Good evening all.
Here's one that I was just tickled to get. It needs some work, but I think it's great and will fit perfectly between a couple of other watches that I have.
This is an 18s Elgin from roughly 1887. I would love as many comments and as much info as you guys can stand to give. Here come the pics.
The first one is from the front. It's missing a crystal, the second hand and the hour hand is broken, but somehow the face doesn't even have a hairline crack as far as I can see.

Back of the case.

Everything all opened up.

The all important movement. The serial number is 2017648.

And here are a couple of the inside back covers. What does the 2 1/2 inside the star mean?

And here's the main inside cover. I think I've seen the Blauer name before, but I'm not sure where.
So there we go. Again, any thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Once cleaned and straightened up, they're fun to carry too! I have a 15j H. H. Taylor of 1869 vintage that gets vest carry quite often, and keeps very good time too!

They're great watches!

Regards! Mark

Thanks Lindell and Mark.
I have a Waltham and an Illinois that I believe are one year on either side of this one. Both have nice coin silver cases so when I saw this one I jumped on it. Anything special about the lion or is that just the hallmark that Blauer used? Also, is this officially a hunter case? One of these days I'm going to get the hang of all this!
Also, will this take just about any key? I have one here for either the Waltham or the Illinois and it would be great if it worked for this watch too.
And don't worry Lindell, I know better than to even pretend to work on this myself. This will be ending up at an IHC member sometime in the next month or so!
Thanks again for the thoughts!

It will be either a #4 or 5 size key. Every 18s Elgin keywind I've owned has been a #4 so far, but check. It can vary due to wear on the arbors.

Technically, no, this is NOT a hunter, but these keywind movements were made to fit either a hunter OR open face case. This is an hinged open face case.

Regards! Mark

Nice hand painted dial too! I love American keywinds in these smaller and slighter silver cases.

William

I have a 1893 Elgin grade 97 7 jewel keywind and it takes a #5 key. It also keeps as good time as my RR grade watches do.