Jeweled Safety Barrel and Click from Elgin No. 214 Veritas

Excerpt from Elgin’s 1901 “The Watch Word is Elgin: Timemakers and Timekeepers” promotional booklet, describing the features of the mainspring barrel and click in the new “Veritas” model:

“In winding the watch, the combination consisting of the large winding wheel, barrel and hub turn together from left to right, the barrel carrying the outer end of the mainspring around the barrel arbor at a speed so much greater than that at which the latter turns in driving the watch, that the spring is quickly wound. The click prevents rotation in the reverse direction whenever the winding is completed.

While the watch is running, the mainspring exerts its power directly on the barrel arbor, whose finely polished pivots are accurately proportioned to the strain they are called upon to bear. This distinctive feature of the “Veritas” model serves the thoroughly practical purpose of reducing to the minimum the pivot friction of the train at the point where the pressures are greatest, namely: at the bearings of the prime mover.”The Watch Word is Elgin: Timemakers and Timekeepers, c.1901

The full promotional booklet introducing the Model 8 grades can be viewed in its entirety online: https://tinyurl.com/y3xy44ny