Elba Watch

[DouglasSkinner]

Today I fixed up an old vintage watch from the Elba Watch Company; a Swiss firm that used movements made by A. Michel, in this case the caliber 270 (10 1/2 lignes).  Not much available information.  Bestfit has it listed in their catalog.  Some of the web information says that A. Michel combined with A. Schild and FHF to form Ebauches SA.  Taking a major hit from the quartz revolution, A. Schild merged with ETA in the late 70s.  Too bad!  Am learning what a fatal blow that was to all the watch industry.

The quartz revolution reminds me of an incident I experienced nearly 40 years ago.  I was living in NYC at the time.  Quartz watches were big; swallowing the watch market almost as fast as you could think.  Something inside me resisted these futuristic baubles, with their digital readouts (though I like the red LED), souped up cases and funky bands, and I conceived the idea of getting an traditional mechanical watch like my dad had.  So I started going to jewelry stores in Manhattan to find one--one that I could afford.  Mechanical watches could be still be obtained for a high price, way beyond what I could afford.  Anyway, I went to store after store (easy to do in Manhattan) and was told that no moderate priced mechanicals were available--why didn't I want a quartz watch which everybody but me wanted?  Eventually I found a small shop staffed by an elderly, hunched over old man (probably long gone!).  I asked him what he had in mechanical watches.  He said why did I want one?  I gave him a spiel about craftsmanship, tradition, etc. and he said, to wait while he check in back.  After a few minutes he came out with a box and said this was basically the last mechanical watch he had and that I could have it for $150.  It turned out to be an Omega.  Not knowing much about watches I bought it and still have it to this day.  Now I know what a treasure it is.  I think he probably sold it at cost or below cost.  I suspect, though, Omega wasn't quite as prestigious as it is today.  At any rate it was a good deal.

Back to my Elba watch.  Is there a connection with Napoleon? Who knows.  Anybody out there have one or know anything about them?  The watch has a nice hinged case that I shined up.  You can see that I've used a metal bracelet; not my first choice but something that was laying around.  Actually black or brown leather would probably complement the case nicely.  The crystal is probably a replacement as it has no scratches to speak of.  I stripped the movement down and, cleaned it, and put it back together.  Keeping good time so far.  Good strong tick, haven't needed to do any adjustment yet.

I really like the dial which is almost certainly painted with radium.  I'm gonna die! Or at least grow an extra finger!  Actually, I took the dial off and put it in an envelope away from my work area until needed, so I'm not really worried about it.  The dial could use some cleaning but because I didn't want to disturb the radium or ruin it I just put it as is in the watch.  But I'd welcome any advice/tips on how to clean it up.  Haven't learned much about cleaning dials and I definitely want to learn more.