Most Hamilton collectors are aware of the 1928 World Series Piping Rocks that were given out to the winning New York Yankees. The watch is so popular that Hamilton reintroduced it in the 1990s as a registered edition in both quartz and mechanical versions.
Hamilton did the same in 1929 with the winning World Series team, the Philadelphia Athletics.
Instead of the Piping Rock, a different model was used. In this case it was the Barrel, but cased in sterling silver. Based on production records, I'd estimate no more than 146 sterling silver Barrels were produced, so they are extremely rare.
My project watch is a great find. You'd be forgiven if you thought it was a white gold filled, or possibly solid white gold version.
The back is where it gets really interesting. It was presented to you William (Bill) Breckinridge who was a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics. It was his rookie year, and only year, in the major league.
Bill Breckinridge played in only three games and not at all in the World Series. Since he was rostered on the Athletics when they defeated the Chicago Cubs, he received his full share of the players' bonus pool. He was given a minor league assignment the following spring so he chose to retire at 22, and attend college - eventually becoming a lawyer. Not quite a Lou Gehrig but an interesting story nonetheless.
The inside of the case back is marked Wadsworth, after the case maker with an H for Hamilton and 6/0 for the size of the movement. The STERLING is the most interesting part of the inside. I doubt I'll ever see another sterling Barrel again.
The center section of the three piece case is stamped with the last four digits of the case back serial number - so you know this was an original pairing. Inside is a 17 jewel 987 movement. Based on the color of the chatons (jewel settings), it's been a while since the watch was last cleaned but it does appear to tick... thank goodness. Watches from this era are notoriously finicky and can be very temperamental. I will be too, when I'm 97 years old.
The owner complained the watch would run out of steam after a few hours. Looking at the old blue steel mainspring inside the barrel, I can pretty much assume that is the reason. It has surely set into a tight coil and lost most of it's potential energy.
Yup - I've see this a time or two.
A nice white alloy Dynavar spring will power the movement nicely.
Everything is carefully disassembled and cleaned. Now it's time to put it back together with fresh oil inside all the wear surfaces.
It doesn't look like it in the photo, but the watch is ticking away with a decent motion. Let's see what the timer has to say about it.
Ooof! The shotgun pattern says something inside is making a lot of noise. I'll reclean the hairspring and the pallet fork to make sure everything is perfect.
There... that's much better. It took a couple of attempts but I got there. The amplitude is very vigorous but as long as the balance doesn't swing all the way around to the pallet fork again, the watch should eventually settle down.
A baseball is a good background for this ultra-unique watch. This is a very interesting watch and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it first hand and give it some extra life.
Bill Breckinridge died in 1958, at 51 years old. I wonder where this watch has been since then?
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