Elgin art deco watches with Bryan from Art Deco Wristwatches

Welcome back to the Lone Star Regional. I am here with Brian from Art Deco wristwatches and he has an amazing collection to show us today. Brian why don't you take it away and tell us about these Elgin watches. So all these Elgin's date from the 1920s and 1930s all the way through the 1940s. Beginning around 1927 Elgin introduced a series of Art Deco design men's wristwatches and continued making that style of watch really all the way through the 1940s. Before that a lot of their watches were just simple round watches with not really any sort of adornments or geometric designs but in 27 they came out with a whole line of watches that had engraved bezels and sharp edges and geometric designs engraved on the watches and they were just responding to the general design trends of the 1920s that really kind of took off in 1925 with the Art Deco Exposition in Paris. Wow that's that's really interesting and you have a quite a variety of Art Deco watch some of these I have not seen before. Brian could you tell us a little bit about some of these pieces and how how uncommon they are. So this is the oldest one I have in this group this is a a model E3 it came out in 1927 this one is solid gold it's got the original box and it's got some stylized floral designs but they're also we've got some engraved rectangles we've got some other engraved lines on the side very geometric design and even though some of the designs are floral and can be considered Art Nouveau they're very stylized they're not very distinct so they're very symmetrical along the edges and the top this one also has its original buckle which has the same design engraved on it as the case of the watch. That is a gorgeous watch. This is a Legionnaire Elgin named their watches in series so they've named them after these kind of Legionnaire, Crusader, Campus, Senior, Home Run they all gave them kind of catchy names to help them sell and this is a Legionnaire model 408 from 1928 in green gold fill and again it's got these stylized Art Deco geometric designs on the bezel and on the sides of the case. This is a Campus model from about 1930 in chromium nickel and again we see the stylized kind of floral designs but also you know they're set in geometric shapes rectangles and triangles you see and very sharp edges angled beveled angled and beveled bezels and a mesh band which is very popular at the time. This is a Crusader from the late 1930s very triple stepped case with sharp angles almost looks like a skyscraper in a form of a watch. I'm going to go back a little bit because I forgot this one this is a model 213. This is solid white gold with roman numerals set in blue enamel on the bezel. That's a very unusual piece. It is and about this time this watch came out Elgin was having designers in Paris design his watches. I have not seen one like that before Brian. A lot of Elgin collectors call this the Cartier Elgin because it's very similar to the Cartier watches that were made during the 1920s which were also designed in Paris and had enamel bezels just like the Elgin Square Tank Cartiers but just like this. So you know being both designed in Paris I'm sure Elgin's designers and Cartier's designers were very well aware of the work each one of them was doing there in Paris. This is a model from the late 1930s in solid pink gold and yellow gold with a diamond dial. Again a very thin stepped tall watch going again with the skyscraper Art Deco theme but in a wristwatch instead of a building. That's really cool and this is the youngest of the group. This watch was made about 1941. It's a Lord Elgin model 4602. Got these nodules a ribbed design on the bezel which carries carried over into the pink gold bracelet. Black dial with exploding Roman numerals. Very interesting. This design is again mid 1930s. It's another stepped case and it has a very Art Deco stepped and ribbed metal bracelet to go with it. Beautiful beautiful watch. Brian you have a business called Art Deco Wristwatches. Correct. And where where can people look at maybe some watches that you would have for sale or maybe just some general information? Sure Art Deco wristwatches.com is my website and on Instagram I'm Art Deco Wristwatches. So I usually post watches on the Instagram. I like to do three or four a week and I usually put a little information about each watch. Okay. And on my website for the watches that are for sale I usually do a paragraph or two about each watch for sale. Okay. Whatever I know about it. Yeah. When it was made. How much it cost. How long it was made. If I know how many were made I'll put how rare it is. All like that. Use it with lots of pictures from different angles. People can see how beautiful they are. That's that's really good. And so you can find a lot of great information at Art Deco Wristwatches.com and also be sure to follow Brian on Instagram Art Deco Wristwatches. And Brian I want to thank you for your time today. Well thank you for featuring me. I've blown away by the collection that you've shown me today. Thank you. Thanks again.