Part 2 - Mystery Elgin 12 Size 21 jewel Grade 236?

So the Elgin arrived in the mail at the same time as another.  I will post about that other one later as I am far more consumed by the Elgin at the moment.  So I inspected the watch and changed the crystal for one I had in my crystal set.  The watch is happily running away and after a bit I discovered something I will mention in a moment.  First there is the issue of that serial number.  I looked and for sure there was no mistake.  The serial 1620512 is what is on the watch and it is not a poor strike or any missing number.

 

The over all condition is nice.  The only thing I do not particularly like are the fine scratches of a screwdriver skating on the plate near the "Safety Barrel" words.  The movement is 21 jewels with a jeweled mainspring barrel.

The quality of the movement is excellent.  And this is where I noticed the one thing I did not expect, the mustache lever.  The watch actually has a mustache lever escapement.  This was something I usually expect to see in higher grade Swiss watches like Patek, LeCoultre, and Audemars.

This site is one of the best ones for information on movements.  The gentleman who runs it frequents the forum that I belong to. Ranfft is a great place to research.  Patek with Mustache Lever

The dial to the watch is far more silver than the auction pictures showed or the NOS ones I mentioned in the earlier post.  The dial is original to the watch and has the correct age as one would expect.

 The case is original and has a patent date of Oct 9, 17 which does fall in with this style of watch.

I still find it interesting that they made these watches to seemingly run at or better than railroad grade larger movements but did not put a second hand on it.  I will be reaching out to the forum in hopes one of the members may have an answer about the strange serial number.