Elgin Pocket watch challenge - calling all experts

[saswatch88]

Has anyone ever seen a sticker like this on a vintage Elgin pocket watch dial.....it def looks old and has lumed numerals, iam wondering if it was a quick fix at the time since 6s lumed dials weren’t mass produced in 1918. It is a 6s philly trench watch which was most likely used by a soldier, esp since the silverode case was oxidized, the oxidation was done manually since I have never seen a silverode case oxidize to black before, only silver cases. This was a military requirement at the time. The sticker does look like a perfect fit for the dial too. A 6s lumed Dial is extremely rare even the watch case itself is rare. Just trying to make sense of this. Just wondering if anyone has seen anything like it trying to determine whether it was Originally done in 1918 or if someone just added all this patina to get .the big bucks for it I have 3 of these and I paid much more than I did on my other 3 and they were running this one is not.

[oldhippy]

I have come across paper dials on clocks but never on a pocket watch. You never know you might have something unique.

[saswatch88]

32 minutes ago, oldhippy said:

I have come across paper dials on clocks but never on a pocket watch. You never know you might have something unique.

Well it’s a porcelain dial underneath the off white part is a sticker on top of the porcelain dial, iam curious to know what kind of dial is underneath but obviously don’t wanna ruin the sticker

[oldhippy]

I expect the whole dial to be porcelain. Could be very cracked that is why a paper dial has been put on to stop it cracking even more, a form of protection. 

[FLwatchguy73]

I've see melamine dials before.Hamilton made them back in the day. Not exactly paper, more a very early thermoset plastic that often was used to impregnate a paper or cotton fabric substrate. Formaldehyde is the chemical used in conjunction with melamine to create the resin.

A Hamilton Melamine dial. Cracking is very common with melamine as it ages.

On a weird side note, when I was an apprentice machinist we used to practice machining on chunks of Phenolic, which is very similar to Melamine in many ways including the use of formaldehyde in its formulation. When Phenolic is machined it gives off an incredibly strong Urine smell from the formaldehyde.

[Gpsluvr]

Speaking of smells, I used to love the smell that came from working on celluloid knife or straight razor handles. It was a camphor smell. Very unique.


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