The Elgin Watch Company (National Watch Company) was founded in 1864 . 1864 (MDCCCLXIV) was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ...

Some of the organizers came from Waltham Watch Company, including P.S. Bartlett, D.G. Currier, Otis Hoyt, Charles H. Mason and others. The idea of beginning a large watch company for the mid-West was discussed by J.C. Adams, Bartlett and Blake. After a trip to Waltham, Massachusetts, Adams went back to Chicago and approached Benjamin W. Raymond, a former mayor of Chicago, to put up the necessary capital to get the company started. Adams and Raymond succeeded in getting others to pledge their financial support also. In 1850, Roxbury Massachusetts, David Davis, Edward Howard and Aaron Lufkin Dennison formed together the company that would later become the American Waltham Watch Company. ... Waltham is a city located in Middlesex County, Massachusetts. ... Chicago (officially named the City of Chicago) is the third largest city in the United States (after New York City and Los Angeles), with an official population of 2,896,016, as of the 2000 census. ...

The National Watch Co, better known as the Elgin Watch Company, was formed in August 1864. The factory site was in Elgin, Illinois, where the city had donated 35 acres (142,000 m²) of land. The factory was completed in 1866 and the first movement was a B.W. Raymond, 18 size, full plate design. The company closed in 1964, after having produced half of the total number of pocket watches manufactured in U.S.A. (dollar-type not included). Incorporated City in 1854. ... 1866 (MDCCCLXVI) is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Wednesday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... For the Nintendo 64 emulator, see 1964 (Emulator). ...

The rights to the name "Elgin" were sold, but Elgin-branded watches produced after 1964 have no other connection to Elgin or the Elgin Watch Company.

Source

• Complete Watch Guide, by Cooksey Shugart, Tom Engle, Richard E. Gilbert, Edition 1998, ISBN 1-57432-064-5

External links

• The Elgin Watch Collectors Site
• entry in Encyclopedia of Chicago
• The Elgin Story (words & pictures)