It's definitely worth your time to seek out a watchmaker who specializes in vintage watch repair.Īt Renaissance Watch Repair, we are experts in the repair and restoration of vintage pocket watches and wristwatches made by the Elgin Watch Company (also known as the Elgin National Watch Company). Many jewelry-store "watchmakers" these days only know how to change a battery in your quartz watch, and are ill-prepared to deal with the problems found in 100 year old mechanical watches. You can take it to a local watchmaker or jeweler that works with watches and they should be happy to help you out.The Elgin National Watch Company Can My Vintage Elgin Watch Be Repaired?īy far the most important aspect of obtaining a quality repair for your vintage or antique watch is to find a watchmaker with years of experience fixing old wind-up watches. Of course if you don't feel comfortable opening it, then don't do it. Hopefully it's in running shape albeit with all the oil gummed up from age. Very likely it needs serviced and cleaned. Give it a little wind if it will take it, you can take the back off and see if the balance wheel spins, if not or it does very slowly then hold the watch horizontal with the dial down and give it a little shake/spin like you were spinning a top or twisting a screwdriver- that will give the wheel a bit of motion. Just be careful not to scratch it, and don't touch the movement at all, oils from your fingers can permanently corrode parts of the movement and leave fingerprint marks that can't be taken off.
The easiest way to open these is with a knife or your finger nail, on the back on either the top or the bottom near where the bracelet is attached there will be a lip or a gap you can use to lift the back away from the case using the knife blade or your nail.
If you open the back it will probably say what it is. I'm going to guess the case is gold filled, probably 1/20th 12 or 14K. The dial is in fantastic shape, normally by now they're discolored and damaged, it's a big plus that it's in such good shape. Looks very similar to the one on the lower right of this catalog page here. Looks like one of the Streamline models from that era, there were tons of variations on them. If you can pop the back off and get a clear picture of the movement and maybe the inside of the case back we can certainly give you some more information. I'll agree with rhombomere in that it's probably from the 40's or just a bit earlier.
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