Any info please? Watch is Elgin key wind key set. Thank you.

Sham,

I believe that the markings around the hour chapter are stenographic shorthand, as the graphic in the middle of the dial would also suggest. A neat piece.

This dial is incredibly cool! It appears to spell out the names for the numbers in Pitman shorthand. I had the opportunity to learn a little about this old shorthand system when I was researching some old Waltham records from around 1903. I am not sure what the name above the hand is, but I don't think it is "Elgin".

Very unusual and nice, never seen one like it in 40 years. Geno

Pitman was one of about half a dozen shorthand systems used by stenographers, secretaries, journalists and others in the 19th century on into the 20th. I am not very familiar with any of them, except for their existence, so I couldn't tell which one was employed on the dial. Jerry apparently can read Pitman and so was able to identify the specific system.

I checked with a secretary here at work that actually knows Pittman shorthand and she confirmed that the markings around the chapter dial are indeed the phonetic spelling of the hour numbers. She said that she would make some of the markings slightly differently however the version she learned may be a minor modification to this one (she learned her shorthand in the UK in the early 60’s). I asked what was written in the center of the dial but didn’t want to prompt her. She said she couldn’t make it out clearly but it looked like “national (or international) which camping”. Next she came up with “maybe international age company”. She asked if that made any sense. I suggested “national watch company” but she said it wasn’t obvious to her. I also asked if there was anything that looked like the word Elgin but she said no. My bet is that it is supposed to read National Watch Company and it predates the use of the “Elgin National Watch Company” signature.

Joe

Thank you Everyone SO VERY MUCH. I am learning so much on this subject, It is amazing. I will be periodically looking for any add on to this subject. Happy New Year to EVERYONE.