Sometimes I will spin the wheel and take a chance and I saw a watch on ebay that was 16 size sidewinder. So for a whopping $80 I won the bid and when I asked the guy for the serial number be said he could not get the back off. When I received it he was correct about the back being problematic, took some work to get it off but it finally gave up. I was hoping there might be a 21j Getty hiding inside but it turned out to be a 15j Getty, nice clean movement with moon hands in good condition and double marked dial and movement in a 20yr B&B case. Other than a couple of dings the case cleaned up with no brass showing. I have not seen too many Montgomery Wards & Co private label watches so I will probably put it in a hunter case even though it is a 15j.

Anyone else have a Montgomery Ward PL

Nice find Claude. I have seen quite a few Montgomery Ward watches on eBay but to be honest I don't remember who made them. Seems like they were all Seth Thomas but I could be wrong. I do not have one as they were either in too poor condition or if they were in good shape I did not want to pay the price they were listed for. I do have an Illinois Kay Jewelers and a Sears Roebuck & Co. Illinois PL but I do not have a MW PL.

Nice pick up Claude, it would be great if you good find a nice MW case to be it in

Oh I guess I do have one then as I have a Washington Watch Company Getty.

Illinois made both types. Some marked " Montgomery Ward specials And also the Washington ones. Some of the higher grade Washington ones are low production are fairly rare. I also have an early grade 179 private labeled for Montgomery Ward

Terry Jones

I like the store brand private labels , here is a washington watch co , around 1500 total , I want a plymouth watch co, Rockford, King Edward

I need to post some photos of it, my luck has been good lately since the watches and prices seem to be all over the board.

I bought an Elgin grade 506 wind indicator for $460, case has minor and very minor at that brassing, runs, dial and hands are excellent, movement has some loss of black in the engraving but not rusted or scratched up. It is an a6p version and is not an overstamped 5 version of a a6p. Some of the early runs have a 6 but if you look carefully you can see it was stamped 5 initially.

I remember when you could not pick a decent WI for anything less that $800 and $1K was more typical. I also picked up a nice 227 for $100 the metal dial is less not great but otherwise a nice running watch in a very good gold filled case.

There are also some listings on ebay that you wonder what planet the seller if from since the prices are no where near "down to earth".