I just purchased this movement off of e-bay and I'm trying to do some research on it. I like the 3-finger movement and the clean dial. The movement is 40 mm, so that's size 18. The serial number is 13180744.

The problem is when I look up the movement in either the Elgin Watches Serial Number database or in Wayne Schlitt's Egin Information Lookup database, I am told that my watch is a 16 size, which obviously isn't the case. The rest of the information looks basically correct. Can anyone help shed some light on this watch???
Thanks for the assist! -Bruce

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13180744

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Bruce,

In the few short years I've been doing this, some quite handy data bases have come available to chase out watch types and production numbers.

None of these are 100% and need to be gelled with information available in the books and in various posts throughout the club pages.

Before I got spoiled with being able to plug a serial number in to a web page... I learned to go to the books.

When I started out, I would have to study a movement such as this and go to pages 200-207 in my Price Guide to find a sketch that matched what I was looking at. When I study these pages... I find that Elgin did not make a 3 finger 18s watch.

Doing this drill... I find the watch sure looks a lot like a hunter model 6, or model 8.

Looking at the dial photo, I can see it is a pendant set which makes it a model 6.

My Elgin Grade and Serial Number book as well as Waynes site tell me this is a grade 339 with a total production of 50,500.

It is a pedestrian 17J unadjusted watch worth about $150 in a nice hunter case... minus $125 for a decent Hunter Case.... and I figure it's worth about $25 bucks... in running condition.

40mm is pretty close to 12s...

POCKET WATCH HOW-TO SIZE - WATCHES POCKETWATCHES

It is a 16s Bruce, no doubt about it.

Cheers

Paul, thanks so much for the informative discussion. I was confusing Lignes with watch size. Thanks for the reference. It helps a lot. Now I know why Bila was convinced that it was a 16s as well. Thank you both!

I bought the watch for just a few dollars to use as a practice watch - something I do periodically to gain further skills. I do think the movement is quite attractive with the 3 fingers, etc. I really enjoy this hobby!!! Best wishes, -Bruce

Hi Bruce,

I have a thing for the Elgin 3FB movements as well. In the picture it shows that this movement has a dust band around it. If your measuring this ring it will lead you to think that the movement is closer to an 18 size instead of the 16. Remove the dust ring and re-measure the plate diameter directly underneath the dial. This should give you a number closer to a 16 size movement.

Hi Serge, you are so right. After getting Paul's and Bila's posts, I remeasured and found the dust band. For me American pocket watch movements really are treasures, no matter what their worth is. For example, my ETA 6497 movement is a wonderful engineering marvel, but the 3FB Elgin I just purchased as a practice watch for less than $20 is far more beautiful with it's art work and polished bridges.

Aloha from Hawaii, -Bruce