lever set elgin in stem set case

[ozanam53]

Hi all , hello Bob. I have what I think is strange. It is a 16s Elgin 19 jewel B.W. Raymond lever set movement in a stem set open face case. The case has a screw on bezel which has to be unscrewed to get to the lever a bit of a inconvenience.The case has the notch in the threads for the lever and looks factory done. No notch in the bezel and screw on case back. Engraving all matches and all case serial numbers match. This is a friends watch which was his grand dads and says its original. When he first showed it to me I assumed it was stem set and the stem did snap out to the set position but was still in the winding position figuring it was probably a sleeve adj. Wrong, it has a lever and pulled it out and it set fine after discovering it under the bezel. If it was original wouldn’t it have at least a hinged bezel for easy access and a fixed stem. The movement is circa 1918, the case is a star case nicely engraved. I was thinking it should have been in a hunter case like others I have. Did they make open face lever set watches? What do think Bob. Thanks Fred.

[Bob Tascione]

Hi Fred,
Good question,
Yes open face lever set watches were very common. From 1893 on all Railroad watches that were “Approved For Railroad Service” were required to be open face, screw on bezel and lever set.
It sounds like the case is original to the movement. The standard procedure well into the 1920s when purchasing a pocket watch was for a customer to choose the movement and have it fitted by the jeweler to a case of choice. Many of the case companies like Star machined a lever slot in the case even though it was also set up as a pendant set case. This way a jeweler didn’t need to keep both types of cases in inventory and or it saved him having to cut a slot himself if he didn’t have both types on hand.
Hope this helps Fred,
Bob

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