Lord Elgin "Chevron" Direct Reading Ref. 7775

Long before mechanical digital watches became a major design trend in the 1970s, Elgin was experimenting with displaying time without conventional hands.

This Lord Elgin is the Direct Reading Ref. 7775, introduced in the 1950s and dating to approximately 1957. Today collectors commonly call it the “Chevron” because of the dramatic raised V-shaped structure crossing the front of the case, although “Chevron” was not Elgin's original name for the model.

The case is particularly unusual. Instead of using a conventional dial surrounded by a bezel, most of the front of the watch becomes a sculptural 14K gold-filled surface. The raised chevron converges directly above a small triangular aperture at 6 o'clock, where the time is displayed.

Inside the aperture are two rotating discs. The minutes progress continuously, while the hour remains stationary and jumps to the next numeral at the change of the hour. Elgin referred to this system as “Direct Reading.”

Developing the display was more complicated than simply replacing hands with discs. Elgin had to deal with the dimensional stability of the lightweight display discs as well as the energy required to make the hour jump rapidly. The company developed a spring-loaded mechanism that stores the necessary energy and releases the hour disc quickly at the appropriate moment.

The Ref. 7775 is normally powered by Elgin's Grade 719, a high-grade 21-jewel manual-wind movement. I will confirm that this particular example retains its correct Grade 719 once the movement can be inspected.

The watch belongs to a small family of Elgin Direct Reading watches from the period. Other designs included the rectangular Ref. 7776, sometimes associated with Elvis Presley by collectors, and the round textured model commonly nicknamed the “Golf Ball.” The Ref. 7775 is the version collectors now generally call the Chevron.

What interests me most about this watch is how early it is. Most of the mechanical jumping-hour watches I encounter belong to the explosion of digital-style designs around the 1970s. This one comes from roughly fifteen years earlier and shows that Elgin was already seriously experimenting with mechanical direct-reading displays in the 1950s.

It is also unmistakably a product of mid-century design. The tiny display occupies only a fraction of the watch, while the rest is dominated by that strange, architectural gold-filled case. It is an unusual solution to the simple problem of showing the time, and exactly the sort of watch that belongs in a jumping-hour collection.