The serial # is playing tricks

It is either a 12s or 14s,

Anyone know which one, and what the "#1271" stands for?

Thanks inadvance

2

It,s the grade of the movement, these were some of the last great one,s Waltham made,

Jon,

Welcome to the world of Waltham 14s. This can be a great adventure.

The 14s is essentially a 12s movement with an oversized (diameter) pillar plate.

When looking at the movement, out of the case, it is apparent that the pillar plate hangs out beyond the body of the movement.

Story goes that this was in an effort to make the watch look thinner.. so rather than make it thinner, they added diameter to an existing design.

I lucked in to a factory clam shell case for my movement. These should be Colonial Series.

The pillar plate should measure 1.630" or 41.4 to 41.5 millimeters.

On my movements, the dial is countersunk in to the top of the pillar plate.

You can see my completed project under "Who Carries What Watch" bottom of page 9, top of page 10.

I have a #1271 as the one of the very first watches I got. https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/f...433967857#5433967857.
I've never had it out of the case to measure. It is in a 14K Original case.

Thank you gentlemen...

So, this movement is a 14s and requires a "special" case?

If this movement measures out at 1.630, it will require a 14s colonial case. I learned a lot hunting one down. The 14s 1897 looks almost identical to the 12s 1894... and the 14s Colonial looks almost identical to the 12s 1924...

In my efforts to spot and land a donar watch with a nice 14s case... I ended up with three Waltham 12s watches and one 16s before I finally landed a true 14s.

Even trying to contact the sellers and have them send measurements of the front and back of the movement were pretty futile. Half didn't know how to open the case, others could measure the movement but had no idea what a pillar plate is...

You have a fighting chance is you make sure the case says "colonial" on it.

That happened to me. I bought one of the earliest Colonial size movements that says Royal and 17 jewels on it and no mention of Colonial. The serial dates it to 1915. To get a case for it, I bought another non working 15j watch with a case that said "Colonial Series" on the inside of the case back. The case has a hinged at the bottom bezel and then the movement swings out to the left on another hinge. The stem swings out with the movement as well. The Royal fits in it like a glove