There is nothing on the dial for decoration. What sets this watch apart is the ring at the outer edge of the dial. On most examples it is white, matched to the dial. Open the caseback and the watch gives up its oddest secret.
The Illinois here was made in 1929, in the middle of that world, and its case was engraved for that light, chased by hand to flash at the cuff rather than shout across a room. They were behind a side door, up a narrow stair, past a man who looked at your shoes before he looked at your face.
The bezel is engraved the whole way around, scrolls and small flowers worked into the gold, the close handwork that made a plain round watch worth wearing where it could be seen. The hands are blued steel, slender and dark over the pale ground.