Each Elgin watch is checked for accuracy through Elgin's own observatory . . . timed to the stars! So the ads said. The Star Time, they said, was also the official time of United Air Lines.

They weren't making this up.

The Elgin National Watch Company Observatory was placed into service in 1910 under the direction of William W. Payne. Before his position with the company Payne was a professor at Goodsell Observatory, and founder of Popular Astronomy magazine. The observatory’s purpose was to record precise time using astronomical measurement and to transmit the timing standard throughout the factory.

That's exactly what it looked like, too.