Got another rare IWC pocket watch at auction --a Cal. 48

I relayed about 6 weeks ago how I found a unique Pallweber at an obscure auction house in Massachusetts (click here). As some of you know, I'm trying to narrow my IWC pocket watch collection to only prime 19th century examples --the others are beautiful, but I enjoy the hunt for obscure items that I don't have and that represent IWC's history.

One of those rare categories are Elgin III calibres from the mid 1880s--mostly in the mid-40 calibre number range. Extraordinarily few were produced, and this time I found one in a small local auction house in the Netherlands.

Actually, I had bid on an earlier (and not as rare) IWC Elgin that I lost by 50 Euros to a last minute bid. So I took some of the Euros that I "saved", and raised my bid by 500 Euros on this one here. Lucky I guess that I did, since the hammer fell on my maximum bid.

It is a Elgin III Savonette (Cal. 48) remontoire à base. This calibre and its rarity was briefly discussed in a prior post here (click here). One expert tells me that there are only about 8 examples of this calibre known to exist today.

I hope I'm not counting chickens before they hatch. The last I heard was "you were the high bidder on the lot(s) listed below when the hammer hit. Now we're waiting for final confirmation from the auction house..." Hopefully that'll arrive soon.

Best of luck Michael and, if things work out, huge congratulations! I am looking forward to some photos!

Splendid. Another notch in your PW belt.

Congratulation!
On of the movements missing in my collection,
A really very rare piece!

Ccntgratulation an regards Ralph

Not only very rare but also in exellent condition!
Congratulations.
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

I looked to some data provided by two IWC experts, a decade ago : the late Friedrich Wagener and Werner Berghaus. The watch was selected as watch of the month , depicted and described in Watch International" by Werner Berghaus.
Although the first glance at the movement might lead one to think that it is a derivate of a Seeland caliber, it is in fact a forerunner of cal 52, but with covered winding and click wheel.
These watches have been developed by Louis Tschopp between 1882-1888. They were called Elgin III, although never a relation has been found between the Elgin company in the US and IWC Schaffhausen. The best guess is that Jones as well as Seeland were very much aware of the American Watch Manufacturers and many of the early IWC calibers got American watch names : cal. Boston ( Seeland), Elgin I, II and III etc.
Intriguing is the seven digit movement number. The very early IWC movements had 4 or 5 digits only. Peculiar is that the movements start with "201" or "202". Is this another subclassification? Nobody knows...or perhaps Saltuarius?
Kind regards,
Adrian,
(alwaysiwc).

Hi Adrian,

Here's what David Seyffer told me about the number: "The “20” prefix was added … we do not know the reason why. So the number should be (20)13113 or (20)13173."

He also said that the number is part of a group of Elgin III's in the archive books. Another expert told me that the records show that the movement was sold without case.

fingers crossed that chick hatches and you definitively get this latest PW!

regards,
thang

Thanks, Thang.

Well, I've wired the money and now just need to wait for delivery. Odds are that'll make it here.

Just following on from what Adrian has said and concurring with David. Yes the prefix ‘20’ was added to the calibre 48 numbers and no one knows why. Strangely its twin, the calibre 47 savonnette did not get the same treatment and has no prefix number.
IWC added numbers also with the late Bostons where ‘100’ was added to four number serials and ‘10’ to five number serials. So 7020 became 1007020 and 17221 became 1017221. The four and five digit numbers are listed in Tolke & King, but the IWC sales records show them as the full 7-digit numbers.

Alan