Elgin Fancy Dial Grade 303 12s Pocket Watch circa 1923

Watchoutnow · March 15, 2023

This is the first American Pocket Watch I’ve serviced. For the past few years I’ve concentrated solely on “modern” Swiss movements: ETA 2824-1 & -2; UT 6325; AS1130; UT 6431/6445/431; ETA 1080’s and some other assorted calibers. I keep hearing how pocket watches are easier than wrist watches to service and are recommended for beginners, so I wanted to test this idea from the viewpoint of a non-beginner. I’ve been avoiding working on Antique American Pocket Watches because I didn’t know much about them, they aren’t taught in modern watch courses, I mistakenly thought parts would be hard to find and there are so many variants (“Grades”) that no one specific repair tutorial applies to all of them. Besides, they are kind of old-fashioned, hard to wear and people don’t wear them much. I recently acquired three Elgin’s and a Hamilton Railway Special and now I am in love with them. But I still don’t think they are for beginners.

So here are my comments regarding this specific Elgin 12s Fancy Dial Grade 303 Pendant Set circa 1923 that I fully serviced.

The first thing that is different about pocket watches is how they are cased and specifically how different the keyless works is in an American Pocket Watch. There are two types of keyless works, lever set and pendant set. A pendant set seems like it is the same as a Swiss watch, but it is not. I couldn’t initially get the movement out of the case because I thought it might have a full stem attached to the crown. I found a small screw near the winding crown wheel that I thought was for the detent on the setting level so I tried backing it out some to release the stem. What I was supposed to do is tighten this screw down to hold the return bar (yoke) in place to hold the sliding pinion in winding position, then pull the crown out to the setting position to separate the “key” from the square hole in the end of the stem on the movement side. I kept looking for the detent that holds the stem in place for the setting position, but the detent is in the tube in the pendant on the case. This information also needs to be known for re-casing the watch also to hold the sliding pinion down with the set screw so the watch can be wound outside the case for testing.

There is also an arcane arrangement of cams and levers and captured springs (thankfully not the jumpy “bobby pin” springs in some watches) but once you puzzle all this out the watch train is straight forward. It is necessary to know about the different barrel arrangements and what type of mainspring one is dealing with. This one has a Going type barrel with a D.B. with hole end. The barrel diameter is 15.6mm and the m/s width is 2.0mm with a right hand spiral (the m/s only goes in to the barrel in one direction so you can’t do it wrong). The ratchet wheel screw is r/h threaded but the Crown Wheel screw is LH . Quite a few American PW’s have a r/h Crown Wheel screws so be aware.

I received this watch is barely running condition and now after a good cleaning and re-lube it is running like the preverbal “Swiss Clock” - flat trace, almost zero B.E. but I have no idea what the lift angle is so I can’t accurately report amplitude. I know I can figure it out but I’m not going to bother. I’m sure it could stand a new mainspring. Since the watch lacked any service inscriptions on the inside of the case back it may be possible that the watch hasn’t been serviced in 100 years. Think about that! And now it’s running to a few seconds a day, with the original mainspring.

BTW the two other Elgin’s I received are from 1899. They are keeping good time and I haven’t even serviced them yet.