The country was on the cusp of a world war, and although the year would end with a "day of infamy", it would begin with the Rose Bowl on January 1st, 1941. The 27th showing featured the undefeated Stanford Indians vs no. 7 Nebraska.
I recently had the opportunity to work on a Hamilton watch that was awarded to the teams. It's based on a 1940 Essex.
The Essex was an interesting model. It featured looped lugs that were fixed to the case. The strap was intended to extend over the outside of the loop so the watch would "curve to fit the wrist". The design continued through 1946, with a few years disrupted by production to support WWII needs.
My project watch is an interesting example. The case lugs have been modified at some point so that the outer loop was removed. I've seen modification several times and I always wondered if it was the result of a damaged lug or if the fixed-lug case design just wasn't comfortable on the wearer's wrist. I suspect it would be the latter, as not everyone's wrist is the same size and it's not a one-size-fits-all application.
As received, the crystal appears to be a new addition, as there's not a scratch on it. The dial, on the other hand, is obviously original and shows a bit of finish loss.
The case back is engraved with a unique football shaped presentation. I don't know if this watch awarded to both participating schools or just the winning team, but the case does have the final score, along with the player's name and position.
I happened to have a Coral Essex case nearby to show what the original lugs would have looked like. A lot of times the strap can wear through the outer loop of the lugs. If you have a good eye for detail, you'll note the Coral Essex has the wrong dial... note the seconds register.
I have a much nicer Essex dial I intended to use with this project but then I noticed there's a faint S on the dial. I wonder where the coloring went? Perhaps it's the rust color by the 8, but I think that's just corrosion. This is the original dial though, you can tell by the number D87 at the bottom of the dial. I won't do anything to clean this dial. I don't want to make it worst. The tale of the no 5 is bent though, I should a least be able to straighten that.
The 980 movement behind the dial is in average condition. I don't see anything obviously broken but I'd wager lunch that the mainspring is set. I'll have to take it apart to confirm.
The inside of the case back shows easily 8 to 10 prior watchmaker's marks inside. This watch was well maintained over the years.
Yup, sure enough, the mainspring inside the barrel is a blue steel design. It will be "set" in a tight coil and have lost the majority of it's prior potential energy. I find that to be the case in the majority of 14/0 movements I see in the wild.
Everything is cleaned up and ready to be reassembled, including a new white alloy Dynavar mainspring.
The reassembled movement is ticking away with a nice motion. I can usually tell just by looking at the balance if there's an issue but the timer will tell me for sure.
Not too shabby. The beat error is on the higher side but within my personal specs of 3.0ms. The beat error is the measure of how well centered the balance is in terms of how far it swings to one side versus the other. If it's perfectly centered the swing is the same to either side and the beat error would be zero. A watch with a higher beat error will stop a little sooner than a watch with a low beat error but within 3ms, the extra juice isn't really worth the risk of ruining the hairspring on the balance.
The finished watch looks great. A replacement dial would look better but an original dial is only original once. I did replace the hour and minute hands though - those look a lot better without corrosion.
This is a great family heirloom for the owner - I'm glad that I am able to keep it in good running order for him.
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