Vintage Illinois Lincoln pocket watch movement in Pilot case

[nicewatchdude]

Hi RWI,

Didn't know exactly where to post this piece because it's more of an homage

to early American pocket watches. So here it is in the general discussion.

I'm posting it on the rep forums because it is through sites like these where

I learned the in and outs of building watches, as well as being inspired

to search for and try new builds. It's been a neat experience to far.

I really like the beauty of the Illinois A. Lincoln movements and wanted to

put it in a place it could be more appreciated with a display case back. I

originally had plans to put it into a 47mm fiddy style case but have learned

they are just to big for my wrist IMO. So through research I learned that the

early pocket watch movements were originally converted to wrist watches for

pilots during WW1 or WW2 (hence the birth of the wrist watch?). They caught

on in the public sector and the rest is history.

So I originally thought a pilot dial like an IWC would work well for a pilot watch

but after learning all that I realized, they used the pocket watch dials first,

so I went after that style. I'll admit, the finish I used was a bit stretched

design wise, but I wanted to be creative, so here are the pics. Please enjoy

and tell me what you think.

[patinga]

Interesting watch (Big one!). Not to be a jerk, this is RWG.

[gran]

This is absolutely great love your style and your watch...this is how it should be done

The contrast between the dial and the rest of the watch gives a very unique touch to it..shabby chick?....However for consistency you may either age the rest of the watch a little or put a slightly newer/less worn dial on it

I like this

Gunnar

[maxman]

Nice looking piece, dial looks almost like sandstone. Nice work, thanks for sharing

[TeeJay]

Absolutely fantastic

[dluddy]

Gotta love those old pocketwatch movements

Thanks for sharing

[lhooq]

I love the contrast between the beautifully weathered dial and the pristine movement.

Bigger than I could ever manage, though. Maybe you should wear it over your jacket?

[nicewatchdude]

Interesting watch (Big one!). Not to be a jerk, this is RWG.

woooops, sorry about that ............RWI.............

I love the contrast between the beautifully weathered dial and the pristine movement.

Bigger than I could ever manage, though. Maybe you should wear it over your jacket?

lol, the pic just makes it look big. It's a 44mm case.

thanks everyone for your comments

Edited April 20, 2010 by nicemetal

[nicewatchdude]

I MEAN RWG, I keep on mistyping

[Neuuubeh]

Hehe cool stuff . I first saw this over at the homage forum. Ill post the same anyhow

Movement is a Grade 527. Only 12,000 made. Illinois got bought by Hamilton after that and this was used as a basis for one of their movements, together with the Illini (grade 400 if I'm not wrong). Interesting stuff.

Guess I made the big brother of this one around an year ago

PS did you look your serial number? I guess it should be from around 1923. Mine seems to be a later production (later serial duh). What I never quite figured out is the different jewels on the 2, 3th and 4th wheels - yours are pressed in, mine are screwed down. Till now I assumed mine was an early model and they hadnt perfected the press-jewels process, so went with the more antiquated screw-down settings.. Now, I have no idea, as yours should be older than mine and has the more "advanced" jeweling

[jmb]

Has an extremely high "cool factor", I love it!