The Illinois Pocketwatch Thread

Waltesefalcon · Sep 28, 2020

I wanted to share my newest acquisition that arrived in the mail today. I bought this beautiful 1904 18s Illinois Bunn Special off of Ebay and I'm delighted. It is running well, has a clean dial with only one small chip by the one, a fantastic looking movement, and as a bonus it came in a 14K J. Boss case.

Since this post has had so many contributors adding their own Illinois pocket watches I figure we can just make this a thread about the great Illinois watches we all seem to admire so much.

michael22 · Sep 28, 2020

Nice. The other IWC.

Fritz · Sep 28, 2020

I picked up the 24 jewel variant about a year ago, from 1900 with the same style face and case.

if I had to sell all my watches but one it would likely be the one to stay.

get it serviced and wear it!

Dan S · Sep 28, 2020

I love those Bunn Special Movements.

This is not quite as special, but I have a Sangamo grade Illinois from the same general era that I inherited from my father. Not in a fancy case, just a later silveroid. Similar double sunk dial as yours.

BrianPankow · Sep 28, 2020

Nice watch!

From my box an 18s and a16s from 1896 and 1918 respectively.

DaveK · Sep 28, 2020

Waltesefalcon
I wanted to share my newest acquisition that arrived in the mail today. I bought this beautiful 1904 18s Illinois Bunn Special off of Ebay and I'm delighted. It is running well, has a clean dial with only one small chip by the one, a fantastic looking movement, and as a bonus it came in a 14K J. Boss case.

Great decoration on that dial 😎 Congrats!

Deafboy · Sep 28, 2020

Waltesefalcon
and as a bonus it came in a 14K J. Boss case.

Looks like rose gold too!

TexOmega · Sep 28, 2020

Waltesefalcon
I wanted to share my newest acquisition that arrived in the mail today. I bought this beautiful 1904 18s Illinois Bunn Special off of Ebay and I'm delighted. It is running well, has a clean dial with only one small chip by the one, a fantastic looking movement, and as a bonus it came in a 14K J. Boss case.

Love the fishscale damaskeening. Great score

Mine is from 1902, Model 6, 3rd pattern (gold inlaid circle two tone pink and yellow)

Display case

Pink and gold inlay was only done between 1900-02.

Fritz · Sep 29, 2020

okay... since this has turned into the Illinois railway porno channel...

Waltesefalcon · Sep 29, 2020

Why don't we just turn this into the Illinois pocketwatch thread? I'll change the name and take pictures of my other Illinois.

Waltesefalcon · Sep 29, 2020

Fritz
I picked up the 24 jewel variant about a year ago, from 1900 with the same style face and case.

if I had to sell all my watches but one it would likely be the one to stay.

get it serviced and wear it!

Once I can get out to my shed, I'm an invalid for a little while, I look forward to tearing this one down and giving it a service. The model 6 is a nice watch to work on.

Canuck · Sep 29, 2020

Several years ago, I was approached by a guy who had a 14-karat yellow gold, 24-jewel, 18-size Bunn Special. He wanted the movement removed from the case as the case was going to a scrapper. I offered him more money for the watch than he was offered for the case. He had a hand shake deal with the scrapper, so he declined my offer. Several months later he phoned me back to offer me the movement only, for $500. I declined it. I have a model 1, a model 3 (fifth pinion model, two model 2, grade 4, “Railroaders” (4,000 made), a model 5, 21-jewel, Bunn Special, (all 18-size), and a 16-size Bunn Special 60-hour.

Fritz · Sep 29, 2020

Waltesefalcon
Why don't we just turn this into the Illinois pocketwatch thread? I'll change the name and take pictures of my other Illinois.

Brilliant.... i’ll have to get shots of my 1870s Illinois Miller up!

Waltesefalcon · Sep 29, 2020

Canuck
Several years ago, I was approached by a guy who had a 14-karat yellow gold, 24-jewel, 18-size Bunn Special. He wanted the movement removed from the case as the case was going to a scrapper. I offered him more money for the watch than he was offered for the case. He had a hand shake deal with the scrapper, so he declined my offer. Several months later he phoned me back to offer me the movement only, for $500. I declined it. I have a model 1, a model 3 (fifth pinion model, two model 2, grade 4, “Railroaders” (4,000 made), a model 5, 21-jewel, Bunn Special, (all 18-size), and a 16-size Bunn Special 60-hour.

That is a heartbreaking story.

ebrohman · Sep 29, 2020

BrianPankow
Nice watch!

From my box an 18s and a16s from 1896 and 1918 respectively.

Dibs on that 16s. Wow! That arabic dial with every minute printed is absolutely unreal. I would get lost in that dial.

Waltesefalcon · Sep 30, 2020

Today, I'm offering up my other Bunn Specisl this one is a model 9 made in 1922. As you can tell this one was carried quite alot judging by the heavy brassing. This was the second rail road grade pocket watch I added to my collection a few years back, the first was my Hamilton 992. For a brief while I foolishly thought that that watch and this one completed my rail road collection.

ghce · Sep 30, 2020

What an eye opening thread! never seen such beautiful pocket watches before and wasn't even aware of this manufacturer as I have never seen examples of this wonderful brand here in New Zealand before. Might have to start trolling ebay.

Waltesefalcon · Sep 30, 2020

ghce
What an eye opening thread! never seen such beautiful pocket watches before and wasn't even aware of this manufacturer as I have never seen examples of this wonderful brand here in New Zealand before. Might have to start trolling ebay.

Troll away, Illinois is, in my opinion, one of the foremost watch manufacturers of the early twentieth century. They built watches that easily rivaled or surpassed what other companies were producing. Eventually Illinois was bought by their biggest rival, Hamilton, and after a couple of years Illinois was dropped as a separate line of watches.

Waltesefalcon · Sep 30, 2020

One other thing to remember about any US produced rail road approved watch is that they had to be accurate to within 30 seconds a week and had to comply with a laundry list of other requirements. This was instituted after several deadly accidents occurred because trains were not sticking to their schedules as closely as they should due to engineer's and conductor's watches being off.

BrianPankow · Sep 30, 2020

ebrohman
Dibs on that 16s. Wow! That arabic dial with every minute printed is absolutely unreal. I would get lost in that dial.

I so love the pocket watches. I got started when my father passed and left his grandmother’s pocket watch to me. I rotated my serviced dozen changing up every week, but switched to wrist watches when I kept snagging the chain on things. The final straw was playing with my grandson. The chain got caught in the deck boards and I stood up.