Hi all, been awhile since I last posted.
I have an early 1900's style 18s Illinois case that I put a 1901 Waltham P.S Bartlett into. Would this have been ok in the day?
The reason I'm asking is because it's silver color and shows off the gilt color of the movement best.

Originally I had a later 1915 Illinois in this case that was a nickel movement and just didn't seem right together time period wise, so it is now in a later period correct J Boss 20 GF.

At first when I acquired the Illinois and saw the case was also Illinois I kept them together even thought the look didn't match the year of the movement.

So after all my blabbering could a Waltham end up with an Illinois case? I basically just swapped cases, and can live with the previous movements screw marks.

Thank you, Roland.

Gilt movement in a Nickel-Silver case.

Case with Serial number, which should place it around late 1890's to early 1900.

Now here's the gold case with the Illinois movement now in it.

Nickel movement with gold case.

So does this swap work? Esthetically sure when looking at the case closed, but did Waltham's ever come cased in an Illinois case?

Thank you, Roland.

Just remember that the Illinois Watch Case Co. of Elgin, Illinois had nothing whatever to do with the Illinois Watch Co. of Springfield, Illinois.

So many collectors get confused by the similarity of the names and mistaken think there was a relationship, when in fact there was none.

Welcome back Roland,

I would leave the watches the way they were if they only had one set of case screw marks. As far as time period correctness goes I think they were fine before you switched them. In 1915 the older style case would still be available. I just purchased a Howard Series 10 which dates from 1912-1915 and it came in a case similar to the older style you have except it is a swing ring. The watch I purchased came with the original box and paperwork with matching serial numbers. If there's a possibility one or both of the watches was correct (original case and movement) before the switch that's better than now because with the additional case screw marks you have two watches that you know are incorrect.

That's my opinion,

RR

Thx Richard for your comments. I didn't know that the older style went into the teens. I find that the Illinois fits into the Keystone case so much better than the Waltham ever did, as far as winding and setting. Is it possible to get screw marks taken away? Over the years so many pocket watches get recased and moved around, that even though the srew marks lined up with the Waltham and the gold case, I'm still not sure it was original to it.