I just recently began looking at pocket watches as a hobby. I have purchased 3 elgin watches in non-working condition to familerize myself with the inner workings of the watches. I am recently retired and don't have a lot of $$ at this time. The 3 watches were under $ 25 each and the movements are great to explore. Again I am very green in this area and would appreciate any council that the group may wish to share with me.

Many Thanks .... Bob Williams

Hi Bob,
Welcome! It's so good to see new faces, and you came to the right place to talk watches, that's for sure.
First, it's best to post a picture, so we can take a look at your watch, or maybe let us know what the serial number is on the movement of the watch, so we can tell you more about it.
Serial numbers are the most important piece of information to a collector, it tells all about a watch. So post away, and we can tell you all about it.

Glad to have you aboard!

Thanks so much for the reply , I don't want to be a burden to the group but it would be nice to get some information on my non-working watches. I'll provide the information and see what happens. Thanks

Hi Bob, Good luck on retirment i'm a new be on retirement myself. For Elgins get the serial # off the movement and go to our Elgin look up site type the number in and will tell you all about it. welcome aboard! TED

Bob think of retirement as a "state of mind", I am 67 and can often "retire to my watches", but the rest of the time I spend working on some sort of useful income. Lord knows where I would be otherwise.

I also have been messing around with some old Elgins. What I was wondering is if there are any guidelines or manuals for assembly of Elgin watches. Especially any with pictures and names of parts. Or is this all trial and error.

An example I have is the winding pinion for Gr571. I broke one of these in trying to take the movement out of the case. Other than being really mad, my other thought was: There must be a step by step type of instruction for working on these watches.

Welcome Bob to this wonderful on-line community!

John III

Bob,
I find myself in the same situation as you. I just retired this past November and this winter has proven to be slow and some what boring.
I have two working Illinois that I have had for a while, and a nice Waltham Vanguard I just this evening purchased from Chris Abell.
I have this idea that I would like to take apart some old clunkers for learning purposes.
Finding the old cadavers is easy, but getting tutorials is another thing.

Welcome aboard Bob and Edward to the 185 club. Trust me--you will discover more watch info than you would ever believe/////
Tony

Hear Hear!

I am very new to this site, I joined maybe 2 weeks ago. I knew absolutely nothing but everyone here has been very helpful. I cannot stress this enough, they answer every question and they are very patient with inexperienced posters. Take time to read through old posts VERY educational.

For general info on taking a watch apart try this site

The Watch Guy

Michael

Welcome to you both and all new posters. This is indeed the number 1 horological site ever. You will not find nicer people anywhere. I have been around here for some while and as a novice still I learn something new all the time.

Welcome to the site, don’t forget now you are members you can take advantage of the for sale section. No fees and selling to your friends world wide, who needs ebay!

Thanks for all the feedback

Mike thanks for the link to the watch guy

Bob, If you enjoy reading to research a new thing like Pocket watches, I suggest that you get a copy of "American Watchmaking" which is extraordinarily important to understand the "Family Tree" of our true forehearers of Watchmaking.

Fortunately while this is long out of print, IHC185 has some for sale at a very reasonable cost.

Thanks all for the information. I have however set a monthly budget for watches and watch related items. I have run through my March budget nomber, maybe next month.