1935 Nelson

Every Hamilton collector probably has a decade that they tend to gravitate towards.  It may take some reflection to get to, but it's there somewhere.

For example, the 1960s offers literally hundreds of watches to choose from... automatics, electrics, date models, and funky designs worthy of "Mad Men" appearances.  

Then you have the 1950s, with space-themed models and futuristic designs that exemplify Hamilton's prominence  watch industry innovation.

For me, I think the 1930s is my sweet spot.  It offers larger models that utilized the 6/0 movements, as well as the 14/0 movements introduced in 1935.  If there was a golden age of Hamilton manufacturing, you could make a compelling argument that it was the 1930s.  The 1940s would be a close second.

Advancements in the 1930s came fast a furious.  The 987 movement introduced in 1927 quickly became the 19 jewel 979.  Then the 987 and 979 became the 987F and 979F, with the F indicating the jewel settings were friction fit, as opposed to being held in place with screws.  Then in 1934 the Elinvar hairspring was introduced and the 987F and 979F were replaced by the 987E, E being for Elinvar.  In 1937 the 987A was introduced.  It shares the same gear train as the earlier 987 movements but for all intents and purposes it was an entirely new design.

In 1935, the new 14/0 movements were introduced.  The narrower caliber allowed model designs to become longer and curved to fit the wrist.  The 17 jewel 980 movement was used in gold filled models and the 19 jewel 982 was used in sold gold models.  1935 ushered in an entirely new direction for Hamilton models and they never looked back.  

One of the new models introduced in 1935 was the Nelson.  Cased in 14K gold filled, it was available with three different dials... an all numeral or all marker dial, with solid gold figures, or an inlaid enamel dial with black figures.

Priced at $52.50, the Nelson was not a cheap watch.  That's about $1,200 when adjusted for inflation.  You could save $2.50 by going the inlaid enamel dial route, that's about to $60 in today's value.

I like the design of the Nelson.  The stepped case has a lot of Art Deco inspiration.  It's not a large watch, especially by today's standards, but it was definitely a departure from the 6/0 models made previously.

The Nelson was made for only two years but some of it's features would be echoed in generations of watch models to come later.

My project watch presents with decades of grime and "old man funk" around the crystal and trapped in the basket-weave bracelet.  The bracelet is not orginal but it's definitely very old and I think it matches the Nelson design really well.

The Nelson shares the dial pattern with the solid gold Sherwood of the time.  I happen to have the inlaid enamel dial and now would be a good time to make a dial swap, if I wanted too.  The hands on the Nelson are solid diamond pattern, which is a nice detail that adds to the design, in my opinion.

The movement is a 17 jewel 980 caliber, just as you'd expect.  The serial number dates to 1936, making this an example from the second year of it's production run.

The 14/0 movements were made through 1952 but that's not to say that they remained unchanged throughout that time.  For example, the first couple of years of 14/0 production, the set bridge was a two-piece design.  Eventually these parts were combined into a single set bridge. 

The mainspring inside the barrel is an older blue steel design.  I find this to be situation in 90% of the 14/0 models I work on.  I'm sure it's "set" into a tight coil and lost most of it's potential energy.

Yup... I've seen this a time or two.  I'll replace it with a white alloy Dynavar spring.

Everything goes through the cleaning and rinse process - taking almost 30 minutes before all is said and done.  Once it's dried, I can reassemble all of the parts with fresh lubricants in all the proper places.

Getting the train bridge to fall in place can be a challenge but it's easier if you do it without the pallet fork in place.  Once the train bridge and barrel bridge are in place, the wheels should spin freely.  At that point, I can now install the pallet fork and it's bridge.

The reassembled movement is ticking away.  The motion is there but it doesn't look quite right to my eye.  Let's see what the timer says...

Well... maybe it's running a little fast but the timer is a little confused and can't land on specifics.  I'll reclean the hairspring and make sure there isn't any dust or debris in the escapement.  It doesn't take much to through off the timing of a balance.

Cleaning the hairspring did the trick... now it's running with a good amplitude.  The beat error is about as high as I allow.  Arguably, I could attempt to reduce it but I have two reasons not too.  First, it's a tricky operation and I risk damaging a 90 year old hairspring.  Second, it's hot as hades in my workshop right now.  Even with. my portable AC going full blast, I still have beads of sweat falling off my forehead.  Focusing on the precision of the hairspring will only make it worse.  I can at least slow the beat rate down a little - that's easy enough.

My finished watch looks very good.  It will look better once I get a new crystal for it.  The dial has a little patina around the edges but not too bad, considering it's age.  I didn't see any evidence that this dial was refinished but even if it was, this type of dial can be refinished perfectly most of the time.

Here's a photo of the Nelson with the black numeral dial.  I think the font used for the design is really cool.  Which pattern do you prefer?