Elgin Grade 150 - Unusual Watch Case

This watch has a case design that I have not seen before, or at least not exactly.

The watch goes into a heavy ring, and that ring goes into the case. The case is a main body, and a back cover only, like a swing-out case. But the ring that holds the movement is not hinged, so this is more like a "basket", or lift-out, style case, except that the neck and stem are part of the main body, not the part that lifts out. This makes it a little tricky to align the winding arbor.

This is bottom of the motor barrel on this watch. It includes a Geneva stop, which is a mechanism limiting the rotation of the mainspring arbor. Find out more here.

Here is an example of the secondary serial number stamps on the major parts of this movement. The prefix is a sort of italic upside down V.

This is an Elgin grade 150, 18 size, 20 jewels, made about 1896.

It was also made in a 21 jewel version.