1953 Carl

 If Forrest Gump was into vintage Hamiltons he would have said, "Old watches are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to get".

I was recently asked to take on a project watch and my first instincts were, "this isn't going to be good".

Here's the before photo...

I've learned to be suspicious when a watch shows up in multiple parts.  My instincts tell me I could be walking in someone else's footsteps.  However, you never really know until you get into the thick of it.

Tucked inside the plastic cases are the earthly remains of a 1953 Hamilton Carl.  The Carl was produced for three years and was available on a strap or with a specially paired bracelet.

The case of the Carl is distinctive with prong-shaped lugs that flair out to the side.  The dial has a two-toned finished with markers as well as numerals at 12.

The Carl was also paired with a matching ladies model, aptly named the Carlotta.  It also had prong-shaped details that incorporated the corded bracelet.

As I said, inside the two plastic containers were all the bits you'd expect to make up a Carl.  Why is it in pieces?

Popping the movement out of the case back, the lettering inside makes identifying the model easy - Carl is written right inside.

The Carl came in a 10K gold filled case and tradition would have outfitted it with a 17 jewel 752 movement.  However, the model was upgraded to a 19 jewel 753 movement for some reason.  Typically that caliber would have gone into a 14K gold filled model.

This movement looks to be in decent shape but it's not running and the balance looks wobbly... definitely not a good sign.

The dial doesn't appear to have a two-tone finish and the back of it has numbers scratched in.  So this is definitely a refinished dial.  I was asked specifically to see what I could do to clean the dial up but I'll have to be very careful.  Refinished dials will often not respond well to cleaning.

One of the pivots on the balance staff is bent and the other is missing so this movement will require a balance staff replacement - a very tedious and stressful intervention.

Something fishy is going on - I can't get the front to mesh with the back.  It's as if the front is a different shape.  Was this watch stepped on or otherwise damaged?  I'll worry about that after I address the movement.

Everything is cleaned and ready to be reassembled.  Hopefully the balance will do it's thing.  I was able to get the dial cleaned up a little but the finish is compromised and any further attempts will completely ruin it.

The reassembled movement is ticking away with a vigorous motion - that's a good sign.

Ooof!  It's running a bit slow and has a pretty high beat error.  I wonder what's going on?

Ah, not to worry, the hairspring fell out of the regulator pins and was out of position.  Repositioning the hairspring between the regulator pins brought the timing right into spec.  Looks great!

A tweak here, a tweak there, and I think I finally have the case back together again.  The bezel was definitely bent out of shape somehow.  The crystal that came with the package does not fit properly.  Hopefully it's the wrong shape and the bezel isn't damaged to the point that a replacement crystal won't fit either.  I'll have to order a new crystal and take my chances... vintage watches are like a box of chocolates, you know.

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!