# Military Pocket Watches



## Guest (May 27, 2011)

So I purchased "a lot" of roughly 40 pieces lately, most are sold already in lots of movements and spare parts since they were non-runners. But there were couple of sweeties which will be staying at least for time being. One of them, is this sweet Elgin military piece with US engravings from WWII.



















So show your military pocket watches, what were common themes among them? This one seems to have rather nicely finished movement which is bit odd considering utilitarian nature of usage. Red minute numerals are really cool and make telling time to the minute a breaze.


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## AlanJohn (Mar 17, 2011)

W.Service Army by velocipede228822, on Flickr

I only have one military watch, a Service Army pocket watch.



W.Service inner. by velocipede228822, on Flickr

This is the inner works.


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## ian1 (May 14, 2011)

The Elgin is a great looking watch


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## Guest (May 29, 2011)

That Services looks what I expected Elgin to look like from the movement side when I first popped it open. Military style, utilitarian and straight to the point. As long as it keeps time and survives it's good enough and if it's cheap to replace, even better, althouh I'm not sure any watch was cheap at that time...


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## Guest (May 29, 2011)

ian1 said:


> The Elgin is a great looking watch


Thanks and I almost were a fool enough to sell it.. I bought a lot of watches which had few jewels inside, that one included.


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## Shangas (Jan 27, 2008)

The best precision watch that I own is a railroad watch. But military pocketwatches fascinate me. I included them in an article I did on pocketwatches on my blog.


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## Roger the Dodger (Oct 5, 2009)

discordianist said:


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Interesting to see that the movement of your Elgin is more or less the same as mine, except that the regulating mechanism has been turned through 180 degrees. As a WW2 piece, yours is probably 'younger' than mine, which was made in 1923, so a few design changes obviously occurred in the intervening years. On yours, the regulator has been placed on the balance c0ck, whereas on mine it's on the opposite plate. Just checked the Elgin serial no. list, and no. 41,505750 dates yours to 1942-3.


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## Guest (May 30, 2011)

Interesting variations. I also checked the serial no. list the first I got it, to be sure it matches period of that inscription at the back. There seems to be fakes made as well, and frankens. But mine seems to be legit, at least there's no reason to doubt it (correct movement, correct case, dial so forth) 

I ain't no military kind of guy, but this watch seems to be doing it for me anyway  Simple utilitarian piece but with beauty which surprised me. And the fact that a piece of this age can actually keep time that well (carried in my pocket I timed it to be about -4 secs first day and +8 the second). It's stunning..

I think I need more pocket watches  but I think I go with chronographs next time (I already have my eye on one, with russian type-1 modified to chronograph movement inside)


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