1953 Rodney

This weekend is Father's Day and it's the first Father's Day I'll celebrate without my old man.  My Dad passed away last October and although I believe in the communion of saints, it's just not the same without him.

My dad used to tell me the story of his Hamilton watch that he received for graduation and how he lost it horsing around in a snowball fight in the early 1960s.  He didn't recall exactly what it looked like, other than it was round, but he knows it was a Hamilton.  I showed him all the catalogs from the applicable period like a witness perusing mugshots - but to no avail.

A number of years ago I gave my father one of my favorite models - a 1953 Rodney.  It was produced through 1964 so it could very easily have been a match for his long-lost watch.  We pretended it was, anyway.

I like the Rodney because it's a larger watch and it has a lot going on.  First off, there are several different dials. You could even get it as a left-handed model.  That may sound really custom but the reality is the dial is just installed 180 degrees from typical.  The dial feet locations are symmetrical and all the models with a 748, 735, or 736 movement could be left-handed.  Interestingly, not all of them were cataloged that way though.

The Rodney was produced for a LONG time, in watch model years.  It actually spanned all of the 8/0 sized US-made calibers - the 748, the 735 which introduced shock jewels at the balance, and the 736 which introduced a Glucydur balance.  So the Rodney can have any of those calibers and still be "legit" - although a purest might balk if a dial from the wrong period was used.

For example, in 1964 the all-numeral dial had a pearled track.

In addition to a variety of dials, the Rodney also had three different bracelets.  The one in the first catalog snip was paired with the Rodney through 1962.  The one above is from 1964.  A third one, below, was paired in 1963. So if you were a special kind of crazy and really liked the Rodney, you could find an example with every dial and bracelet combination, included left-handed examples!

My project watch is my dad's watch and it took a lot of abuse over the decade or so that he wore it.  I'm sure it went golfing more than a few times and it's got it's fair share of "old man gunk" like most of the project watches I come across.  It's definitely long overdue for a trip to the spal.  The Speidel bracelet is not original.  It's just something that I put on it since I knew it would be easy for him to slip on and off.

This case design is sometimes called a "bubble back" since it's nicely rounded to accommodate the deep 748 movement.  This is not a "thin" watch but the case design helps it wear like it's thinner than it really is.

The crystal and front bezel just pop off to reveal the dial.  From here the movement will lift up and out.  Notice the green verdigris around the perimeter - a clear sign that this is a gold filled case.  If you wanted a solid gold model - that would be the Hartman - it even shares the same dial but the case is more fancy.

This watch has an 18 jewel 748 movement.  So this watch is probably a 1953-1955 model - as the 735 came out in late 1955.  The dust-proof crown has deteriorated so I'll have to replace it.

I have given all of my kids and my sister's kids a watch when they graduated college.  The last of them just graduated in May so I'm going to give this watch to my youngest nephew as a good reminder of his Grandpa.  So, since this watch may get some use and abuse, I'm going to replace this movement with a shock jeweled caliber.  That could be either the 735 or the 736 - I have a nice 736 spare movement so I'll use that. It's appropriate for the Rodney and this isn't a museum piece, it's an heirloom.  Notice the balance wheel has no timing weights - this is a Glucydur balance.

One little bit of trivia with the 8/0 sweep second movements is they had a single piece barrel bridge when the 748 was introduced.  Hamilton learned fairly quickly that if the mainspring broke, the train bridge had to be removed in order to get the mainspring barrel.  I don't know if it was customer feedback or factory feedback, but after a year or two the barrel bridge was separated into two pieces.  That way you could remove the barrel but leave the rest of the movement intact.

Eventually white alloy Dynavar mainsprings with a lifetime warranty were introduced and the 8/0 movement went back to a one piece barrel bridge as shown below.  Once the large ratchet wheel is removed, you have to take the train bridge off in order to go any further.

Everything is thoroughly cleaned and dried before being reassembled with fresh lubricants.  Reassembling the movement is not for the faint of heart.  I've had more than a few people contact me in desperation after disassembling their movement and not being able to get it back together again.  Nine times out of ten it results in a broken pivot on the escape wheel.  This is not the caliber you want to learn on - that's for sure.

It takes a while to get all four train wheels aligned in order for the train bridge to properly seat.  No force is needed - when it's right, it's right and if it does't drop into place then it's not right.  It takes patience and a gentle touch.

The reassembled movement is not ticking away with a nice motion.  Let's see what the timer has to say.

It's running a little fast but that makes sense based on the position of the regulator.  The beat error of 5.4ms is way out of range.  So I'll have to remove the balance and guess the direction and amount to adjust the hairspring collet.  Wish me luck!

I'm probably more lucky than good but I guessed well and reduced the beat error to 0.7ms.  That's more than respectable in my book.

A quick tweak or two to the regular brings the beat rate down to +5 seconds per day.  Even the beat error came down.  There's nothing to complain about here.

My finished watch looks WAY better than what I started with.  A trip to the watch spa is always a good idea after a 3-5 years and this watch was long overdue.  I'm sure my nephew will be very happy to receive this keepsake.