Expert: Melvin Mills - 11/4/2007

Question
QUESTION: I am in possession of an Illinois pocket watch and I have a serial number 1881407

Is there a way to get a description of the instrument vis # of jewels, railroad, etc?

ANSWER: David,

Not based on the serial number.  Open up the caseback and look at the movement.  There you will find the number of jewels written on the movement.  

Illinois always made top quality watches.  
You may have heard of a Bunn Special.  The Bunn family used to own the Illinois watch co.  After watches, they started making food processing equipment, such as coffee makers.  You can still find Bunn coffee makers around. They are top quality as well.

Kind regards,
Melvin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION:
Opening the caseback,the inscription reads CR Smith and Sons' Philadelphia PA

11 jewels.

Does thos go further in obtaining some snes of value?

Answer
David,

This watch was made for the jeweler CR Smith and Sons.

It was fairly common to see the watch with the company's logo or name instead of the manufacture's.  A modern day example is Tiffany's.  You will see many brands and with the brand name it also reads "Tiffany's and Co."

If it is an 11 jewel movement, then it is not railroad grade.  The jewels go from 7 to 23 in watches.  This is toward the low end.  

To know for sure what a likely value is one needs to know the size of the watch.  That is not something that you will see written on the watch.  You would need to measure it and translate that into "watch talk", such as a size 18, size 16, etc.  

In addition to size, the condition goes along way to determining value.  

I hate to throw out specific numbers because I don't know many of the variables that go into determining a value.

If you are interested in value, your best bet would be to take it to a local watchmaker who can look at it.