: That's a work of art!

Thanks, I think so too. The cool thing about these scarce high grade early 16 size Elgin watches is that Collectors haven't really ever given them the love they give the high grade (American Grade) Waltham watches. Very few of these were made (in Elgin terms) and very, very few had gold escape wheels. When you can find these you can buy them for a couple hundred dollars. This particular watch however has a feature that is very rare and collectable. Its dial is an original special order Elgin dial made for the "Odd Fellows." The Odd Fellows was an offshoot of the Masons (Masonic Order). Most cities and towns in the US have an old building that used to be the Odd Fellows Lodge. There is a lot of Odd Fellows memorabilia around but in my nearly 40 years of collecting watches I have only seen two of these dials. I actually have a period Elgin catalog which shows their custom dial selection and this dial is pictured. Anyway the dial makes it an expensive little watch.

JohnCote