I picked up a couple of Illinois 12s watches the past week and thought I would share them with you.
This is a 21J, Grade 409, Adjusted 5 Pos. I am installing a new crystal. As you can see the plastic one is turning white.

Dial.

Movement.

Movement pic 2. Comments, advice welcome!

With a new glas it will be a real beauty !

Those 12s , high jeweled watches are often underrated.
They combine the technical improvements of their time with the small size.
The lesser attention compared with the bigger RR watches results in a greater number of original watches not been completed, upgraded and alteres through the times.

Regards
Gerald

Nice watch Mike, I really like these high end 12's. I think they are an incredible bargain and can have really interesting cases and dials.

These are not the easiest watches to find... I have not seen any come available recently, where did you find them? Local shops? Estate auction?

Happy Hunting, Paul

12s Illinois watches are some of my favorites. Looks like you picked up a nice pair of them. Ones with ceramic dials are also a nice thing to find. Mostly you find painted dials and they are not always in the greatest shape.

Congratulations on your excellect purchases, Michael, but I am not sure we should be encouraging folks to collect the rarer grades of Illinois 12-13 size watches. There just are enough to go around. Grade 510 is pretty scarce (423 made), and so is Grade 409 (1,150 made). There are scarcer grades, like the 299, 435, 439, and 23j Illini. If you want really scarce, try to buy an all aluminum grade 525 (50 made, 3 known to exist).

Thanks Ethan.
I agree there are not enough to go around but that is part of the satisfaction of finding one.
I think I enjoy the "hunt" as much as the collecting, and you have just given me 5 more to lust after.

That is a beautiful time piece!

I often carry and enjoy my 409. Someone once posted a 1916 catalog ad that Illinois apparently valued these movements as being equal to their Sagamo's in value as they were priced the same.

Mine has the old English (we sometimes call it Gothic style, though incorrect, seems to be understood ) lettering and numbers, like the big 18s Illinois versions.

Great little watches. Love mine, and carry it quite often. Classy little watches!

Regards! Mark

" She's real fine ...... "

"....my 409!"