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.

1938 Reagan

 I know I did a blog post on the 1938 Reagan and when I went to verify that I realized it was one of the earliest blog posts I did... way back in 2012, almost 13 years ago!  Sometimes I forget how long I've been doing this.

I recently had the opportunity to do another so I thought I'd post about is again.

The Reagan was one of the first generation of models to use the "new" 987A movement that replaced the prior 987E, 987F and original 987 caliber introduced in 1927.  There was a lot of innovation over those 10 years.  The 987A would continue to be used until 1946 and powered hundreds of thousands of WWII military watches.

The Reagan was offered with a black enamel numeral dial or an applied gold numeral dial for $2.50 extra.  Considering the numeral are solid 18K gold, that was quite the deal.  Of course, $2.50 in 1938 is equivalent to almost $50 in today's currency!  The Reagan was produced for three years.

My project watch looks like it just came out of the catalog.  It's even on a vintage strap.  If you look closely you'll see the dial is actually textured.  I can tell by the seconds register that this dial was refinished at some point, there should be numbers, but other than that, it looks great.  It also has a replacement crown.

This is an early 987A, just as it should be.  For starters the serial number is low.  This version dates to 1938.  Additionally, the barrel bridge and train bridge have holes to accommodate case screws.  Some three piece case models were still in use in the late 1930s and this movement could be used in them.  You can see in this photo that the crown is missing a dust sleeve - thus identifying it as a replacement.

It's a little hard to see them all, but there are at least seven different watch maker's marks inside the case back.  This watch has been well maintained.

The mainspring inside the barrel is a white alloy design, another clue that this watch has been serviced properly over the years.

The 987A is less temperamental than it's predecessors but you still need to be careful during reassembly.  Everything is bright and shiny after a trip through the ultrasonic.

The reassembled movement is ticking away with a good motion.  Let's see what the timer thinks of it.

Not too shabby.  The beat error is well within my personal specs, the amplitude is vigorous, and a slight tweak to the regulator will bring up the beat rate.

The after-shot of the watch is pretty much the same as the before shot.  However, this 86 year old watch is ready for more wrist time!

1970s Dateline 14661 - Or is it a fake?

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!

1959 Montclair

It's been a while since I've found a new model that I haven't seen before.  That's getting harder and harder to do.  There are about 975 mechanical models in Hamilton's portfolio of US made wrist watches and I think I've documented 800+ of them.  So the remaining models are either very expensive or just uncommon.

I think uncommon watches are interesting.  Surely there is a reason or two why they're hard to find.  Perhaps they we unappealing to buyers at the time.  It could be that there were very similar but less expensive options in the lineup.  Maybe there was a production issue that limited the run... like the case maker had a problem with the design.  I wouldn't be surprised if simply the law of diminishing returns applied - every decade there were more and more models available in the lineup.  With so many options, some models were bound to be less chosen than others.

For example, in 1930 there were about 20 catalogued men's models to choose from.  In 1940 there were 32 models in Hamilton's men's wrist watches lineup.  By 1950 there were 46 men's models to choose from.  In 10 more years the men's lineup expanded to over 140 different models!  It's no wonder that some are harder to find than others.

One of the models included in the that long list of 140+ models is the 1959 Montclair.  It was produced through 1961.

The Montclair was available in 14K yellow gold or white gold - so that adds to it's potential obscurity.  It's a classic Hamilton model with a US-made Hamilton movement.

In 1960 the dial was changed slightly to add numerals at 3, 6, 9, and 12.  So you will see two different varieties out in the wild, if you see one at all.

Oddly enough, in 1961 the dial went back to the 12-only option with markers in the other positions.  This means if you see a dial with 3-6-9-12 it's a 1962 model, otherwise if it has a H-logo it's a 1961 model, if not, it's a 1959 version.

My project watch has seen better days. It's in "is this worth saving?" condition.  It's obviously had water intrusion.  It's not working and I'm not even able to set the time.

The back of the case is engraved with a presentation recognizing 25 years of service - this is as sentiment representing a period when companies actually cared about the dedication of employees beyond only the C-suite. 25 years is a long time to work for a company - more than a quarter of someone's life.

This watch shows evidence of it's original bracelet, based on the grooves worn into the lugs.  I'm not a huge fan of bracelets for that reason - they can damage the lugs.  However this example isn't too bad but going with a strap is always a better option, in my opinion.

I removed the crystal with the presumption that this watch opens through the front.  However, that doesn't appear to be the situation.  It does afford a better look at the dial though and although the catalog says it's an embossed dial, it sure looks like the figures are applied gold markers and numerals.  I'd have to look at the back of the dial to be sure.

Very close inspection reveals a slight gap in the side opposite the crown where a case knife can be applied to remove the back.

Fortunately the owner of this watch was able to provide a donor movement, complete with a better dial and hands.

The back of the movement reveals a movement ring to secure the assembly in the case.  It's quite obvious that water got inside the movement and it might be salvageable (I've seen worse) but since I have a donor movement in better shape, I'll use that instead.

This caliber is a 730 movement.  It's identical to the 747 movement with the exception of using shock jewels at the balance.  Notice there is no serial number on the movement - Lancaster-made movements stopped having serial numbers in 1955.  So unless something varies by year on the outside of the case (like the dial options on this model), there's really no easy way to date a model to a specific year when it was produced for several years.

My donor movement looks largely identical with the exception of the rust.

Everything gets thoroughly cleaned before being reassembled with fresh lubrication in all the wear points.

The reassembled movement is ticking away with a good motion.  Even my camera shows the ticking motion with the blurred balance wheel.

It's running a smidgeon fast but that's no biggie. the regulator is set to run a little fast so a slight tweak back the center will slow the beat rate down.

And... voila!  The finished watch looks fantastic and definitely answers the "is this watch worth saving" question.  Looking very closely at the dial, I'd say it is embossed after all, as the figures appear to have a slight contour on the sides to indicate they're stamped in place versus applied solid gold markers.  Regardless, this a great looking watch now.