1951 Clyde

It's been a long time since I bought a Hamilton watch out in the wild.  That's mainly because I rarely see them.  I enjoy perusing antique shops and thrift stores as much as the next guy, I suppose, but I rarely see nice vintage watches for sale.  I suspect they're just easier to sell on line... easy to ship, etc. rather than waste time and space in a display case.  When I do find them, they're usually priced more than I'd be willing to pay for a project watch.

However, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again and I purchased a one year wonder project watch... a 1951 Clyde, at an antique mall.

The Clyde is an interesting watch since it was only produced for a single year.  It's got a strong family resemblance to other models from the period, so maybe it wasn't distinctive enough.  It could also be that the bracelet it was paired with isn't particularly attractive, in my opinion, anyway.  Maybe it's better in real life.  It was also available on a strap, for a pretty big discount... $14 in 1951 was a lot of money... about $170 when adjusted for inflation.

The Clyde is cased in 10K gold filled and has a sterling silver dial with solid 18K gold figures and numerals.

My project watch is in decent shape but the crystal is beat up and make it look a lot worse.

The case back shows the tell tale signs of a one piece nylon strap... probably my least favorite strap choice.  The toning should polish off easily.

The dial has a mixture of dirt and moisture residue.  Since this is my watch and it appears to be the original dial, I'll try to clean it and hope it looks better - or at least more consistent.

Tucked inside the case is an 8/0 sized 17 jewel 747 movement.  This is one of my favorite movements... it's super easy to work on and is a great movement to learn the ropes on.

The inside of the case is marked with the model name, makes identifying really easy.  The serial number inside is unique to this case but doesn't mean anything to anyone other than Wadsworth, the case company who made the case.

The mainspring inside the barrel is a white alloy Dynavar mainspring.  These are considered a "lifetime" mainspring because they don't set in a tight coil... however, they do break on occasion.

While all the parts are in the cleaner, I'll prep a new glass crystal for installation.  This will make a huge improvement.

Everything is cleaned and dried.  The dial turned out good, it's not perfect but I didn't lose any printing and the toning is restricted to the corners so it's very vintage-looking.

The movement is reassembled and ticking away with a nice motion - let's see what the timer thinks of it.

Not too shabby... just a slight tweak to the regulator will bring the beat rate in line.

There... this is a good place to leave it.

What do you think?  This watch turned out great... the dial isn't perfect but it is a lot better than what I started with.  I hope when I'm 75 I look this good!