Bunns, please tell us more.
Photo of the front + dial details. I smell an early April 1st here....
My photo of the dial was less than great, and I was holding off showing it until I had time to redo it.
In any case, here's a quick iPhone snap of it.
This is the typical dial and hand combination associated with high grade 18 size Illinois watches like the Bunn and Bunn Special. The signature font is something that-if you see it-there's a good chance of there being a high grade movement behind it. The "Old English" numeral font is also distinctive although there are some variations on it-many have to do with the shape of the 4. I'm not well versed enough in them to say with certainty what is and isn't correct for this movement serial number. This dial has one hairline around 7:00.
The 24J Bunn Special movements are an interesting species, and the three "extra" jewels beyond 21 are of questionable value. Using a cap and hole jewel combination gives significantly less friction and better controlled endshake than a simple hole jewel, and no one really questions their value on the fastest moving parts on the watch-the balance wheel(always capped on jeweled American watches), escape wheel, and pallet fork. The 4th wheel directly drives the second hand(i.e. the pivot sticks up through the dial and the second hand attaches to it) so it's not suitable for a cap jewel. Instead, Illinois chose to cap the 3rd wheel-considering that it rotates once every couple of minutes and the endshake isn't as critical as it is on the escape wheel or balance, these jewels are considered superfluous.
The really fun one, though, is the one on the barrel bridge. This one is only functional during winding. Even though it's not unheard of for the barrel to develop some sideshake in a well worn and poorly maintained watch, it's still of questionable functional value.
Illinois later made a 23j Bunn Special in which the mainspring barrel is jeweled around the center arbor-a place where it DOES serve functional value, and was normal for 23j(and even 19j) watches from most makers. In later years, Illinois started using motor barrels(a specific design of mainspring barrel) on the 16 size Bunn, Bunn Special, and Sangamo Special. When jeweled(23j total) the jewel is a lot more visible than on the watches.
Interestingly enough, 18 size 23j Bunn Specials are somewhat less common than the 24j variant, but in similar condition sell for less than the 24j counterparts. The big, sexy ruby in a big gold setting on the 24j is too much for most collectors to pass up.
One last thought-Illinois did make a 26j Bunn Special. Most were marked either Ben Franklin or Pennsylvania Special, although factory marked ones exist. These had all the jewels of the 24j plus the internally jeweled barrel. There were somewhere around 300 total listed in the factory records, although there's debate as to whether or not all were made(I lean towards no). A quick check of Jones-Horan-one of the major horological auction houses-shows most 26j watches bringing high 4 figure or low 5 figure prices.
