1954 Clifford with diamond dial

Every now and then you come across a bit of a head scratcher.  Dials with diamond markers are not unheard of but they are one of the clues that should trigger a collector's "spidey senses" with a thought of "is this a legit model?",

When the dial is especially gaudy and blinged out, you can almost be assured that the model is not a legitimate model.

I was recently asked about a watch that my immediate opinion was, "yeah, I don't know about this one".  

Take a look at this photo and you might feel the same way...

The bezel has florentine engraving.  The dial has diamond markers and yellow gold numerals.  The case looks like white gold or even platinum.  Is it ringing any bells?  Not with me it wasn't.  However, I used the hamiltonfieldguide.com tool and the Clifford came up as an option.

The Clifford was introduced in 1954 and produced for two years.  It was cataloged as coming in a 14K solid yellow gold case and was priced at $135.

In 1955 the catalog also offered a diamond dial for an additional $90.  That's a $1,000 add on option and brings the total sales price to a smidge over $2,700 in today's dollars.

Well, seems my project watch is a Clifford.  It's very odd that the case is white though.  The case back is clearly marked Hamilton and it's got a presentation on the back that would indicate it may have come from the Awards Division.  Awards watches often included models that were not in the regular retail catalogs so recipients wouldn't find their award in their local jewelers.

Very oddly, the numbers on the dial are solid gold, but they are yellow.  Typically in a white case the markers would be solid gold but rhodium plated to appear silver.  They're still solid yellow gold, just rhodium plated.  The second hand looks yellow though.  This watch comes with it's original owners DNA in the form of some wrist hair around the stem.  The hour and minute hands are rhodium plated too - so at least they match the case well.

Well, this mystery is definitely solved, case closed.  The inside of the case clearly shows this is a Clifford.  Perhaps it's the only one produced in solid white gold... who knows?

The movement inside is a 19 jewel 754 movement.  This "medallion" grade replaced the 982M in 1953 and was used until the middle of 1955 when the 770 movement replaced all of the preceding 12/0 movements.  So that's an interesting clue that would date the watch.  I would say this is probably a 1955 model and it's interesting to note there is NO serial number on barrel bridge.

The back of the dial is unremarkable so this is very likely an original dial.

Everything get disassembled and then thoroughly cleaned in the ultrasonic.  Once it's all nice and dry I can reassemble it with fresh lubricants.

The movement is now ticking away with a nice motion.  I have enough experience now that I can see if a watch isn't running well just by looking at it but let's see what the timer thinks.

Well, it's running okay but the beat error is just outside my personal specs of 3.0ms.  The closer to 0.0 the better but adjusting it on a movement like this can be perilous.  However, I feel obliged to give it a shot.

To adjust the beat error you have to remove the balance from the balance cock and rotate the hairspring collet on the balance staff.  Then you need to reinstall it and hope you don't screw it up in the process.  Sometimes you have to guess which direction to rotate it and in this case, I chose poorly.  You can see the beat error went up.  Now I have to do it again!

Okay... second attempt and I overcorrected and moved the opposite direction a little too far.  Once more into the breech.

Okay!  Third attempt yielded an acceptable beat error of 1.0ms.  I'm happy with that, it could take several more attempts to get it better and the extra juice isn't worth the squeeze.

During reassembly I noticed the minute wheel had some wonky teeth and made time setting a challenge.  I'll replace it with a donor part.

After cleaning, the second hand now appears to be white - that's a welcome surprise.  The numerals are still yellow but that's alright.

The finished watch turned out great.  I have no idea if the florentine engraving is original but it certainly is possible and it's nicely executed.  This is a very interesting watch and I'm glad I had the opportunity to work on it.