Greetings all.
Are you getting sick of me yet? I hope not. Here is one that I am very interested in your thoughts. I just received this a couple of days ago. It appeared to be of a very low run and I went for it. Not sure exactly what I've got, how nice it is, or what I should do with it!
Here come the pics.
First is the dial. Lots of cracks but hands appear OK. When you see the back, it appears that this poor watch took a nasty hit at some point.

Here's the movement. #7336526

Back. It's got a nice dent in it, but it still screws on just fine.

And lastly, the inside back. The dent really shows up in this picture.
As always, any and all comments and information are greatly appreciated.
Happy New Year everybody!!
Ed

Edward,

You did very well... This is a grade 160, only 5000 pieces were produced by Elgin. For Elgin collectors this is a rare and sought after time piece.

Agree with Serge nice buy Ed and you did your homework new bow and you have nice watch the dial can be wash and will look 75% better

Great going , a low production Elgin is rare , in original case

Thanks guys. That's kind of what I was hoping to hear. This is the first watch that I've had that had the cracked dial. Is that OK considering what the watch is? I'm assuming that an original dial is better than a replacement. And is that nasty dent on the back a big deal? I'm hoping that it isn't too difficult to fix. All in all, I'm quite pleased and feel very lucky to have snagged this one. Happy New Year everyone!

There is a series of grades in the 16s that many collectors pass by. The better ones are the 159-160-161-162 and their matching hunter versions which would be the 153-154-155-156, the 161 which is one of the 17 lace doiles and the 162 which is a 21j are more sought after but the 159 and 160 are very nice pendant set 17j watches. In this case if you use some denture tables on that dial and let it soak a bit after an initial cleaning with soap and a soft bristle toothbrush the hairline will nearly disappear. The fine spade hands are correct, the case needs a good cleaning and I would work the dent out and slap a nice round bow on it and it should look 100% better.

The 160 could have been use for RR service because it was produced prior to the early 1900's when lever set and open face became the rule norms.

Thanks for the comments Claude. I didn't realize that this was possibly used for the RR. As for the cleaning, I'm going to let one of our fine vendors here take care of that. Here's hoping the dent isn't to difficult to get out!

There is always a topic of debate but in the mid 1890's a 17j, adjusted pocket watch with patent regulator could have been acceptable on many lines. Santa Fe and Burlington allowed adjusted 17j OF LS 3 pos watches up into the 1919-1920 range. Also some job positions on the various rail lines might specify different rules. Many people lose sight of the incredible expense a good watch was, the 160 you posted was $35 in 1903 8 yrs after if was introduced. Depending on what type of historical calculation you use $35 in 1895 would range between $1,000 and nearly $9,000. The average daily wage in 1895 was $1.55 or about 23 working days to pay for a mid grade watch. The 161 was $50 and the 162 was $100 during the same time frame (movement only). In Wikipedia you can see the number of class 1 railroads and from the 1880-1940 the number dropped dramatically but in the 1880 there was a large number of independent (what would have been a large system) railroads and there are just a few documents that have been found for some of these railroads.

As the railroad consolidated or failed to exist, and as the cost of watches dropped in relation to the workers daily wage the watch standards became more universal and more strict.

In the 1885-1895 range a 15j with patent regulator, adjusted to heat/cold and iso probably was still being used on many railroads. As you got closer to 1895 some lines probably added adjusted to positions to the requirements.