Picked up a 16sz IL stamped "No. 887" at an antique store today. The serial # does not come up correctly on the Pocket Watch Database - shows 18sz. Don't have the big IL book w/ me at the moment - any thoughts?

Serial # is in the 14847xx block - 1901/1902 time frame

Not railroad grade, but interesting - I think

Will get photo ASAP

I found a 187 in the fat book, but no 887.

Regards! Mark

It listed as a Model 5 Grade 64 circa 1899 in Meggers & Ehrhardt.

The book says it should be marked:

ILLINOIS WATCH CO. -- SPRINGFIELD, ILL. or SPRINGFIELD -- 15, 17, 21 or 24 JEWELS --
ADJUSTED -- SAFETY PINION (or unmarked)

Model 2-6 watches were made in Grade 64. They were adjusted to temperature, positions, and isochronism and would have been RRG before 1900.

There's a long breakdown of Grade 64 production by jewel count and models, I'll just give you the Model 5's:

6250 15J, 11410 17J, 60 21J, 50 24J, plus 2600 Model 5's of unspecified jewel count, which Meggers says were probably mostly 17-jewel.

Many 17-jewel Grade 64's were private label. Here's a Model 5 Grade 64 Sears & Roebuck Special I ran across on eBay the other day:



Illinois Model 5 Grade 64 PL -- 17-jewel Sears & Roebuck Special

Thanks Gents...

She aint no 18sz for sure

Wonder if it was some type of "re-strike"

That's interesting Jon, because I just checked again and the "Blue Illinois Bible" does show 18-size. I guess that goes to show you can't believe everything you see in print.

Its got me perplexed - Ed... Even the second to the last serial # (9) looks like there is more than one strike to it. And the "887" portion is cut deeply in the plate - more so, than the rest of the stamping. Wish there was more info to make sense of this odd duck...

777 would be my guess. Somebody tooled it to score the first two sevens.

Was the 887 a 777 at one time.

Does the bottom of that plate match serial #'s with the other plates.

Eric look: I was posting the same time you where.

I was thinking the 777 too... The more you look at the 8s the more you can see 7s. And that would explain the deep inscribed curves to the 8, but why would someone do that to a One Star Movement?

Any thoughts on the serial # showing up as a 18sz?

Ok - The actual serial on the mainspring barrel plate should be 1434770 (the 3 was changed to look like a 8 and the zero to a 9). Which makes more sense. A grade 175 - 16sz 17j Adj Hunter movement.

No 777 (and someone re-inscribed to 887) - how odd

Interesting...

That is what I see too, this is 1434770 or 790, makes little difference. It IS a Grade175 Getty. That 175's were made in many, many private labels. The 777 being one of those actually.

The "Grade175" was listed as adjusted for Temperature and isochronism. With a well poised balance wheel it should have no difficulty remaining 1 minute a week accurate or better.

20,975 of these grade 175 movements were made in 108 different production orders between 1896 and 1912. The short runs were due to the Grade 175 being a popular Private Label movement Illinois made for many companies such as; Marshall Field & Co., Joseph P. Frenzen, Montgomery Ward & Co, Paillard Non Magnetic wactch Co of America, Remington watch Co. and special numbered or named models such as your "modified" 777, The Stewart Special, "General" (Landis W.Co,), King Special, Herald Square, Railroad King, etc., etc.

Some Dummy buggered up the Serial number and the model number to "hide" something. Maybe it is "hot"!