa.) is listed as a salesman clothing.

Tom

Aurora nickel movement--18 size--15 jewels--75612

Nice one Tony....

I, like Tom, do not have any either....in fact, I had never seen one until this string was initiated....

Regards,

Jerry

Aurora always seemed liked an interesting company to me. Though I've never owned one I have a friend who has quite a few and I've spent some time taking them apart and pushing the pieces around.

It seems obvious to me that the "tech" for the Hamilton watches came mostly from the Auroras. But does that mean that Aurora never really ended, it just became Hamilton?... It's like what happened to Sigourney Weaver in Avatar, right?

And then I got this image in my mind of Lancaster going one way and Aurora another but then they find Keystone and they all decide to hook-up because they're about to die, but they don't die and everything's okay! Then DJ Bunny Jay & DJ Bunny John stop by with a keg and the party really starts rocking with that chillin' illin' noise! But then they all wake up and it's the 1960's and... fade to black.

I explained the whole thing to my cat who sat in my lap as I furiously whipped out some markers and threw down line after line of pure truth on a map of America. It comes natural to me. I used to get make a good living by drawing lines on maps and telling people what they were looking at.

What I told my cat was that it was Sam Peckinpah directing "The Right Stuff: Friday the 13th." My cat didn't understand. Oh well.

I was so proud of the map I took a picture of it. It sums up the era quite well. I hate to brag but I really did make a living by drawing lines on maps and telling people what the lines meant. Anyways, might as well embarrass myself and show the map. Mazel-tov!

Next time I'm at a show I must look around for an Aurora. It seems like they're hard to find but maybe it's just because I'm not used to seeing them for the 500th time. (Oh look! A highly evolved species of Aurora! We call it the 992b!)

Frank, you are too much my friend....

Reading your posts, and I read them all, wouldn't miss one, is sorta like watching a tennis match from the side line, you know, moving ones head side to side watching the ball, well your post are the same way for some reason, everything is so large it doesn't fit my screen and my screen is a 23 incher....I have to lock my cursor to the bottom arrow and move it right then left in order to read you complete post....

I was wondering why this is the case with your posts, I don't seem to have the same effect with any other posts....

Just wondering what the deal is....

Regards,

Jerry

For the Guild-Nickel movement-11 jewels-92471
Note that the train arbor jewels are set directly into the plate.

What is the year of production of your watch, Tony....You are right, the jewels are pressed in, not screwed in....

Almost looks like an Elgin operation....Elgin started press fit jewels later in their production of RR watches, ie the 571 series....and that was in 1946....

Regards,

Jerry

Jerry,
An Aurora watch expert says there were 3040 Guild movements made during the 1887-1889 period.
Tony

The other Aurora's shown in this string are all screwed jewel settings, I wonder why this one is the only one not screwed in but pressed in...?

Regards,

Jerry

Another private label Aurora--J.P. Stevens

An Aurora private label made for Charles Stark, Toronto Ontario.

Movement

Most recent Aurora that I have now in my collection. Check out the Johnson's Regulator.

I now have 2 Aurora's with the Johnson's regulator and I now have two Aurora's with consecutive serial numbers////////////

Tony-

Awesome! That regulator probably helped put the two together as it is surely different. I wonder how many little groups of them were made with common regulators like this seems to indicate.

Jared

Tony ~

How Sweet they are!!!

Two great watches made in the fine state of ILLINOIS...

v/r

-j-

Larry,There is an Aurora private label,Charles Stark on the bay right now.Item # 170959445465.It has a 24 hour dial and is a fifth pinion model.Maybe some of you Aurora collectors will be interested.Norm

Tony, was that the Aurora I wrote you about?

Yes Eric. That is the watch you had sent me an email about the listing. Thank you.
Tony

My first Aurora KW-nickel movement-sn 40845

Note regarding Aurora Key Winds
According to Aurora expert Greg F. there were only about 10,000. 18 size Key Winds made and most of those had gilt movements.
Tony

What say you?

1st time seeing this pattern - going down the sides of the movement w/ no snow flakes, and not marked ruby by the jewels

Little different from the checkerboard pattern - Sir Larry has up top...

IMHO - pretty neat-O

This s/n70161 Aurora private label made in 1885 for C.F. Cischo, Sioux falls, Dakota Territories was especially appealing when it passed through my collection a few years back because it predates by 4 years the official November 2nd 1889 South Dakota Statehood. This was at a time when the Great Northern Railroad was developing their own steel "Northwest Passage" and populating it with Box car loads of Immigrants.

Clearly Sioux Falls was big enough to deserve a dealer who could sell such an expensive item there less than 6 years after the epic Battle of Little Big Horn!

I nailed my first Aurora a couple of weeks ago! At a total production of less than a quarter-million watches (and some of those are 6-size), I figure any 18-size in good shape is worth having.

A perfect dial and matching hands: