As I was doing my inventory I was ready to tag it and put it away but figured I would post some pictures of this watch. Elgin missed the boat from a marketing point of view on the grade 150, railroad requirements were moving to lever sets and open face grades and their best open face that was just released was a pendant set so something needed to be done. Elgin decide to machine the pillar plate so that the pendant set 150s could be converted to lever sets. So any lever set grade that falls in the grade 150 serial number if you remove the dial you will see where the prior pendant set machining was done originally. Any lever set grade 150 will have a slot in the pillar plat around the 1 min position. Any lever set 150 by serial number should be classified as a grade 277 and the only thing that makes an official 277 a 277 is the fact someone found a piece of paper telling them to go to timing and stock and pull grade 150's and convert, and btw some serial numbers on Wayne's decoder are not on that piece of paper, it pays to have friends, lol. Anyway the one pictured is a lever set, all pieces that have a serial number match the serial number marked on the back but it was never ever a pendant set, there is no pendant set machining, I have the servicing pictures and if anyone wants to see I will post them also. That is not to say another one doesn't exist but so far none have turned up.

Next photo

and movement

Beautiful!

That is a nice Elgin , from the heyday of watchmaking . I know these are scarce , I thought I saw one at j/H auctions , I went back to look but there site is getting a makeover.

150/277 converted movement, this was originally a pendant set 150 and was later converted to a lever set and you can see the slot near the top that would be positioned around the 1 min position

another 150/277 converted movement, one is official and one is an unofficial 277

This is my watch being serviced, notice you do not see the pendant set machining

The serial number from the above pictures is 6,434,432 if you look closely only the first 3 is a bit hard to see but you can see 6,4X4,432 but holding it visually the serial numbers match all in all locations. This is why I say mine is one of a kind so far, it is a grade 150 that was never a pendant set. For anyone that has a grade 150/277 please take the time to look at that pillar plate area to see the tale-tail slot around the 1 minute position as seen in the first set of plate photos.

I bid on that watch but dropped out early.
Not knowing if it had been converted or not.
Good buy Claude!
Roger

When I bought this several years ago it was one of those that looked like people had passed over it because it was in a silveroid case that was kinda funky, dial was dirty but it was a lever set that I could tell so I took a chance. I had it serviced, all parts cleaned new correct hands and put it in a era correct case. But if anyone collects Elgins and look for or at grade 150, even if you don't buy it please record the serial number and if you can tell for sure that it is a lever set or pendant set from pictures and not from the description. I will pass the data onto a person that is collecting this data. Also anyone but this one if it has a lever is truly a grade 277 and not many were converted so they would be considered rare.