1973 Clermont

 One of the interesting watch terms out there is "complication".  When it comes to watches, you can have a variety of complications and I think the term is very appropriate.  The most basic elements for a watch are the hour and minute hands, and to get a watch to keep accurate time at all is arguably pretty complicated.  

However, from there you can add things... like a second hand, or a date, or the day of the week, or make the watch self winding, perhaps add a chronograph (stop watch), how about an alarm?  Each additional element adds a complication.

For decades Hamilton produced excellent watches with just the basics.  Innovation came in the form of ever increasing accuracy, new materials and improved environmental performance.  In the 1950s, new complications started to be added and automatics joined the model line, as did calendar models with the day of the month, and an alarm watch.  The 1960s introduced chronometers.  It wasn't until the 1970s that the day of the week was introduced.  Today you can have all of the above on your wrist... although maybe the alarm might not be offered too frequently.

Hamilton's Day 'N Date series included all the models that offered a day of the week and the date of the month complication.  One of them was the 1973 Clermont.  The Clermont was introduced in 1973 and produced through 1976.  It came in a 14K yellow gold electoplated case with a stainless steel back.

The Clermont is also known by the product number 825011-4.

My project watch is a Clermont and it's an interesting example because it's also an award watch for the 1975 Sugar Bowl.  It's a bit beat up and the second hand has fallen off but it is ticking.

The case back lacks the traditional markings from Hamilton, probably to make room for the presentation of Penn State vs Alabama and the name A. Dragenovich

The 1975 Sugar Bowl pitted two very famous coaches and their teams against each other... Bear Bryant with the Crimson Tide versus Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions.

Joe Paterno and Bear Bryant take part in the traditional cafe brulot toast prior to the Sugar Bowl. Photo courtesy of the Bear Bryant Museum.

Alabama went on to defeat Penn State 13 to 6.

The original bracelet on the watch has been lost to time, as has the original crown.  The replacement appears to be a smidgeon large.  It's interesting to see that the case has been worn along the edge, presumably from years of manual winding.  It's no wonder the original crown is gone.

The case back unscrews to reveal the movement inside, which is retained in a movement ring that mates with the case.

The catalog says that the dial on the Clermont is black and this dial is more of a deep blue.  Obviously it's been customized and other than a slight mark above the trophy, it's looks really good.

Two screws hold the movement inside the retaining ring.  Once it pull those, I can start to disassemble the movement.

There are a variety of different movements that Hamilton used for Day "N Date models.  This one is a "Quick Change II" or Q/C II with a unique stem that causes the clutch to slide into different positions when you turn the crown one direction or the other - that will change the day wheel in on direction or the day of the month wheel in the opposite direction.  Did I mention the term "complication"?

Speaking of the Day and Date wheels, once the dial is removed you see the two wheels that rotate different directions... the day of the week rotated counter clockwise while the date of the month rotates clockwise.  It's interesting to note that the day of the week can be set to English or English... so when the movement indexes from day to day, it actually skips a position.  This is because you could have a wheel with other languages like English and French, for example.

A small snap ring holds the day of the week wheel in place and once that's lifted out of the way, you get to see how the magic happens.

With a couple of additional covers removed I can start to strip the individual wheels.  It's fascinating that the movement that simply turns the minute hand can also make all of the other parts move in coordination.

I purposely laid out all of the parts with their corresponding screws so I can remember what goes with what when I reassemble everything.  From here, all the parts will go into my ultrasonic cleaner.

While all the parts are being cleaned, I'll see if I can select a proper crown to install.  I think I have a good match... there's a LOT that goes into picking the most appropriate replacement.

I think the one I chose is a perfect fit.  I plan to do a blog post on selecting crowns in the near future.  Stay tuned - I think you'll find it very interesting.

Okay - 30 minutes later and all the parts are cleaned and back in there relative positions so I can start the reassembly process.  The first step is to get a working movement again, then I can worry about the day and date parts.

I haven't already mentioned it but this movement is an ETA design and in this view you can see it has a strong family resemblance to all of it's ETA kin.  Even ETA movements today look a lot like this, when the automatic bits are removed.  At this point it's now a running manual wind movement - let's see what the timer has to say.

Not too shabby.  The amplitude is low but that's partly because I haven't really wound it up too much.  The beat error is high at 2.9ms and the beat rate is a little fast at 97 second fast per day.  Notice the beat rate is 21,600 beats per hour - that's faster than the traditional 18,000 BPH most vintage watches have.  So this watch beats 6 times a second instead of the traditional 5.

Adjusting the beat error brings the amplitude up considerably and a tweak or two to the regulator gets the timing to an acceptable 10 seconds fast per day.  It will probably settle down a little after it runs a while.

Getting all of the day and date parts into place is pretty straight forward.  The worst part is pulling the stem out to reinstall it in the case and hoping that it goes back in place correctly so the Quick Change parts work.  The stem has three positions... the winding position (all the way in), the time setting position (all the way out) and the day and date setting position (midway between).

Once the dial is on, I can lightly set the hour hand and then advance the time until the day and date change.  Then I know it's midnight and can place the hands accordingly.  I add the hour hand initially just so I know what direction to turn and how many hours I've gone as I could have to go 24 hours to change the date.

Now the hands are in place, including the second hand, and I can install the automatic frame work and put the assembly back in the case.

The last step was to replace the crown.  As you can see, this one fits much better.

This watch is almost complete.  The only thing left to potentially do is to replace the crystal.  I don't know if this crystal is original but it appears to be mineral glass held in place with a gasket.  I could remove it and replace it with something else, or I could try to get a correct mineral glass replacement.  If the gasket is reusable, that is.

In the meantime, this watch is back in working order and can still enjoy some wrist time.