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The Encyclopedia of Horology

Movement record · United States

Elgin B. W. Raymond

Partially verified

A grade name rather than a single calibre, applied by Elgin to railroad-standard movements for most of the company's history, so that examples differ fundamentally in plate layout between early key-wind and late twentieth-century production.

Technical specifications

Diameter
18 size early; later 16 size and smaller
Height
Varies by model
Jewels
15 to 23 depending on grade and date
Frequency
18,000 vph (2.5 Hz)
Power reserve
Approx. 36 hours
Winding
Key wind on the earliest grades, later stem wind
Setting
Lever set on railway-service grades
Escapement
Lever
Balance
Compensation balance; later grades with monometallic balance and improved hairspring alloy
Complications
Subsidiary seconds, Up-and-down indicator on a small number of grades

Identification features

  • 'B. W. Raymond' grade name on the movement, named after one of Elgin's founders
  • Grade and model must be read together with the serial number, since the name spans many designs
  • Published Elgin serial-number tables give an approximate date of production

Known variants

  • Early key-wind 18 size
  • 16 size lever-set railroad grades
  • Late 21 and 23 jewel grades

Servicing notes

Elgin parts are among the more available American components, but grade-to-grade interchangeability cannot be assumed.

General guidance only. Antique movements should be serviced by a qualified watchmaker.

Historical significance

The longest-lived American railroad grade name, and a useful study of how one grade designation evolved across eighty years of production.

Related photographs

Elgin National Watch Company Observatory (Elgin, IL) 04
Elgin National Watch Company Observatory (Elgin, IL) 04 — G LeTourneau, CC BY-SA 3.0. Wikimedia Commons file page
Elgin National Watch Company Father Time
Elgin National Watch Company Father Time — Original: Unknown Clean PNG: Wrs1864, Public domain. Wikimedia Commons file page
1919 Elgin National Watch Company USA
1919 Elgin National Watch Company USA — Ken Heaton, CC BY-SA 4.0. Wikimedia Commons file page

No confidently matched photograph of this subject has been found yet. These photographs show a closely related record, and are not examples of the type described on this page.

Sources & references

  1. Elgin National Watch Company serial-number records as published by the NAWCC
  2. The full grade list is extensive; the variants noted here are representative rather than complete.

Where sources disagree, the disagreement is stated rather than resolved silently.