1956 Automatic K-202

The mid-1950s was really the golden age for Hamilton innovation.  Automatic models were introduced, Electric models were introduced, calendar models were introduced, shock jeweled balances were introduced, etc. etc. and over only a handful of years.

That's not to say that the prior decades of Hamilton production lacked innovation.  It's simply that between 1955 and 1959 - there was a tremendous amount of new features added to the Hamilton lineup.

One of the early automatics was the 1956 Automatic K-202.  It was cased in solid 14K gold.  It was produced for only two years but you can find them in both silver butler finished dials as well as black.  What makes the K-202 interesting is it had luminous hands but the radium paint was added to the back of the hands so it glowed onto the dial and silhouetted the hands.  I'm sure it was a very cool look but the radium eventually took it's toll on the finish of the dial.  The lume eventually burned out and no longer glowed but the damage would continue since the radium never goes away.

The 1957 catalog shows the black dialed version so if you happen upon a black dialed K-202 it's probably a 1957 model.

My K-202 project watch is definitely in need of some TLC.  It runs but it looks like it's had a hard life.  Check out the crown... it's still holding in there but wow, is it worn!  

This watch was an award for 35 years of service to Union Oil Company - that was quite an accomplishment and even more so today.  I know lots of people who work for the company I work for with a track record like that - but they won't be getting a solid gold watch, that's for sure.

It took some elbow grease but I got the back off to reveal the 17 jewel in 661 movement inside.  The case back reveals what the model name is but it also has an abundance of prior watchmakers' marks inside.  So this watch was clearly well taken care of by it's owner.

This is really interesting... the framework for the rotor has two jeweled settings.  These are usually metal bushings on this caliber.  There are a couple of other higher jeweled calibers, the 664 and 665 that have jewels in the framework but they also have two additional jewels where this one does not.  So I gather that someone replaced the original bushings at some point over the last 70 years.

This dial has obviously been refinished at some point.  I know that because the printing is not correct.  Also, the "pearled track" has been redone but some of the pearls aren't really aligned well.  There's also a tiny notch on the edge by the 3 position.  No doubt the original dial was compromised by the radium under the hands (which has already been removed).

As if the other clues weren't obvious enough, the back of the dial shows the obvious evidence of being refinished with numbers scratched onto the back.

Everything is nice and shiny now that's it been through the ultrasonic.  I also installed a new crystal - that will be a nice improvement.

The reassembled movement is ticking away with a nice motion.

The timing is pretty good.  The beat error is at the high end of my specs but it's good enough.  It's very tricky to adjust on this caliber and I know better than to push my luck.

With the movement installed back in the case I can now turn my attention to the crown.  The stem is very rusted - probably why the dial was so grungy around the perimeter.

The new stem will need to be trimmed to the to proper length to fit the case tube.

The funk around the dial has compromised the finish on the dial so I was able to clean it but the damage has been done.  A new crown and crystal should keep the moisture out and hopefully this watch will be good to go for another 70 years.

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 bracelet in the first catalog snip was paired with the Rodney through 1962.  The bracelet above is from 1964.  A third one, below, was paired only 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 spa.  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 8/0 sized 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 and came in solid 14K or 18K.

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 initially introduced.  Hamilton learned quickly realized that if the mainspring broke, the train bridge had to be removed in order to get to 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 redesigned to use 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 this 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 reassembly results in a broken pivot on the escape wheel.  This is not the caliber you want to learn on - that's for sure.  It doesn't bother me anymore but for several years I would think twice about taking one of these calibers apart.

The train wheels have long arbors so 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 now 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.

1972 Sea Breeze III

It's been a while since I've covered a new model for the blog.  I've done over 800 different models and there are only 1100 or so to be covered - surely I've done all the more common, easier to find models by now.  Apparently that's not entirely the case though - not yet anyway.

Today's watch is a 1970s model called the Sea Breeze III.  It was introduced in 1972 and produced through 1977 - so that's a pretty good run.  In 1972 it was advertised at $45 on a strap or $49.95 on a bracelet.  It's a stem wound model - not an automatic.

By 1977 the price increased considerably.

Interestingly, in 1972 a very similar model called the Sea Beach IV was also produced.  It looks identical to the Sea Breeze III, at least in black & white.

In 1975 it appears to have been renamed the Sea Breeze III as well - just cased in stainless steel instead of gold electroplate.  More about that in a bit.

The Sea Breeze III goes by the model number 688015-4.  The -4 represents gold electroplate.  I would wager that the stainless steel version and the Sea Beach IV go by the model number 688-015-3, -1 representing stainless steel.

