Circa 1911.
This example of an early strap watch for men is by Longines in a 3-piece Illinois sterling silver cushion trench case with fixed wire lugs. The luminous dial looks beautiful with skeleton hands. The onion crown sets and winds smoothly on this wonderful military timepiece that measures approximately 31mm wide (excluding the crown) x 39mm from lug end to lug end. Beneath the dial is an adjusted 3/0 size manual hand winding movement with 7 jewels that runs strong and kept good time over a 24 hour period. The serial number on the movement 2514734 dates this watch to about 1911. There are only light scratches on the case and inside back case reads: Illinois W.C.Co., Elgin Sterling, 1031500. Watch movements were often cased separately back in the early 1900s so it's not too surprising to find a Longines movement in an Elgin case. Due to the high import duties on precious metals, a lot of uncased Swiss watch movements were cased in the U.S during that period. *NS
This example of an early strap watch for men is by Longines in a 3-piece Illinois sterling silver cushion trench case with fixed wire lugs. The luminous dial looks beautiful with skeleton hands. The onion crown sets and winds smoothly on this wonderful military timepiece that measures approximately 31mm wide (excluding the crown) x 39mm from lug end to lug end. Beneath the dial is an adjusted 3/0 size manual hand winding movement with 7 jewels that runs strong and kept good time over a 24 hour period. The serial number on the movement 2514734 dates this watch to about 1911. There are only light scratches on the case and inside back case reads: Illinois W.C.Co., Elgin Sterling, 1031500. Watch movements were often cased separately back in the early 1900s so it's not too surprising to find a Longines movement in an Elgin case. Due to the high import duties on precious metals, a lot of uncased Swiss watch movements were cased in the U.S during that period. *NS