I'm sure this question will reveal my ignorance but what is the connection between Burlington watches and the Illinois Watch Company?

Is it like South Bend and Studebaker?

RBL

Robert, Illinois Watch Co. made a large number of Burlington Watch Co. Watches with triple signed Dials, Movements, and cases, all the way from 0 to 16 size. It is my understanding that there was a seller in Chicago who called themselves "The Burlington Watch Co." and distributed all of these beauties by mail and through their own approved Watch Maker dealers. (see the catalog on Lin's page 1 post)

A branch of the Stubebaker family owned South Bend watch Co. and named some of their best watches "The Studebaker", a lower Grade "Studebaker" was also made for reasons I do not fully understand.

As the Bunn family owned Illinois Watch Co., there are many very high grade "Bunn" and "Bunn Special" watches produced to celebrate their name.

The question we are addressing here is "How come some Burlingtone Watch Co. dials are signed "Burlington", and some others "Burlington Special".

I think "Special" comes from the "Special" attached to some of the crack high speed Passenger trains and was therefore coined for many other "special" things sort like a Chevy "SST" if you know the connection.

To look into this question further, I finally "dug through my piles" and found [UNEARTHED] some interesting things . . .

Some discussion . . . by age

Burlington Special, Getty Hunter Cased Model 4, Grade 185 19 Jewel Lever set Movement, S/N 2106581 c.a. 1908

Burlington Special, Getty Open Face Model 5, Grade 175, 19 Jewel Movement, S/N 2143346 c.a. 1908

Burlington Special, Bridge model 9 Gr 106 Open Face 19 Jewel Lever set Movement, S/N 2781146 c.a. 1915

Burlington, Bridge model 9 Gr 106(7?) Open Face 21 Jewel Lever set Movement, S/N 3159960, c.a. 1917 Big Problem! BOTH databases show this as a 19J 6/0 size watch!

Trust me, the serial number 3159960 resides on a Burlington Watch Co. Movement.

Burlington, Bridge model 9 Gr 107 adjusted 5 places Open Face 21 Jewel Lever set Movement, S/N 3930207 c.a. 1922

CONCLUSION!!!!!!

FOR 16 SIZE ILLINOIS MODELS;

AFTER GREAT AND LONG STUDY AND PERUSAL WE HAVE DISCREDITED THE "PILTDOWN MAN" AS A FAKE AND SEE UNEQUIVOCALLY THAT ALL DATA SHOW;

BURLINGTON SPECIAL DIALS ARE ALL (SO FAR) ON MOVEMENTS MADE THROUGH 1915, BOTH GETTY AND BRIDGE TYPE.

BURLINGTON (ONLY) DIALS ARE ON POST 1915 BRIDGE TYPE MOVEMENTS!

WHAT FUN!

btw Lin thank you for bringing up that Burlington Catalog that appears to have have published in the Post 1918 period. It explains a lot more about The B.W.Co., a distributor AND Mail order business.

Here is the "Capper" to the conclusion . . .
Burlington, Bridge model 9 Gr 108 Open Face 21 Jewel PENDANT SETTING (1 of 6400) Movement, S/N 3294193 c.a. 1918. So it appears the "Special" was dropped after 1915 and before 1918.

Nice Lima fob. It was illegibly dirty so I committed the collectors crime of polishing it so you can see what it is.

A GREAT, GREAT post Dave....

Regards,

Jerry

Hi, Seeing as no one has put up a sample of the Swiss " Burlingtons" , thought I would show one of mine. Just received it today.
21J adj 5 pos.
Bill

mvmt

#2209780. Hunter, tripple signed. One of my favorites.

Here is a Grade 806, OF, Burlington Special, 2560317, 3 finger bridge, circa 1913

2560317 Movement

2560317 Case

Next is a Burlington Special Grade 106, OF, 19J with a Montgomery dial, serial number is 2648244, circa 1914.

2648244 Movement

2648244 Case

Next are three Grade 174 Hunter Cases. These are neat in that they have a monogram BWCo on the movement instead of Burlington Watch Co. The dials are all marked Burlington Special and the cases are all signed "The Burlington Watch Co". Dates for each of these are ~1908.

Here is a representative dial.

Grade 174, 19J, Getty, Hunter, Serial Number 2051547, BWCo Monogram

Grade 174, Getty, Hunter, Serial Number 2054210, BWCo Monogram

Grade 174, Getty, Hunter, Serial Number 2054316, BWCo Monogram

Each of these Grade 174 Hunters has similar case markings.

These five Burlington Special watches were made between 1908 and 1914 supporting Dave's conclusion that Burlington Special dials were predominantly on pre-1915 watches.

I really love these watches since I am from the Chicago area originally.

I was correct about one thing....Our members have one heckava Burlington Collection, Man, what beautiful watches....

Great watches all and thank you John & Chris for showing your watches along with the rest of them....

Regards,

Jerry

I must note that many Burlington Watches of the "Burlington Special" signature are 19 Jewel movements, and the other distinction of ALL the Burlington (only) named movements is they are all 21 Jewel movments, a point that is repeatedl;y made throughout the catalog that Lindell refers us to on page one of thie post. So "the final answer is" . . . . After about 1915 "Special" was removed from the Burlington Signature and ALL were 21 Jewel movements.

Dave's open face pendant set 21j is very interesting. It must have been produced before the Burlington 21j catalog which states on page 6 that Burlington 16s open face watches are lever set and all others are stem set. Now that Dave narrowed down the introduction of the 21j it would be great to figure out the first run produced.

Thank you, Claude great thread, Dave meticulous information, Ted always good questions, and Everyone for contributing.

Three of the Burlington 21 jewel movements in my collection are housed in Burlington signed cases made by the North American Watch Company. The late style Montgomery dial is on two of these watches.

RR

Burlington 16s 21j serial # 4386527

I would like to contribute 3 pics. of the only Burlington that I own. While researching the watch with my good friend Tom Brown, he pointed out that the watch was a 5 position RRG watch It is a Model 9, Grade 107

Now I had always assumed [] the watch to be merely a 3 pos. watch since it was from 1925 and only marked " adj. to temperature & positions".

So the why remains today, why would the mail order company Burlington not have ordered these watches with a more correct "5 positions" stamping on the movement, since the RR's then required them to be so marked for most RR's stipulations in order to enter RR service

A very good question and just perhaps it may have been a jab to the company associated with Illinois, to throw them out of competition with Illinois and the RR market at that time I find it to be absolutely fascinating

My watch is cased in a BRT brotherhood case and has some very interesting nicely blued hands that I would like to call "snowshoe" hands but I believe the correct word would be "skeletonized" hands. I like to think that a poor old brakeman in the North country had these hands on his watch to remind him just before he got off the caboose, to take his snowshoes with him in case a sudden blizzard threw down on him

And by the way this is one of my best timekeepers in positions and it is lever~set. OK- 3 pictures;

regards,
bb

Pic.#2- movement & logo;

Pic.#3- BRT caseback;

quote:

Reply to Post

Wow Buster, I like that one, dial is like a common Bunn Sp'l. Montgomery. Now obviously that one ran the rails, with that logo on it.Richard, yours is just as nice!I've personally never seen that type Burlington dial before.That's why this site is so great, I learn something new every time on!....Now I have a question about my other Burlington.It's a 19J lever set, SN 2925188, DS Montgomery dial, in marked YGF OF case.(original).The book lists it as 16S "model D". I don't have an Illinois book to look it up in, would anyone know the grade number, and can you date a Burlington using the Illinois production date list? Thanks, Ted.