Fools rush in... sometimes I have to remind myself that when it comes to unknown models. There aren't a lot of fake Hamiltons out there and when they do show up, they're pretty obvious.
I was recently asked to take on a project Hamilton that looks to be from the "big and chunky" era of Hamilton models... the 1970s or possibly the 1980s.
As received it looks somewhat typical of watches from this era. However, there are some odd aspects to it. For example, the H logo doesn't quite look correct to my eye. The dial also says 17 jewels incabloc - which is not something I've seen, that I can recall anyway. It has a date complication so I'm guessing this could fall into the Dateline family.
The case back is stainless steel. It says Hamilton but the font is a bit unusual. The model number is 14661.
Well, well, well. What do we have here? Seriously, what do we have here? This is not a typical Hamilton movement. 95% of the time I'd expect to see an ETA caliber inside but this is not one of those times. The damascening is somewhat crude but it does have 17 jewels so why would you use a fairly decent movement for a fake?
You have to look VERY carefully but there is a sticker on the train bridge that says Hamilton Watch Swiss. I've seen this sticker on other calibers from the 1980s like on military watches.
At this point I had an internal debate... do I proceed or do I just return the project with my doubts about authenticity. I really don't like to bother with fake Hamiltons... but is it?
I did a quick search of Hamilton 14461 and other example like this one actually showed up. So maybe it legit but from one of the dark periods where Hamilton was changing ownership.
With the dial removed, this date complication is unlike any that I've seen before. So I have to be very careful during disassembly so that I don't lose track of where things go.
It's a good idea to note the position of the train wheels so there's no confusion when it comes time to put things back together.
The mainspring coils in a different direction than usual - that's because the cover of the barrel is on the opposite side than usual.
This movement is labeled with Standard Time's logo and the FHF watch mark. FHF is Fabrique d'Horlogerie Fontainemelon or just Fontainemelon, for short. The number 96-4 is the caliber. If you look on eBay you'll see this caliber was used with lots of other makers.
Standard Time was a company that Hamilton owned. It produced movements for other companies and were also used in the Vantage line. So maybe this is an authentic model after all?
The crystal is held in place in the bezel by some sort of snap ring. I haven't see this sort of set up before.
Everything is cleaned and all accounted for so I can put it together like any other movement.
The train wheels are installed and spin freely. So now I can install the barrel bridge and the pallet fork.
Reassembled movement is ticking away with a decent motion. Let's see what the timer thinks.
Hmm... there's a lot of noise but the timing seems to be slow. I'll clean the hairspring and try again.
Well, it's running cleanly now but the beat error is extremely high. I'm not surprised, it took some fiddling of the balance to get it running. I should be able to adjust it though.
A tweak here, a tweak there, and finally it's running right on the money.
There were no watchmaker's inside the case but someone must have corrected the hour hand from dragging - but it left a mark on the dial. Other than that the watch looks like it's had honest wear for the past 40+ years.
So is this a legitimate model or a fake? What is your opinion - let me know in the comments!
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