Hello everybody, I got this Elgin some time ago and since I've never seen this model number before and could not find any information on it anywhere, I'm asking the people in the know to kindly help me to shed some light on the subject.

Judging from the two-foot dial and other details it could be Swiss made but surprisingly built to railroad quality standards. The 24 hours dial could indicate a Canadian connection. Unfortunately said dial is a painted affair badly damaged along the rim by the bezel rubbing against it (I don't expect to be able to find a replacement any time soon!).

The case is a Star, 10k rolled gold S/N 4832204 and appears to be original to the movement.

So, what is this watch reason for existing?

Here are the movement details.

Number 2

Elgin existed for a bit after they packed up from Illinois and moved to the plant in South Carolina. You will find some of the earlier releases were partial movements of Swiss and French origin that were completed at the SC plant. It has been said that this model was probably made for RR use in Mexico since it is lever set. These are quite rare and worth the effort to restore them, the Elgin site says they were made by Buren watch company (movement) and from the logs this is what you find. The fact that you only see 2 entries from the ebay logs that Wayne was grabbing from about 1998 to 2002 tells you they don't show up that often.

330690777 05/18/00
19:55:44 $399
RM * g=847 16s 847 1 made 23j only run
canadian monty locomotive faintly engraved on back
419706167 08/03/00 * g=847 16s 847 1 made 23j only run aka=1
(pic no longer valid) "24hr dial"
1681731600 12/30/01
12:25:07 $210
RM * g=847 16s 847 1 made 23j only run aka=2
canadian monty locomotive faintly engraved on back

HI Claude, Thank you very much for taking the time to answer my question. The Waine description really applies to my watch, dawn to the "locomotive faintly engraved on the back".

About restoration, I gave it a good COA and it is running flawlessly, the case is in fairly good shape with some wear around the pendant. As you can see below, the problem is the damaged dial. As I said, I don't expect to find a replacement and, unless somebody comes out with one, I will have to try to repair it myself.

One last question: Do you have any information on how many 847 were built and during what time frame?
Again, thank you for your help,
Peter

I would probably send the dial away to be restored by a dial restoration company, I would not think that would be that expensive since it is a painted dial. On the topic of rarity there are no hard number but to give you an impression the watch below is an Elgin Grade 361, only 1000 made and doing the same showed only 2 results for your watch. I have only seen one of these on ebay and it ended up in the 500-600 range if my memory is correct. You don't find these on every street corner for sure and you have a nice watch, the movement looks great.


234057101 01/16/00
11:31:34 $229 13506854 BWR 16s 361 1k made only run

312675933 04/26/00
09:32:08 $152 135062?6 BWR 16s 361 1k made only run
brassing broken BS
1640516136 09/26/01
20:20:10 $1500
RM 13506290 BWR 16s 361 1k made only run
set of 3 watches, G=350, 360, 361; nice DS "only a few small scratch on movement", "no brass"
1025129907 11/04/01
16:28:57 $0
NBID 13506179 BWR 16s 361 1k made only run
seen in the collection of Jon Hanson
1683564610 01/02/02
20:33:24 $163 13506242 BWR 16s 361 1k made only run
DS bold arabic canadian (23-24 in center sunk)