I just picked this beast up this week. I very sad looking Illinois Currier. What caught my eye was the jeweled 5th pinion at first, which is always hard to find. After buying it and doing some research, I stumbled across that it was made as a 12j watch from the factory due tot he fact of it having jewels on the plate side only. I got the watch in today and verified it does have 12 jewels only. To make this even a greater find, it has been equipped with an adjustable (screw style) upper staff jewel bushing, which could be adjusted for a tighter staff fit with a winding key! Unfortunately the adjustable balance accessory will have to go to bring this back to its full 12 jewels...

This is from a run of 200, anyone know if there were other runs of 12j fifth pinion watches? I saw one thread that talked about 2,500 curriers being made with 12j, but didn't state if these were all fifth pinion or a different configuration.

I'll post some better pictures once a full COA is done on it.

Jared

Nice find Jared and no I have never heard of a 12 jewel American made watch.

Jared, nice find. I am betting the 5th pinion revision to a 11J hunter making it an ultra-rare 12J converted Open face is a Cute decision by Illinois Mgmt. to recover their parts investment.

The adjustable staff end play thingy has to be equally as rare as the watch of which total production was 2315 movements in 18 different runs!

I'd love to hear more about the adjustable end play hooby doober... maybe a couple pictures when it is apart for service.

Very interesting... the whole fifth pinion thing is interesting too.

Paul-

Here is the setup that someone used to make this possible. Basically they found a screw that would self thread thru the brass jewel settings. They then drilled a very tiny hole on the bottom end for the staff pivot to "run" in. This would have basically acted as the upper jewels. With a little turn of the screw, they could have adjusted the distance between the jewels and make it possible to adjust the end shake of the staff.

Some of the unjeweled dollar watch grades had the same style of adjustment for their staff "jewels" to make up for the wear that the steel caps would have against the steel balance pivot. Over time you could tighten them down more to keep the proper end shake.

Jared

Hey Jared, I was cleaning up my excel spreadsheet I keep for the watches I have purchased, and I came across a 12 Jewel Illinois 18s from 1883. When I did a search on pocketwatchdatabase it confirmed it was a 12 jewel. It also said that there were 11,000 in this run. I do not understand why we don't see more of these watches for sale. Serial number is 495724.

Here is the movement,,,,

I have a 12j Edgemere (Tremont?) I picked up from Andy a while back. Still looking for the correct dial for it. Pics are here:

16s 12j Edgemere Frankenwatch

I think my watch is mis-reported. I took a look, and only count 11 jewels, not 12. No jewels under the dial.

Thanks Jared, The visual helped me a lot.