The EARLIEST American made Men's Wrist Watch KNOWN to EXIST

[Literustyfan]

Stryfox,

Sent you a PM about your Elgin.

[unreformed66]

VERY interesting, thanks for all of your hard work unearthing the advertisements and the watch itself. Now I'll be looking for one..lol.

[Literustyfan]

Massive update to this incredible story!

A few weeks ago there was an auction held in New Hampshire, hundreds of lots, mostly dealing in watches and marine clocks.

I bid vigorously on one specific lot that had 16 antique watches and won, but it cost me more than a few bucks.

It took a few weeks for the lot to get delivered but it finally arrived a couple of days ago.

I actually wanted maybe 3 pieces in this lot of 16 watches, some of the other watches in the lot were obscured in the pictures, piled on top of each other.

When I opened the box each one was wrapped separately (thank goodness).

When I opened the third watch my jaw just about hit the ground!

I knew EXACTLY what it was in a millisecond.

This is the sterling silver version of the New England Lever Cavour and it is in 100% original condition!

A few seconds later I noticed that the dial signature was different, it was not stamped "New England" like the gold filled version I found about a half a year ago.

The dial stamp on this one reads "CROSS", as in Mark Cross the leather goods store, they sold many other fine items as well like china and crystal.

Looks like the New England Watch Company made some of these Cavour Wrist Watches as a private label for Mark Cross.

Mark Cross leather goods are still around today and their company logo is still almost identical to the way it was 107 years ago.

When I opened the case back, with my New England Watch Company case back opener (of course) I was a bit surprised!

The movement is NOT stamped "New England Watch Company" like the first one I found, this one is stamped "Mark Cross Co".

But, the EXACT same "ZZ" stamp is still there, the "ZZ" identifies this movement as made for a wrist watch, as best I can tell from studying others from New England.

The inside of the case back is stamped "N.E." inside of a heart, just like the gold filled version.

This sterling silver version is actually still running!

Keeping time within about 4-5 minutes per day, I made a slight adjustment a few minutes ago so we will see if that can be improved down to 2-3 minutes per day.

These are not very high quality movements, they are unjeweled so 2-3 minutes per day would be pretty good all things considered.

Anyway, just thought that I'd share this continuing saga with everybody..............

Enjoy the pics!

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[JerryT]

Great find! Congratulations.

[Literustyfan]

Thanks Jerry!

This is now the third manufacturer that I have found that used gold filled crowns on their sterling silver cases. (New England, Fahys & Dennison)

New England also put gold filled lugs on this sterling case, a bit odd.

But, I took measurements with my micrometer and the lug dims are exactly identical in size and shape.

Looks like these gold filled lugs are 100% original to the watch.

[SFC]

Stan, nice pick. I didn't bid but was looking at that New Hampshire auction. I wanted the scraps of that auction... the lots that were just piles of wristwatches that you couldn't make out the contents. The lots I am talking about didn't go cheap either and for good reason.. There is something about mystery leftovers from a high end auction that gets me itching real bad. Congrats on a super find!