I find it interesting that Hamilton "tested the waters" with Swiss-made calibers using the Illinois brand in the early 1950s. Hamilton purchased the Illinois Watch Company in 1928 and the Great Depression necessitated closing the factory. Most of the Illinois machinery found it's way to Lancaster and Hamilton made a few models using an Illinois designed movement.
However, for 20 odd years the Illinois brand was an asset owned by Hamilton Watch Company but providing no return. So it was an innovative idea to reintroduce the Illinois brand, which people would still recall, and they used Swiss-made ebauches (partially completed movements) as the basis for a new model line. This would be like if GM reintroduced the Oldsmobile brand to market inexpensive cars finally assembled in the US but based on almost-complete imported automobiles.
Fast forward a few short years and executives decided to drop the Illinois brand entirely by evolving into Hamilton Illinois and, ultimately, Hamilton branded models. Why pay for the maintenance of two brands when only one is needed?
A great example of this transformation was the Hamilton Essex. Introduced in 1956, it was the second model to bear that name... the earlier version being in 1940. The two models are similar in name only though.
The 1956 Essex came in a 10K yellow RGP case with a stainless steel back. The dial was embossed with diamond-shaped markers in the odd positions and numerals in the even hour spots.
It might look familiar because in 1953 the same design was presented as the Model E. I wonder if that was the genesis of the name Essex?
In 1954 the Model E was renamed the Debonair E and the brand Hamilton Illinois added to the dial. It continued in 1955.
In 1957 the dial was changed to a very interesting textured dial, sort of resembling a flower (as you'll see below) with numerals at 12, 3, 6 and 9 and keystones at the other positions. So based on the dial you find, you can determine if your example is a 1956 or 1957 version.
My project was is a flower that is long passed bloom. It's pretty grungy looking and I'm hoping I can clean it up a bit.
The stainless steel back is a unique design that snaps into the bezel with a lot better force than the Deauville the just posted about.
With the front lifted away you can see the dial more clearly in the case. It's a bit grungy but you may be able to see the textured pattern radiating out from the front to a curved ring at the hour positions.
Behind the dial is a Hamilton 671 movement. This is an manual-wind version of the 672 automatic movements and the ETA 1256 caliber in the other Hamilton and Illinois models.
Everything is cleaned, including the dial. I broke my cardinal rule of not cleaning a dial I'd be unwilling to get refinished. This textured dial will more than likely get refinished with less than acceptable results. Embossed textured dials often come back soft and ruined, in my opinion. However, I decided to take a chance with a Q-tip and a little cleaning solution.
The reassembled movement is ticking away with a nice motion. Time to see what the timer thinks.
Not too shabby, running a smidgeon fast but I can adjust that. The beat error is within my specs and it's not easy to adjust on this model so I'll leave that as is.
A tweak here, a tweak there, here again... eventually I get it dialed in to just a little fast per day.
The reassembled watch looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I wasn't able to get all the spots off and I almost lost the H in Hamilton so I decided to quit while I was ahead. You can see the interesting design of the dial now much better. With the funky lug design, this is a really nice looking 1950s watch.
