When Elgin offered their 18s Model 8, they were (and still are) the EXCLUSIVE designer of an 18s super-rugged RR Grade 3/4 Plate watch! Recently one of my Clothesline buys was a very very dirty messed up "big elgin". When I got it, I was able to bring it to good repair ONLY due to my co-members of 185! It had a broken seconds wheel staff (elgin p/n 1870)! and our very own Bryan Eyring bdeyring@hotmail.com had one that worked perfectly.

Back to the story. This watch is a 23 Jewel Veritas, which with some TLC showed that it had survived quite well, all the jewels were good, and both diamond endstones were there and intact.

The Jeweled motor barrel is actually an "upside down" hanging barrel. The parts are very siimilar to my "hanging Barrel" subject, but in the desire to put in a VERY LARGE SPRING MOTOR Elgin applied their genius to reverse the wheel structure.

In the picture you see the main components of the motor and main plate structure;
Upper Left, The main Plate with a permanent friction jewel that controls the axial and radial freedom of the motor wheel driven by the main spring.
Upper Right, The winding side of the assembled motor assembly showing the motor barrel with a center-mounted friction jewel and the motor wheel shaft in that Jewel.
Lower Left, The motor assembly other side showing the pivot pin of the motor wheel.
Lower Right, the motor wheel side facing the main plate jewel it will be riding in. . .

In assembly, the motor wheel actually is powering the movement immediately under the main plate, forcing the motor barrel structure to be reversed from the other watch I described. This leaves extra room for the large spring. In assembly you can see (THINK HARD! ) how this goes together to make everything OK;

Upper Left, Movement assembled with winding wheel attached by 3 screws to Motor Barrel Lug, and showing the Motor wheel pivot pin "floating" inside the exposed motore jewel mounted to the motor barrel.
Upper Right, A closeup of the motor barrel jeweled lug details before assembly.
Lower Left, A "mouse-eye" view of the motor wheel teeth which can be seen near the main plate ready to drive the movement! An excellent structured design as the torgueing forces are right next to the output jewel of the main wheel greatly reducing stresses that can cause shock fractures in use!
Lower Right, Motor Barrel installed and covered by motor plate all ready for assembly of the winding wheel.

Thanks to IHC 185 friendships and cooperation, I am able to properly restore and show a beautiful watch which is (in my opinion) a "work of Genius" by someone at Elgin.

From this! (Luckily, I have a large store of Case bezels and one of them fit perfectly. Then I added the crystal, new Elgin NOS hands and with the cooperation from IHC 185 for the rare part needed to finish the job . . . a silk purse instead of a sow's ear.

Dave; this is an interesting comparison with the "hanging barrel". You've given me some new insight on the "hows and whys" of these pockets.

Thanks for a deeper understanding.

Another great job, Dave.That's a really nice Elgin.Does the 19 jewel B.W. Raymond 16s have the same setup?The overall layout of the 16 and 18s look just about the same.The 19j Raymonds are not only common but also a beautiful and nice running watch....Thanks again, Ted Brown.

The 19J BWR's I have added a pair of cap jewels to the pallet fork pivot jewels to increase the jewel count from 17 to 19. I do have a 16s, 23 Jewel Veritas with a Jeweled barrel, but I don't know how many BWR's were done that way. The BWR was sold as a Railroader's watch and I think Elgin intended to make it functional without too much "foo-for-rah" stuff.

Dave, My 19J BWR 14 mil. S.N., does have the jeweled barrel.They are a really nice watch!Beautiful damaskeening and lettering. Ted Brown.

Ted, my apologies and thank you! When I made that officious declaration about 19j BWR's Lindell's recent advice to me that "some of the 19J BWRs had a motor barrel and were very nice" came to mind, but mind was not listening, so my "bad", I looked through my stuff and found proof that fully confirmed my ignorance.

The strangest part is that the BWR with non-jeweled motor barrel is s/n 21079361 while the Jeweled one I pictured is 19875559, meaning Elgin at least vacillated on those 2 extra Jewel placements.