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Thursday, November 15, 2012

1956 Cross Country II

One of the really interesting aspects of Hamilton watches from the 1950's is the variety of innovative and unique designs that were introduced.  One good example is the 1956 Cross Country II.

It was only produced for two years.


There are a lot of oddities to this watch.  First off is the dial itself.  The hour hand is actually the black disc in the center of the dial.  It has indicators for 5 time zones.  You set the hour hand to the time zone you're in and the other indicators will tell you the time relative to where you set the hour hand.   For example, in the catalog add above, the hour hand is set to "central time".

It's very similar to two other models made during the same period, the Transcontinental A (10K gold filled case) and the Transcontinental B (14K gold case).  Both of those models use a rotating disc to represent the hour hand but they use a graphic of the United States and Great Britain to indicate the time zones.

I can only find the Cross Country II in the Hamilton catalogs but I think there's an identical looking Cross Country watch that used a 17 jewel Illinois movement.  However, in the Cross Country II you will find an 8/0 sized 735 movement.  At least that's what I found in the example below.


This Cross Country II also has it's original bracelet - a rare find!

5 comments:

  1. This is a seriously cool watch - has a look of the original UG Polerouter about it. Watches for the 1950s Jet set!

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  2. I own the first version of the Cross Country with its original bracelet, which has a 17 jewel Illinois movement and a Kreisler curved link expansion bracelet. It is the watch pictured the original Hamilton print advertisement for the Cross Country and Transcontinental, which shows two hands crossing each other, one hand holding a telephone and the other hand holding a briefcase. I have a picture of this first version of the Cross Country, but don't know how to upload it in this forum.

    Best,
    Will
    a_journey_through_time on ebay

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've seen the ad you refer to. This isn't a forum so you can't add photos. But join vintagewatchforums.com and you can add photos there.

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  3. I just bought the 1956 cross country 11 at a yard sale for 75 cents.It works great

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