Hampden Pocket Watch Serial Number Lookup

Posted By admin On 14.05.21

The serial number must be off the movement of the watch (where the gears are), not off the case.These two serial numbers are unrelated. For more information see the Watch Serial Number web page. You must give the letter prefix of the serial number, if there is one. Find best value and selection for your Very Early Serial Number 1896 Hampden LS Pocket Watch search on eBay. World's leading marketplace. Serial number look-up example: Let's say you have a Waltham watch with serial number 21,607,210 as shown in the photo below. Note that we're using the serial number from the watch movement, not from the watch case.

Main Page

SPF email anti-forgery

Elgin Watch Company

NTP scripts

XStar

Bidwatcher

Accuracy of the Estimates of When Watches Were Made
The Better Way to Determine the Date
Serial Number Data Table

How to Open a Watch Case

While opening a watch isn't rocket science, a watch can be damaged if you try to open it incorrectly. Never use a screwdriver to try to open a case. If you really aren't sure what to do, take it to one of your local jewelers and ask them to show you how to open it. While it is open, make sure you record everything written on the movement of the watch and the watch case. These details can sometimes be important.

A good description of how to open a pocket watch case and background information can be found here, thanks to the work of Kent Singer. Opening wrist watch cases, especially ones made after around 1950, some times requires special tools. Earlier wrist watches are often similar to pocket watches.

Why the Movement and Case Serial Numbers Are Unrelated

In addition, watch cases tended to wear out much quicker than the watch movements. So, the owner would sometimes go through two or three cases over the life time of the watch. Obviously, these later cases can't be related to the movement serial number.

Even after the 1920's, when watch companies started selling cased watches, the watch companies still bought the watch cases from outside sources and the serial numbers were still unrelated.

Are Case Serial Numbers Useful For Anything?

For the most part, case serial numbers only server to confuse people about what kind of watch they have. To the best of my knowledge, there are no records from any case manufactures that can make these case serial numbers useful. There are a few minor things you can use case serial numbers for:

The case serial number is printed on several parts of the watch case. You can usually tell if you have a complete watch case by seeing if these serial numbers match.
Sometimes, the watch case companies would mark the bezels with the last few digits of the case number using Roman numerals. Usually the Roman numerals are scratched in by hand. For example, a case with a serial number of 153069 that has a screw on bezel might be marked 'X VI VIIII'. This code is kind of strange since each digit is written as one block of Roman numbers, the 'X' is for zero, not ten, and the 9 might not be written as 'IX'.
For Elgin watches, case serial numbers on solid gold watches will usually be only 10% or less of the serial number on the movement. So, if someone is selling a watch as solid gold, and it has a movement serial number of, say, 3,870,123 and it has a case serial number of 1,073,678, a red flag should go up in your mind and you should be even more cautious about the claim. The reverse, however, isn't true, a small serial numbers doesn't mean it is solid gold.
Case serial numbers, if they are recorded, can help if the watch is ever stolen. Both the movement and case serial numbers should be written down, since the movement and the case can be easily separated.

All of these are rules of thumb, not absolutes, there are many exceptions, especially for rule 2. Again, for the most part, case serial numbers just serve to confuse people.

What About Numbers Scratched in the Case? 'Jeweler Marks'

Jeweler marks are highlighted

There are often small numbers called 'jeweler marks' scratched on the inside of the case.

When a watch was brought in for repair or cleaning, the watchmaker would often, but not always, scratch some kind of code into the back of the case so that can tell if they have repaired a the watch before. Sometimes these scratches would be some form of date code, or maybe just the initials of the watch maker, often just an invoice or repair number. There was no standard across the industry and individual watchmakers may change codes over the years.

Accuracy of the Estimates of When Watches Were Made

The table below with the serial numbers and years has be compiled from many sources and I believe it to be reasonably accurate, However, no table like this can be completely accurate because Elgin didn't produce watches in sequential order. It was very common for groups of watches to be set aside and finished months, years, or sometimes as much as a decade later. After the watch was finished, it might sit in a wholesaler's warehouse or a jewelry shop for months or years.

About the best you can say that the watch was probably not produced or sold as 'new' before the date listed. High volume watches will tend to be closer to the date listed, while expensive, high quality watches will tend to be the ones that have misleading dates. New models of watches may be released before or after these general dates.

Finally, I can find no definitive source of official dates, and there seems to be some disagreement between the various sources that I've found. This is especially true for the earlier years. The raw sources that I created this list from can be found here. (Actually, it looks like I mostly used the first list...)

The Better Way to Determine the Date

I recommend you use the Elgin Online Database to learn approximately what year your watch was made. It is quicker and less error prone.

This page is really only useful as background information on how the Online Database determines the dates.

Serial Number Data Table

Elgin originally started out with just a number, but in the late 1930s they started to use a letter prefix on some of their serial numbers. Even later in the late 1950s, Elgin phased out the use of serial numbers.

If your watch has a letter prefix, you must first replace that letter with the two digit 'millions' value from the following table. For example, H632161 would be converted into 47,632,161 and N7193 would be converted into 48,007,193.

Serial Number Letter Prefix to Millions Digits

Letter	X	C, E, T or Y	L	U	J	V	H	N	F	S	R	P	K	I
Millions Digits	38 or 39	42	43	44	45	46	47	48	49	50	51	52	53	54

Now, find the first serial number that is larger than your watches, and that will be the year that it was produced in.

31,000

1867
71,000	1868
101,000	1869
126,000	1870
152,000	1871
176,000	1872
210,000	1873
310,000	1874
410,000	1875
510,000	1876
552,000	1877
601,000	1878
701,000	1879
801,000	1880
1,000,000	1881
1,440,000	1882
1,650,000	1883
1,850,000	1884
2,000,000	1885
2,550,000	1886
3,000,000	1887
3,550,000	1888
4,000,000	1889
4,400,000	1890
4,890,000	1891

5,000,000

1892
5,500,000	1893
6,000,000	1894
6,550,000	1895
7,000,000	1896
7,550,000	1897
8,100,000	1898
9,100,000	1899
9,350,000	1900
9,755,000	1901
10,100,000	1902
11,000,000	1903
12,100,000	1904
12,500,000	1905
13,100,000	1906
13,550,000	1907
14,100,000	1908
15,100,000	1909
16,000,000	1910
17,000,000	1911
17,550,000	1912
18,000,000	1913
18,500,000	1914
19,000,000	1915
20,000,000	1916

21,000,000

1917
22,000,000	1918
23,000,000	1919
24,000,000	1920
25,000,000	1921
26,000,000	1922
27,000,000	1923
28,000,000	1924
29,000,000	1925
30,000,000	1926
32,000,000	1927
33,000,000	1928
33,300,000	1929
33,500,000	1930
33,700,000	1931
34,000,000	1932
35,000,000	1933
35,500,000	1934
36,200,000	1935
37,000,000	1936
37,900,000	1937
38,200,000	1938
39,100,000	1939
40,200,000	1940
41,100,000	1941

42,200,000

1942
42,600,000	1943
43,200,000	1944
44,000,000	1945
45,000,000	1946
46,000,000	1947
47,000,000	1948
48,000,000	1949
50,000,000	1950
52,000,000	1951
53,300,000	1952
54,000,000	1953
54,500,000	1954
55,000,000	1955

While I'm not an expert, I believe the information on this page is correct. Please send suggestions and corrections to the webmaster.
This web site runs on 100% Open Source Software. This web page was last changed on 10/04/2002 at 00:41:29.

Items in search results