Being a novice collector, I run into plenty of watch case questions. I understand that some watches were factory cased and some were cased by jobbers. Some watches were only factory cased. I think the 992B and the Santa Fe are a couple of these. Is there any reference book that has this sort of info so I can see if a watch is in an appropriate case? The Price Guide to Watches only says that some were factory cased and some movements were sold to jobbers?


Scott Cerullo
cerullo34@aol.com

As a brief answer,

If you look in the Company listings in the Shugart book, you will see at the end of the listings for Waltham, Elgin, Hamilton, and Illinois examples of factory cased examples.

That would be a start.

One has to remember, most factory casing was done after about 1924..

and YES, There are EXECPTIONS and some were cased earlier, but bear with me just on general terms....

And there were also movements only available after this time frame also....

The topic is really broad to give a 'one in all' answer...

It takes studying of the factory literature and advertisments to nail some of them down...

The Old price guides and Ehrhardt books also have some of this info...

There are many here that can furnish opinions on a 'case by case' basis.....
[pun intended]

Scott,

This is an excellent question, and one that haunts everyone new to Pocket Watch Collecting. There is no all-encompassing reference that I am aware of, and a response to your general question is not easy. Terry is quite right in that the answers are illusive and often confusing. You'll also find differing points of view about some of the manufacturers. Perhaps this topic will help us make a start on nailing more of it down.

I'll go out on a limb, make some general 'off the top of my head' statements and as always others are invited to comment on, add to or shoot holes in what follows...

Early-on the pioneering Waltham factory cased certain of their movements. Many of the E. Howards were factory-cased and all (later,aka) Keystone-Howards were. Hampden in Canton, Ohio being owned by Dueber Watch Case Company was probably the first to do really extensive factory-casing. Ball Watch Company although not a watch manufacturer per-se cased nearly all their movements in-house prior to distribution from about 1905 on. By roughly 1910 or so selected movements were factory-cased by nearly all the watch companies. Burlington and Santa-Fe as you mentioned were almost exclusively in factory-marked cases. The advent of the 12-size watch and the emerging popularity of national magazines caused the major manufacturers to feature selected combinations in their national advertising. This simplified merchandising and maximized profits.

Several Hamilton Pocket Watch Grades, RR and otherwise were sold only factory-cased. Once it was generally realized that a movement that was timed in a case designed for it was far more trouble-free, the practice gained momentum. Mail-Order advertising was also a factor. Both Illinois and to a greater extent South-Bend relied heavily on direct mail order sales of factory-cased watches by the early 1920s. As Terry mentioned, it would be fair to say the "factory-casing" of RR Grade Watches became the norm during that time frame as well. By 1930 most of the better watch movements were factory-cased. Even movements imported into the US by Swiss companies were cased and timed by a subsidiary. Some, like Gruen and Bulova were US Companies set up primarily to case movements they built elsewhere.

When the Hamilton 992B and 950B along with other similar RR Grades from Elgin and Waltham came into prominence around 1940 a movement being cased by the jeweler was pretty much a thing of the past. By then jewelers offered replacements for worn-out cases and the highest-grade jewelers like Tiffany's and Spaulding & Company did custom design work, but for the overwhelming majority of end-users the movement was cased and timed by the manufacturer. Of course that's essentially the way it remains today.

As you can see your question is not easily answered. When you get into a specific movement and case combination it is a bit simpler, but then it still might entail some research. Feel free to ask any question right here. I'll bet one of us will figure out the answer. On RR Grades, most before the early 1920s were cased and timed by the selling retail jeweler. Into the 1920s to an ever-increasing degree they were cased and timed at the factory.


By the time of this 1916 South-Bend ad factory combinations were common-place...

I have to amend Mr. Riddles' post just a little bit, The E. Howard watches were not all cased at the factory but did require a special case size unique to the E. Howard watch movement. The later so-called Keystone Howards were all factory cased.

Interesting subject. I wish I had lots of good facts, but I don't, so please excuse me while I make some WAGs.

In order to get a good gut feel about which watches should be factory cased and which shouldn't, I think it is helpful to ponder the question "Why were (or were not) watches factory cased?"


It is my understanding that most European watches were sold already cased. It is hard to call all of them "factory cased" because for a long time there were really "shops" rather than "factories" and I suspect that if you really wanted, you could have a custom case made for a movement of your choice. For the most part, watch movements came with watch cases with matching serial numbers.

So, why were European "factory" cased? Because they weren't made to standard sizes that would interchange. Each watch movement had to have a case custom fit.


Now, the Americans (Waltham, Howard, etc.) had this great idea that if you made watches and cases to a standard size with high enough tolerances, you could interchange cases. A jeweler could stock a much smaller number of movements and cases and match them up as the customer desired.

There is also the point that cases tend to get damaged or wear out sooner than watch movements, although this isn't always the case (no pun intended). This can lead to things like "This is grampa's watch. It has had three new cases and two new movements, but it is grampa's watch!"

Now dollar watches tended to come cased also, and that was more for cost reasons. The cases in dollar watches were often a functional part of the watch movement.

So, what changed in the 1910s-1920s? Why did the Americans jewelled watch industry start selling cased watches?

Lindell mentions that a watch can be timed better in the case, and that is true. However, that has always been true.

My guess is that the reason for the change was cars.

Up until the early 1920s, a person's watch tended to be the second most expensive thing they would own, after their home. Watches were seen as heirlooms, hence "grampa's watch". Once people started to buy cars, they quickly replaced watches as the second most expensive item people owned. As a result, watches had to become cheaper, and people cared less about the particulars. A watch became more of a tool than an proud possession.

So, by the 1920s, you had lots of people who could either buy a cheap, but functional dollar watch or use an inherited watch, but they were far less likely to spend as much money on a watch as the previous generation. What to do?

Well, one thing that they did is come out with new, smaller and sleeker models and advertised that the 18s and 16s watches were old fashioned. No longer were watches heirlooms, but more like a new suit. It needed to be stylish and said something about you. Sure, it was too expensive to be disposable, but it was far less important than a new car or a new house.

Wrist watches were also cheaper than pocket watches, and by the end of the 1920s, most of the watches sold were wrist watches.

Take a look through the Elgin Ads over the years. I don't have a complete set of all Elgin ads, but the ones from 1919 have already started the trend toward calling old watches "turnips".

So, what do other people think?

The Elgin Watch Collectors Website

Terry, Lindell, Harold,and Wayne,

Great job on the explanations. I will put the info to good use. Can any of you tell me when antique bow style cases started to be replaced by the tear drop styles on newer watches?

Thanks,
Scott Cerullo


Scott Cerullo
cerullo34@aol.com

well....... that is another that is sorta hard to nail down..

We speak more on pendant length [or height] as an indication of time frame for a [16 size anyway] case.

There were instances of the antique bow and a 'teardrop' bow appearing in the same time frame...

such as a J boss case with an antique bow and a Deuber case with a 'triangular' bow.....

or even the Wadsworth case used on the model 10 sangamo special with the 'patented bow and crown'... this bow was between a teardrop and a triangle.

Now if one goes to the short pendant cases there were a variety of bows... some carried the theme of the case to the bow, like the model 11 Keystone Case for the Hamilton and the Waltham cases with a bow that carries the theme of looking at a locomotive head on... such as RF# 5G and RF#7G as shown in the 2003 Shugart....

[i don't readily have images to throw up for these cases.. sorry]

Case styles changed over the years, as did fashion styles...
they followed trends.. art deco.. etc....

The progression of long pendant cases to short pendant cases seemed to occur between about 1920 and 1925....