Antique Illinois Watch Company Burlington Special Socialist Party Pocket Watch. Yellow gold casing, gold filled, with ornate numbering on the face and a seconds timer in a circle at the bottom where the "6" would be, as well as 5 second increments written above the 1-12. A hand hammered image of the insignia of the American Socialist Party with the phrase "Workers of the World Unite" under two hands shaking is on the back, with scratch marks over the word "Socialist." This watch was made some time after 1901, when the party was founded in America. 

Size: 2 x 2 3/4 in. 

The Illinois Watch Company was founded on December 23, 1870, in Springfield, Illinois, by John C. Adams, John Whitfield Bunn, and other financiers as the Springfield Watch Company, selling about 10,000 movements by 1872. After financial struggles, it was reorganized in 1877 as the Illinois Springfield Watch Company and then permanently renamed Illinois Watch Company in 1878 under Jacob Bunn Sr., whose political connections, including support for Abraham Lincoln, helped stabilize the firm. By 1890, offices in Chicago, New York, and San Francisco were established, with Jacob Bunn Jr. running the company until 1926, during which it employed over 1,200 people and played a key role in standardizing railroad timekeeping. The company was sold to Hamilton Watch Company in 1927, shifted focus from pocket to wristwatches, and ceased U.S. production in 1932 due to the Great Depression, making its limited Art Deco wristwatches highly collectible. In 2004, a new company in Quincy, Illinois, revived the trademark, and since 2009 has been repairing, restoring, and designing watches under the Illinois Watch brand.

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