Elgin National Watch Co

It was founded in August 1864 as the NWC National Watch Company. It was not until 1874 that the company took its name "Elgin National Watch Company" and then Elgin National Industries in 1960. This huge American manufacture, one of the most productive, was imagined by former associates of the Waltham Watch C° and a watch manufacturer by the name of JC Adams. The latter contacted Benjamin Wright Raymond, former mayor of Chicago, to invest in the creation of the company. It was in the city of Elgin that the manufacture was established after the mayor had the city agree to make 142,000 square meters of land available for the facility. The factory was completed and began operating at full capacity in 1866.

Elgin's key staff was recruited from Waltham, along with German and English watchmakers attracted by attractive job offers.

In 1910, like most other American watchmakers, Elgin created its own observatory, the Elgin National Watch Company Observatory, to provide the company with the facilities it needed to fine-tune its watches. The Second World War took Elgin into the manufacture of sights and weapons instruments for the US Department of Defense. The company was then disrupted like the entire American watch industry and the factory closed its doors in 1964 after having produced more than half of all watches made in the United States.Pour exemple, en 1920 travaillaient quelques 4'600 collaborateurs sur 17'000 mètres carrés de surface utile; on y produisait jusqu'à 2 millions de montres par an. La tour de l'horloge de 43 mètres de hauteur était visible à des kilomètres à la ronde. Pour avoir l'heure exacte, Elgin se dota en 1910 de son propre observatoire avec lunette méridienne et deux pendules de précision Reflet. Son école d'horlogerie forma au cours des années quelque 6'000 horlogers qualifiés.

The volumes of watches produced by Elgin are so large that there is enough to service watches for several centuries. Elgin was able to take the best from his competitors' models and use it for herself. Thus the power reserve displayed in 1935 on Elgin pocket watches appeared 20 years earlier at Waltham.

Elgin made watches for the American army, made agreements with Swiss brands to fit Swiss movements in the United States as a condition of their sale in these territories and explored the European market. The manufactory also made its B W Raymond calibres, named after one of the partners, and produced a large number of Railroad watches for North American railways. It also produced parts for the American naval aviation industry.

Beyond that, the Elgin manufacture produced excellent wristwatches, including highly appreciated and reliable automatic watches. For its pocket watches, the Manufacture had a limitless inventiveness, especially on the adjustment rackets. The brand made many cheap models with a reduced stone structure which remain very reliable today.

In 1946, the company hoped to get an electromechanical caliber in 1946 and secured the collaboration of the French company LIP. The 725 calibre and its successor 910 were an inexhaustible source of technical problems despite enormous investments. They were sold in 1962 in Chicago to test the reaction of the market. Out of 6'000 pieces sold under the Lord Elgin name, more than 90% of these watches were returned to the factory as they stopped at the slightest shock! To top it all off, Elgin replaced the 725 movements with automatic movements, imported from Switzerland!

In 1966, the factory was demolished and the clock tower was blown up with dynamite. The same year, the company filed for bankruptcy. The site of the old factory now houses a supermarket; only a few fragments of the main gate have survived.

The brand has now lost its way within a Chinese group that produces parts with no real link to the historical production of the brand.

History of the company