Picked this up for a measly $15! Didn't even know what it was until I got home. Seems to be a stopwatch Elgin from WW2. Great condition except for the fact the crystal fell out and the hand is missing. I can imagine finding a replacement hand is quite hard... It runs but it doesn't seem to stop when I push down on the crown. Cool display piece for $15! Maybe I'll get it fixed up one dayany idea on a hand?
It's an Elgin grade 582 'Jitterbug' timer. Made in 1943in this case.
It's not really a stopwatch in the standard sense. It runs as long as there's power in the mainspring. It uses what are essentially chronograph works to connect the hands to the train. It should be running at 30 bpsso that the handif it were therewould go around in 10 secondsand the minute register hand ticks over one step every 10 secondsallowing you to time up to 5 minutes.
They were also made with larger balance wheelsto run at 5 bpsso you could make a 1 minute timer with a register thatgoes up to 30 minutes.
I did a post about the Jitterbugon my blog. The chronograph works are very similar to those on the Hamilton Model 23 Chronographbut of course that also has a time function.
It's ironic that this is a bomb timer... in the first photoif you squint a bitit actually looks like a bombpossibly falling through the air. With the bow representing the bomb's "tail". Can anyone else "see" that?
Nice pick up. Here is one with out the jitterbug balance wheel I picked up close to the price you paid 20 bucks at the Alameda antique fair years ago it did not run but a few drops of oil does wonders she now runs. A Hamilton 4992B sweep hand would be easy to find and mite work for your missing hand looks close to what I have on mine. If you get the NAWCC bulletin the paper booklet mart highlight there a seller who sells Hamilton military parts that mite have a Hamilton 4492B sweep hand that just mite work for your missing hand.
Different issue marks on mine that I have not seen on any other. Notice how they oxidized the most important parts of the movement that's the black coating to prevent rust due to were it was used in combat were weather conditions could cause rust.
If I am not mistaken these are two different products. The OP watch has its very small balance and beats at a very high ratehence the name jitterbug. River Rat's watch is also a timerbut with a normal balance and 60 minute operation for long duration events.
The English firm Frodsham's sold a similar instrument which used a high speed cylinder escapement that was made for them by Nicole Nielsen. It was used by the British navy as a "Time of flight" instrument. I believe it was meant to measure the time from the flash to the sound of a ship's guns to estimate the distanceor the time from the sound to the splash of the ordnance to adjust range.
I think the French Auricoste timers that the U.S. Navy purchased around 1900 were used in the same way.
It is actually a ground navigation timer not a bomb timer. When flying over the ground you would start the timer at a known landmark then stop it at another some distance away. You can determine your ground speed that way.
I have two A-8's. One was my father in laws who was an aircraft navigator and retired as a ltcol from the Air Force. His was an Elgin. The other I have is a Waltham. He used it for 20 years and the engraving is all but word off.
Once wound up the they start running and will run till they mainspring unwinds.. You push the crown to start the timer then push it again to stop. One more push resets it.
Thanks everyone!! My watch does run but it doesn't seem the smaller hand ticks.... Howeverdoesn't it only move every one minute the sweeping hand is moving? If so no way for me to tell since there is no hand! There's gotta be a replacement part for this out there somewhere! But yesmy watch does runthe ticking is crazy fast which is very cool. Would a glass crystal have been original?
I have four of these timerstwo made by Elgin and two made by Waltham.
The Elgin variant features a movement that is always runningeven when the sweep second hand is stoppedso as to employ a "flying start" for any timing operation.
The Waltham variant movement stops running when the sweep second hand is stopped and restarts when the sweep second hand is started.
One can argue that that the constant running Elgin is a superior design over the Waltham - especially when timing an event down to 1/100th of a second. Additionallythe Elgin is a 15 jewel movement where the Waltham is a 9 jewel movement.
Some of the Elgin movements were gold flashed and some weren't.
The last attachment (PDF file which for some reason just looks like a black square) contains my notes on the A-8. Double click on the black square to open the PDF file.
