Ask Chicagoist: Who Cares What Time it is in Elgin?

By Rachelle Bowden in Miscellaneous on Feb 3, 2006 2:22PM

Why do the old clocks at the downtown Metra stations say "Elgin Central Time"? We're in the heart of the city, but some suburb tells us the time? Why isn't there a "Chicago Time"?

Chicagoist has often sighed at the Geico turnstiles of the Lake Street Red Line reminding us of our car-less state. We were shocked last year when our Blue Line tunnels were transformed into some kind of Epcot-esque animated Target ad. Advertisements on every inch of public transportation are a fact of Chicago life. It turns out the clocks in Metra stations and on the front of Union Station marked “Elgin Central Time” are just that – advertisements for the Elgin National Watch Company, in Elgin, Illinois.

Elginwatches.org records all things historical, collectable and mechanical about the fabled watch company. They note: Elgin was founded in 1864, right as the civil war was coming to an end. The first pocket watch Elgin made was finished in 1867 and over the next 100 years, they went on to produce about 60 million watches. In the late 1960s Elgin stopped producing watches and changed their name to Elgin National Industries which is still around today.

It turns out that Elgin was most famous for manufacturing something called a railroad watch. A railroad watch was also referred to in the railroad industry as "a standard watch" because it met the railroad's written standard of reliable time service. In an effort to meet the stringent and rigorous demands of the railroads, where the incorrect time could and did prove disastrous, American watchmakers were called upon to make a watch that was incredibly reliable and incredibly accurate -- far more so than any watch previously being manufactured. Railroad watches were produced between 1890 and 1940. They were watches that would lose no more than 30 seconds per week. They were specially adjusted to keep accurate time no matter what position in which they were held, and in both cold weather and hot. Furthermore all the major wheels in a railroad watch were jeweled in order to prevent wear from long hours, days, years and decades of constant use. There were only certain watches that met these standards and were authorized for use by railroad conductors and engineers. Most railroad watches were sold to regular consumers, however, who just wanted the best hardware they could buy. The clocks in the Metra are not themselves railroad watches (which were usually a little bigger then the standard pocket watch). The clocks just served as a flashy sign notifying people that all the trains, the hustle and bustle, and comings and goings of the station were running according to the exacting standards of the Elgin Railroad Watch.

See something strange? E-mail ask(at)chicagoist(dot)com.

Thanks, Lindsay!

Photo by Christopher Trott, chicagosnapshot.com