Industry
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For more than 70 years, this site was occupied by the Illinois Watch Case Company. The firm was a leader in the domestic watch industry and by the 1920s had produced more than 30 million watch cases. A subsidiary produced jewelry goods, lockets, cigarette lighters, and the famed "Elgin American" ladies compacts. During World War II, the company won an Army-Navy excellence award for its production of mortar shells and war-related materials. Foreign competition and a changing market eventually led to an end of production in the early 1960s.
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Elgin, Illinois · United States