My project watch is in very good shape, for the most part.  Being a 688XXX model, I'm going to guess this has a 688 movement inside.

The crystal has a crack inside it that you can see from an angle but not directly straight on.  So I'll have to replace the crystal.

The Sea Breeze is a large watch by vintage standards.  It's probably 36mm side to side.

It took some doing but I finally got the case back off.  The gasket has degraded and part of it has come off with the back.

This is interesting... this watch has a 685 movement inside.  This is a pretty rare caliber and used in some military watch models.  It looks a lot like a 688 and one of the major differences is the 685 hacks, or stops, when you set the time.  I will definitely have to replace the gasket in the case.

The dial is held in place with dial foot screws on the perimeter of the mainplate.

From the front, you can easily tell the 685 is an ETA caliber - it looks like every other ETA caliber in Hamilton's line up.

The 685 hack mechanism is a little more complicated than in later movements like the 649.  When the stem is pulled out the mechanism moves and bumps into the balance wheel - stopping the watch.  When the stem is pushed back in, the lever moves away from the balance and the watch starts again.

Everything is disassembled and thoroughly cleaned.  While the parts where in the cleaner I replaced the crystal in the bezel.

The reassembled movement is bright and shiny and ticking away with a nice motion.

The timing is right on the money.  The amplitude is a smidgen low but I haven't fully wound the movement yet.

The dial and hands go back on and then the assembly goes back into the case.  I'll need to order a replacement gasket, this case is much larger than my stash will provide.

The finished watch looks great with a new crystal and it's now running as well as it looks.  I'm not a huge fan of the 1970s styling but this is a large enough watch that it actually has some appeal.

1941 Gilbert

Sometimes you find watches that are head scratchers... is it legit?  There aren't a lot of "fake" Hamiltons but there are jeweler re-cased movements and the occasional "Hormilton" to contend with.  A lot of things can happen to a watch over the decades.

The model I'm going to showcase is a 1951 Gilbert - the model was introduced in 1941 and one of a very few models to survive the WWII years and go into the 1950s.  1951 was the last year of production.

The Gilbert was cased in solid 14K yellow gold.  It featured a sterling silver dial with solid 18K gold numerals.  One very interesting bit of trivia is in 1949 the catalog shows the Gilbert was also available with a luminous numerals and hands or with black numerals (and black hands, I presume).  I have NEVER seen those two options in the wild though - so if you happen to have one, let me know.

My project watch is clearly a Gilbert but if you look closely you'll see the dial features numerals and square markers.  By the looks of it, it's been quite a long time since this watch had a trip to the spa.

With the bezel removed, you can get a closer look at the dial.  I don't see a notch on the side so it's possible it's an original dial that is super dirty.

The inside of the case back is clearly marked Gilbert so there's no mystery there.  The movement inside is a correct 982M caliber with 19 jewels.  By this time (1951) the 982M had lost it's gold medallion in the train bridge and got an engraved circled M.

The back of the dial has no markings whatsoever.  So this is clearly an original dial.

Another model from the time period, the Keith, has a very similar dial.

I have what I believe is a refinished Keith dial and looking at the margins of the minute track relative to the edges of the dial, the Gilbert dial is clearly smaller.  So I don't think my project watch has a Keith dial.

The back of the case back is engraved with a presentation for "over a quarter century" service and looks to be a classic example of an Awards Division watch.  The Awards Division produced watches with slight variations to production watches so the recipients wouldn't see their award for sale in their local jewelry store.

Everything is cleaned and dried and ready to be reassembled.

The watch is ticking away with a nice motion.  Lets see what the timer has to say.

It's a little slow but that's not a big deal.  The amplitude is great, thanks to the white alloy mainspring that it came with.  The beat error of 7.8ms is way to high for me to let go.  So I'll have to try to adjust it.

Ugh!  Someone in the past must have lost the hairspring stud screw and they put in a replacement that was almost impossible to remove.  It took quite a while for me to back it out enough to remove the balance.  I could then remove the screw and replace it with a proper sized screw.

After about four attempts I was able to get the beat error down to 1.2ms.  Now to adjust the beat rate and speed it up.

With the last adjustments finished the watch is now running great.  No complaints here.

The finished project has a new glass crystal and a nice black leather strap.  This is a very interesting example of a Gilbert.  I think the dial is legit - it's original and fits the bezel opening perfectly.  I don't know if it's a one of a kind but it may be limited to only awards watches or even employees of the company - the Ohio Edison Company.