November 07, 2010, 14:41
Lindell V. RiddleDaniel,
From a technical standpoint, what Steve posted above in response to your question is entirely correct, all of the 161 Elinvars are indeed mechanically the same watch. The advancement of Elinvar introduced a new, solid balance wheel and Elinvar anti-magnetic rust-resistant hairspring but even when they later added three concentric rings on the Type II B and Type II P it was just another styling change, nothing new "under the hood" as it were.
I find parallels between the watch and automobile industries particularly interesting, in both fields they often "sell the sizzle rather than the steak" so that in fact they were then and even now marketing-driven to a far greater extent than many of us will ever realize.By the way, most of the "type-this-or-that" designations we use were made up by the late William Meggers in order to differentiate between what are most often superficial marking differences, they are not factory designations and they can at times be confusing. One of the points I find amusing among the 163 "types" are the 163 Type I R being listed after the Type I although in reality all the "Type I R" were manufactured first. Apparently, the reason Meggers used "IR" was because the number "163" is in the opposite position, reversed on the two variants, the "IR" being unusual.
What you said about the 21 versus 23-Jewels points to the fact that purely from a value standpoint the only difference between them on Bunn Specials are jewels on either end of the Motor-Barrel which may make winding a bit smoother. One could also argue that the 23 might wind-down a bit smoother with less strain on the mainspring, but the pricing differential when new would have probably been difficult to justify. So, this may be yet another illustration of marketing tactics prevailing and the smoothest thing about these may have really been the slick salesmanship.
Finally, on the 161 and 163 movements we do have some oddities, there are "one-of-a-kind" items that have surfaced including those shown at numbers (5) and (6) on page 125 of the "Illinois Encyclopedia" which are peculiar. Whether such things that surface were "created" by factory error, later by service personnel, or someone putting a movement together out of previously disparate components (See: "163A Mismarked?" topic) remains to be seen. An exception to that is the "161B" with pressed jewels, those were re-worked by Hamilton during the 1940s in their Lancaster facility, the "why" of this and other things they did will likely forever remain a mystery.
Lindell
