Elgin "Dictator"?!

March 28, 2009, 12:43

David Abbe

Elgin "Dictator"?!

I noticed a 16s Numeric Dialed Elgin tagged as a grade 387 (middle 6 figures production) in a "rummage" group of watches that accumulated during my "buck fever" phase of watch collecting. Seeing an opportunity to clean it and sell it to another collector, I went through it and it cleaned up and runs well . . .

March 28, 2009, 12:44

David Abbe

Nice original case . . .

March 28, 2009, 12:45

David Abbe

But . . . the movement is engraved; "Dictator"!

March 28, 2009, 12:47

David Abbe

It strikes me sorta funny that ANY Elgin watch would carry a name like that! Suggestions anybody?

March 28, 2009, 12:52

Michael Loggins

Either an attempt to imply it "dictates time" or maybe an attempt to enter the Italian market in the 1920's?

March 28, 2009, 13:43

Gerald Zimmermann

David

There ere eight examples mentioned in the elgin database. All of them are in the 24000000 to 28000000 SN range

Regards Gerald

March 28, 2009, 14:18

Lindell V. Riddle

Interestingly David's Elgin Dictator movement number 26784026 and the ones Gerald found are from mid-1920s production. It would be interesting to know how long the name was used by Elgin and how many watches with "Dictator" markings were made. Perceptions and public opinion can change as suddenly as wind direction, what sells easily one day can be nearly impossible to move the next. Unlike today, in the 1920s terms such as "Dictator" implied boldness and strength which were of course fine design attributes for watches to have.

Around that same time Studebaker Corporation decided to rename its previous "Standard Six" automobile as "Dictator" and the name was used to market the popular car line beginning in 1927 and for the next ten years. Advertising stated the Studebaker Dictator models... "Dictated the standard for low priced cars" ...but they wisely called the Dictator model lineup "Director" in Europe and they would later wish they had done so in the states. The name was used well into the 1930s but by the latter part of 1937 when Adolph Hitler had become what the public associated with the term "Dictator" that increasingly distasteful name was suddenly dropped. For many years thereafter Champions, Commanders and Presidents would be the Studebaker models of choice.

To learn more about Studebakers, click onto the Studebaker Drivers Club website.

Studebaker's 1937 Dictator would be their last...