I have a very old (50+ years old) Elgin watch, model unknown. It was made before Elgin got bought out by some big company and stopped producing watches (around 1960). I got it from my grandpa, who was one of the old-school watch repairmen, who actually went to the Elgin Watchmaker's College in Illinois pre-1950s.
This watch actually still works well, unless you get it wet... then it has to dry out a few days and will keep on tickin'
The photo of its face shows its age, but it does look nicer in person. My camera sucks, especially when I tried to take a pic of the beauty of the inner workings of this thing. You can see the jewels (rubies maybe?) inside it. This is an Elgin "17 jewel" watch, made before the use of Quartz became popular. The jewels were actually used as bearing seats for the most stressed moving parts, because jewels don't wear down over time as much as metals like steel, etc. Think of it like this: An axle turns round and round in its hole for years and years.... if the hole or axle is made of steel or any other common "hard" metal, tiny bits of shavings will come off ever so slightly as the motion moves on, year after year. The hole or axle gets worn out, and the mechanism becomes less precise over time. So back in the 1900s and late 1800s, watch makers put jewels harder than steel
inside the watches' mechanisms. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
Click to view attachmentClick to view attachmentThe photo's dates are wrong - I'm too lazy to set the date/time... and yes that is a MathLab folder behind it (barf!)