For those of you that remember earlier posts about my Elgin doctor's watch, you will recall my vain attempt to restore this watch and fit it to the original case. I purchased it on eBay about two years ago in shambles. It had a loose dial, bent hands and filthy movement but it was original and complete; I thought.

After repair and cleaning of the movement, I attempted to fit it back in the case. This is where my nightmare began. There was no lip on the case to catch the pillar plate. The only thing keeping the movement from sinking through the case was the dial. The dial on these movements had the feet removed at the factory. A metal ring was fitted around the dial, which was supposed to snap onto the pillar plate. However, when the movement was installed, the dial simply pulled away from the movement. To fix this, I machined new feet out of 12 gauge copper wire and JB welded them to the dial. I lightly torqued the case screws so as not to damage the dial and thought this would work; it didn't. After a few days, two of the feet came loose, which caused the movement to pull away from the dial and shed the hands.

I gave up and put the watch away in the drawer. Sometime later the subject came up in an email with Steve Maddox. After describing the watchcase to Steve, he was positive that the case was missing a spacer ring. I searched high and low for a 16s JAS Boss spacer ring with no luck. The watch was returned to the drawer.

While visiting Lindell last November, we discussed the spacer ring issue. Lindell came up with an 18s spacer ring that he thought might work. I cut a small section out of the spacer ring and it compressed to fit perfectly in the case. I reattached the dial feet, installed the dial and attempted to install the movement. Well, it wouldn't fit. The spacer ring was too thick. Again, the watch was put back in the drawer.

About three days ago, Lindell called me at work and the watch came up in our discussion. He asked me how the watch was coming along. I told him it wasn't. We talked about it and he asked if I could file the ring down to fit. I told him the watch was doing just fine in the drawer and was inclined to leave it there. He offered to send his Elgin doctor's watch to me which had a similar case so I could estimate how much to file off of the 18s spacer. I declined his kind offer and decided to leave the watch in the drawer until I could find the correct spacer for the case. Well, Lindell peaked my interest again in the watch so I pulled the watch out of the drawer and started filing, filing and filing on the 18s spacer ring. It took me nearly two hours to remove .032” of brass from the spacer. I know there’s a better way of doing it but all I had at my disposal was a file.

My doctor’s watch is now back together. Many thanks to Steve for identifying the missing part and to Lindell for supplying a spacer ring. An Elgin doctor’s watch with the proper hands and original case is a rarity. I haven’t seen one on eBay for quite sometime.

I will now continue my research of the original owner. The watch came from the estate of Dr. Edmund T. Glessner, D.D.S. who died around 1963. It belonged to his father who was a Medical Doctor that died in the early 1920’s. I believe both father and son had practiced in Colorado.

John D. Duvall
Vice President, Education

Note the matching moon hands and hinged front bezel.

John D. Duvall
Vice President, Education

I also had to fabricate a tension (anti-backlash) spring for the seconds hand arbor. A tiny section from a 16s hairspring was used for this purpose

John D. Duvall
Vice President, Education

Note how the Elgin factory cut the dial feet off. Talk about botchery!

John D. Duvall
Vice President, Education

Note the spacer ring stamped "JAS BOSS". This is what was missing from my case.

Photo courtesy of Lindell V. Riddle.

John D. Duvall
Vice President, Education

Nice to see the watch back to gether again!

A few notes:

First, the dial feet are a neccessary part of making an enamelled dial. Without the feet, the dials would stick to the furnace rack. For a long discussion on how Elgin made dials see The Building of the Watch: The Dial Department


Secondly, "doctor" watches really aren't hunter case watches since the second hand is in the center. By using a snap ring with instead of dial feet, this allows the watch to be placed equally well in either a hunter case or an open face case.

Actually, from what I can tell, "doctor" watches really weren't designed for doctors, but rather, they were a cheaper way of making "convertible" watches. At the time that they were introduced, most watches were still keywound, and KW watches can be placed in either HC or OF cases. Both the Elgin convertibles and the "doctor" watches were an attempt to keep this desirable feature of KW watches.

Wayne,

Do you know how or where the dial snaps to the pillar plate? It's still a mystery (misery) to me and I've had this thing apart too many times for comfort. I may still take Lindell up on his offer.

Good point about firing the dials. I just wonder why they did such a rough job of grinding off the feet. I guess it was an area that is hidden from view. Still, it wasn't very becoming of a watch company to leave such sloppy work behind.

Also, these movements seem to fit only a limited number of 16s cases (namely Jas Boss). The overall thickness of the movement and stem configuration prevent them from fitting all but a very few cases. To my knowledge, all of these cases had hinged bezels.

This watch was marked "Adjusted". I sometimes wonder why this watch was popular with doctors and not the railroad? Unless a doctor was visually impaired, the normal seconds chapter should have been enough. Do you know if the later wristwatches, with oversized seconds chapter, were catered to doctors?

I like the idea about case convertibility. A sweep seconds movement matched to a convertible dial solved that problem for sure but I guess it was years ahead of its time and too many added parts. I could envision a need by the railroads and horse racing but who else would need a large sweep seconds hand?

John D. Duvall
Vice President, Education

Nice going John.
Brian C.

pwpartsetc@pwatch.com

John D.
Great looking watch, and great job on restoring it..Thanks for posting photo's of it.

Hi John,
It's been a while since your post, I hope you still have it. There seems to be so few of them around, and cases are hard to find. I got mine with a Granger BWCCO Hunter case With extra deep bezel and dust cover that looks like it was made for it.
Here's a side view of the case.

And the movement..

Front

And back.
Just wish I could find some more!

Almost forgot the Face.

Happy July 4 to all!!

Just wanted to share that I found the original watch owner's grave in Denver, Colorado. I had given up but did another search and found it on Find-A-Grave. I plan to make a trip there sometime in the near future and take a picture of his grave marker and the watch. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-...824216&PIpi=65900987

John, where have you been? Great to see you posting again.

Hi Brian,

Just stopped in to close the chapter on a long search for the owner of the watch. It's still one of my prized possessions. Hope all is well you. It's great to see IHC 185 is still going. Maybe some day I will get back into watches.

I'm fine John, thanks. I sure do hope you get back into watches again.

Find-a-Grave is an excellent site: Find-a-Grave Search Form

Webb C. Ball

Charles Melville Hays President of the Grand Trunk Railway and chief force behind the building of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. He lost his life on the Titanic in 1912.

Sir Alfred Waldron Smithers Chairman of the GTP in 1913 when a divisional point was established and the town, Smithers, was named after him.