At first glance, this dial appears out of place...

(that crown sure is out of place)

The movement is Elgin's Grade 539 produced in 1940, the first of 33 runs of the Grade 539. Note the "15 Jewels" marking, although it in fact has 16.

It is fitted into a three part Star case.

The case back is interesting. First, this screw back does not have the coin edge of latter three part cases. But more important are the markings:

Whitney notes that early Elgin Navigation wristwatches, those with Elgin's Manufacturer's part No. 1768, carried a white silver dial with black figures and either black or blue hands. There is no mention of the red 10 min. numbers on the edge of the above dial, nor of the red tip on the sweep second hand.

Original straps supplied with early A-11 watches were two piece black leather. Whitney includes images which appear to have come from a Govt. document depicting an early white dial A-ll with two piece strap. Unfortunately, the original black leather strap did not accompany this example. It would be interesting to know if the early black leather bands had Elgin marked buckles like those on the one piece cloth straps.

Basic information regarding the above watch, such as grade and year of production, was obtained quickly and easily from Wayne's excellent Elgin Watch Databases (Thank you Wayne!)Elgin Serial No. data

Any additional observations about the early Elgin A-11's would be appriciated.

Best regards,
Greg Crockett

Greg,

I've got two white dialed Elgin Type A-11s. One has a 1941 dated serial number and the other is 1942. Both were USAAC stamped and have identical dials and hands like your example. The main difference between mine and yours is the caseback. Both of mine have much more information stamped on them including the specification number and order number. I should be home in early March and I'll take some good pictures of them so the differences between them are more obvious. The casebacks are like yours with respect to being smooth, without the coin edge. Also, the cases are different between the 1941, 1942 and 1943 on Star three piece cases. Actually, the parts are not interchangable between the different years. The crown on yours does not have the correct profile. It shouldn't flare out the way it does.

On another note, the USMC Elgin Grade 532 wristwatch also has a red tipped sweep second hand and has what I would consider a silver/white dial but is in a two pice water proof case. I can't find any information on this watch such as the specification it was made for.

I'll try and do a full write up when I get home.

Best,

James