Elgin Father Time Railroad Grade Pocket Watch (1912)

About this Elgin Grade 388

Elgin built only 19,000 Grade 388 movements in all, a tiny run for a factory that counted its output in the millions. This is one of them: a 21-jewel, 16-size Father Time railroad grade finished at Elgin, Illinois in 1912. It is open face and lever set, with a double-sunk enamel dial, and it sits in a gold fill case by Joseph Fahys & Co.

Father Time was one of the names Elgin kept for its railroad-standard movements, and the 388 was the 16-size version, built for men whose working day was timed to the second. The Model 15 is Elgin's open face, three-quarter-plate, lever-set layout. In the 388 it carries 21 jewels on nickel plates, and the grade was known for gold jewel settings. It is adjusted to five positions, temperature, and isochronism—the full set of adjustments a railroad inspector expected to see. This is the specification that put the Father Time on approved railroad lists, and every railroad of its day accepted it for time service.

Joseph Fahys came to America from France as a boy and built one of the great names in American case making. By the late nineteenth century his firm was the country's largest maker of gold and silver watch cases, working from a large factory in Sag Harbor, the old whaling port on Long Island. This gold fill case comes from those years, made while Fahys was still alive. He died in 1915, three years after this watch was finished.

An unadjusted watch keeps one rate lying on a table and a different one upright in a vest pocket. Adjusting fixes that, and this watch was adjusted in three ways. Five positions means the watch was timed dial up, dial down, and with the crown pointing up, left, and right. Temperature means the balance and hairspring were set so that summer heat and winter cold would not throw the rate off. Isochronism means it keeps the same pace whether the mainspring is freshly wound or nearly run down.

Elgin catalogs from this period list the Father Time next to the Veritas and the B.W. Raymond as meeting railroad service requirements. That put it among the company's best work at a time when Elgin was one of the largest watchmakers in the world. 1912 was a big year for the country: New Mexico and Arizona completed the forty-eight contiguous states, the Titanic sank in April, and Woodrow Wilson won the presidency. This movement came off the line at Elgin that same year.

The watch is excellent throughout, from the gold fill case and enamel dial to the hands and the movement behind them. It can still do the job it was built for: wind it each morning, carry it, and set your day by it. A true piece of horological heritage: built for the rails, preserved for generations.

All Vintage Pocket Watches are cleaned, oiled, and adjusted for accuracy and warranted for one full year from the date of purchase.