I picked up another Elgin 348 to finish my collection of 348's. Elgin up-jeweled the grade 183 from 17 to 21 jewels and gave it the 348 grade. Some of the 348's are up-jeweled 183, one large run were made as 348's from beginning to end and there were two small quantity of converted 149's that were probably lingering in stock, some in the low 10M serial number range and later in the 12M serial number range.
Depending how you take the Elgin factory records for the 149 the low end quantity is either 300 or 400 units and the top end range is also the same. So you have 149's that are marked 348 in the low end and the upper end and most of the converted 183 and regular 348's (look different than the converted 149's) are in the 11M range.
There were only about 3600 348's made total so it was nice to have a version from the bottom, middle and upper serial number range. I will post pictures of all 3 when the 3rd one arrives.
Posts: 1797 | Location: Michigan in the USA | Registered: September 19, 2009
It arrived today so after I clean the dial I will post some pictures. It is in good shape but has a blue balance cock screw rather than a normal chrome one. Hour and minute hands are ok but it needs a second hand.
Posts: 1797 | Location: Michigan in the USA | Registered: September 19, 2009
Well sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you!!! Elgin and the other companies would do things that made certain grades/serial numbers unique and more collectable, in this case Elgin relabeled some slow moving stock and only about 400 total were done in the lower serial number range and about the same number in the upper range of the grade 149 were marked 348.
From the back the movement looks good, not major scrapes or screwdriver mis-steps, all the parts like the regulator, balance, etc looks good. I have $102 into it total, it is a sidewinder in a very good, with little to no wear base metal case. I have a near perfect DS dial to replace the one on the watch so things are looking good so far.
I pull the hands off and remove the dial, ugh things go bad real fast. it looks as though at one time it got water in the watch and it must have been sitting dial down so the items like the lever set, and other setting parts are rusted. I can't blame the seller since in the listing he did mention some rust/rusting.
I guess in the end I will part out one of my grade 183's to get the replacement parts for this movement unless it needs more work that I have parts for.
Posts: 1797 | Location: Michigan in the USA | Registered: September 19, 2009
I'll get it repaired with worthy parts (in good condition) from a grade 183, never would have guessed that last sight by looking at the rest of the watch.
Posts: 1797 | Location: Michigan in the USA | Registered: September 19, 2009
Well I started cleaning the pillar plate and decided to try my luck with some cotton swabs and my first attempt was to use some regular glass cleaner soaked on the cotton swab. To my surprise this took most of the staining off the pillar plate and other nickel parts. I then soaked another swab with rubbing alcohol and was with a bit more pressure ended up removing the rest of the rust stains.
The non-nickel parts (setting parts) look better but still have rust on them but I will replace them because more than likely with the rust they will end up fatiging and breaking at some point. As a last step I squirted some rust eater (like WD40) into a glass cup and soaked a cotton swab with that and soaked the parts so that the screws would be easier to get out later. I put a good coating on the pillar plate and then let is sit on some tissue pillar plate down to prevent the rust eater from seeping to the top plate. I did this 4-5 times to hopefull allow the penetrating oil to soak into the threads some.
I think in the end this movement will turn out to be a nice addition to the collection.
Posts: 1797 | Location: Michigan in the USA | Registered: September 19, 2009
