If I understand correctly, the fewest highly jeweled (17-plus) watches produced by the "Big 5" were made by Hampden. (Ironic, since they started the "jewel wars").

This is based roughly on percentages of total production, as follows.

Elgin 60 million total production - 9 million w/17-Plus jewels (15%)
Waltham 40 million total production - 6 million w/17-plus jewels (15%)
Illinois 5.7 million total - 3.42 million w/17-plus jewels (60%)
Hamilton 4.5 million total - 4.445 million w/17-plus jewels (99%)
Hampden 4.6 million - 1.15 million w/17-plus jewels (25%)

First - do these numbers seem basically right? (Corrections welcome!)

Second - does anyone have similar information for the smaller manufacturers (Columbus, South Bend, Seth Thomas, Howard, Aurora, Keystone-Howard, etc.)?

Third - is there information on percentages of "fully" jeweled 15-jewel watches along these lines, for these companies?

Fourth - same thing, for 21-plus jeweled watch production by each company.

This task is easier for E Howard (virtually all 15-jewel) and Hamilton (99% 17-plus jewels), but the others are fairly murky.

Essentially, I think it would be great to clarify and "map" this type of thing for these companies. (If it has already been done, I'd like to know where to find the stats.)

What do you think?