1957 Chanticleer

Perhaps one of the most interesting models in the 1950s line up is the Chanticleer.  The Chanticleer was introduced in 1957 and produced for three years.  What makes it's interesting is it has an alarm complication.  I think the name is interesting too... Chanticleer is the name of the proud rooster in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".   It's very fitting, we have two roosters in our little farmette and they will definitely wake you up! 

Hamilton produced a few other alarm models in the 1970s and I provided an overview of them in this old blog post.  This was my first opportunity to work on an actual Hamilton model.  They're very popular and always sell for more than I'm willing to pay.

Fortunately, my friend Andrew Krug, author of the Hamilton Field Guide recently picked one up and asked me to overhaul it.  It's always interesting to see a model I haven't seen before but this one gave me some trepidation.  I checked it out briefly and had second thoughts.  I don't mind screwing up my own watch in the cause of learning - I chalk it up to a round of golf (or two).  You spend your money and at the end of it you have nothing to show for it but the experience. 

Andrew was very gracious though, so I decided to give it a go.

As received, the watch is in typical, "as found in a drawer" condition.  It not fully working but does tick.  Notice the two prominent round windows.  The one on the right tells you if it's wound up and the other one tells you if the alarm is set.  The white window implies the watch is wound but the red window says the alarm is off.  

There are two crowns, the one at 3 is the typical winding and time setting crown.  The other one at 4 will move the red-tipped alarm hand and if you pull it out it activates the alarm.  Once activated, when the hour hand advances to the red-tipped hand the movement will start a hammer that strikes a cover inside the case - rattling away to get your attention.

This watch isn't really functioning properly and part of that is because the crowns are loose and only turn one direction.

The bezel is 10K gold filled but the back is stainless steel.  It took some muscle but I was able to open it with my case tool

Tucked inside is a very gummy gasket and a unique cover.  The cover has two small holes to access the two set lever screws that secure the stems.  The other larger hole allows you to access the regulator.

The cover is somewhat dented as if someone tried to pry the cover off.  It's lifted on one side and pushed in on the other.  Rather than trying that method, I'll pry around the circumference and try to pop the cover off.

Inside the cover is a post that the hammer strikes to make the alarm noise.

The movement inside is a 675 movement.  This is based on a Venus 231 caliber.  This is new territory for me so I'll go nice and slow and take lots of photos so I can stand a decent chance of getting it back together again.

At first I thought the stem on the alarm setting crown was broken.  However, it's really just super short.  All it does is turn the alarm hand and activate the alarm complication.  There's only one mainspring to power the watch and the alarm and the other stem winds that.

The traditional crown has a full length stem.  The crown has a long tube - I've never seen a crown with a tube this long.

I can tell by the state of the sides of the movement that it's been a LOOOONG time since this watch saw some cleaning solution.

Hmmm, there are no dial feet screws anywhere on the side of the movement.  How do you get this dial off?

Ah ha!  There are two screws that have a flat side that when turned will release the dial feet.  One my tweezers are pointing at, the other is in the edge of the movement just to the right of the Co in Hamilton Watch Co.

I see a few springs to be careful of, they're easy to lose.  There are a lot of parts on the dial side of the main plate.  Screw by screw, piece by piece I will carefully remove everything and try to order them so I can remember which screw goes with what part.

My first order of business is to remove the balance assembly.  I definitely want to protect that.

I'll let down the mainspring and start to remove the ratchet wheel.  There are several parts under it that changes the wind indicator (right red/white marker on the dial).

Flipping over to the dial side, I'll start to strip the parts from the front.

Interesting... under the big gold wheel for the alarm hand is the typical cannon pinion and hour wheel.  This hour wheel has raised fingers that connect to the gold wheel.  There's a curved spring that lifts the gold wheel up and away.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what all these parts do.  I'm just going with the flow at this point and taking things off in a disciplined manner so I can get them cleaned and (hopefully) put back in the right places.

I'm making progress.

Getting warmer.  Check out this set bridge / yoke - it has two arms for the two stems and set levers.

Okay - back to the reverse side and removing the barrel bridge.  The barrel bridge also supports the hammer mechanism.  Both the ratchet wheel and winding wheel are held in place with reverse threads (lefty tighty instead of lefty loosey).

The barrel bridge is out of the way and I can take a mental note (and picture) of all the parts that were hidden by it.

Making progress - now I can pull the two screws that hold the train bridge in place.

The fourth wheel drives the second hand and goes through the center wheel.  The third wheel is just to the lower right.  It's hard to see but the escape wheel is just to the lower left, in the shadow.

One last bridge supports the center wheel.

Alright, home stretch now.  It's back to the front of the main plate to pull the remaining parts.

The set bridge / yoke is removed to review the minute wheel and the keyless works.

I'm almost finished with disassembly.  All of the parts are laid out with their screws so I know what goes with what.

Finally, everything is cleaned and dried.  Now it's time for reassembly.  Wish me luck.

I'm going to go basically in the reverse order of how I removed things.  Starting with the dial side.

I put the train wheels in place and set the train bridge.  All the wheels spin freely, that's a good sign.

Back to the front to continue the installation.  Everything seems to be in place.

Oh No!  At some point the upper third wheel jewel cracked and broke away!  I was so close!  The watch will run if the third wheel is in the right place but it won't run for long without the proper support.  I'll need to try to find a replacement jewel.

Looking in the parts manual, the part number for the jewel is 276751.  Hopefully I'll be able to track one down.

Surprisingly the balance ticks somewhat decently but I won't bother making any adjustments until the jewel is replaced.

Like a humble bumble I reinstalled the dial and hands.  Everything seems to work now.  I set the alarm to 6:30 so Andrew will get up nice and early... haha!   A new crystal, fresh lume and a case polish complete the restoration.  Well, almost anyway, I still need to find a new upper third jewel.