1928 Oval - Restoration

There are a few Hamilton models that were never catalogued.  One of them is the "Oval" - which did show up in the price lists but not the catalog.  The Oval was one of a few watches that were named after their shape... like the Rectangular, Barrel, and the Square... to name just a few.

The Oval only showed up in a couple (if only one) advertisements.

The Oval came in solid green and white gold as well as in gold filled.  About 400 where made in solid white gold and 200, or so, in solid green gold.

Bezels came as Plain or Engraved.  1,876 Plain Ovals were made in white gold filled and about the same were made with Engraved bezels.  Half as many (791 / 797) were made in green gold filled.

So they are a rather scarce model - especially in green.

There are a few platinum Ovals known to exist too - now those are RARE!

Behind the dial you're likely to find a 17 jewel, 6/0 sized 987 movement.

A friend of mine recently sent me an Oval Plain that he had picked up and asked for some help restoring it.   All I can say is, "Never again!"

Turns out, Ovals are really a pain... here's just a few reasons why.

• The oval shaped bezel and back cover are tricky to remove and even more challenging to snap back on.  It's a pretty complex shape, and getting it perfectly aligned is necessary.
• Shaping a glass crystal to fit an oval opening is equally challenging - again the oval shape is surprisingly complex to fit just right.
• The lugs are shaped to accommodate curved spring bars that go around the elongated case.  Bending spring bars to fit the shape is very challenging.  Spring bars are easily broken.
• Getting a strap thin enough to fit the small space between the curved shape of the case and the spring bar is also a challenge.

Other than that - there's nothing to it!

Here's a picture of what I started with.  All four lugs were terribly worn - in fact, a couple were worn completely through.  I was very concerned that the pressure of a strap would blow them out completely.  The silver dial was very tarnished and could stand a good cleaning as well

I sent the case out to Buchkosky Jewelers in Minnesota http://buchkosky.com to have their very talented gold smith, Mike Wigen, work his magic on the lugs.  He has done a few other yellow gold filled cases for me in the past.

Turns out white gold filled is a different story and a little trickier to pull off - but in the end, Mike did a nice job and I think the case turned out well.

Add the installation of a freshly serviced 987 movement and a new glass crystal to cover the cleaned up dial (with freshly lumed hands).  A black cotton canvas strap completed the assembly and I think it turned out really nicely.

I could get the dial professionally redone but I think the mottled patina of it looks very interesting and fitting of a 85 year old watch.

What do you think?

1904 Hamilton 927 Pocket Watch

A hundred years ago Hamilton had 22 different watch styles in it's lineup starting with 0-size ladies pocket watches and ranging upwards to 18 size men's models.   All of Hamilton's watches were high quality but some were extremely high quality with accuracies within a few seconds per month.

To me, there's something special about an 18 size pocket watch - and especially so when it's a hunter style model.  Hunter style watches have a clamb shell case with a metal cover over the glass crystal.  In a Hunter case, the stem and crown are located at the 3 so the movement is rotated 90 degrees versus the traditional open-faced case.  This allows you to open the case with the cover toward the left (by the 9) and be able to clearly read the dial.  With the pendant at the 3, they are sometimes called "side winders".

A good example of an 18S hunter-style Hamilton pocket watch is the 927.

There were several 18 size pocket watch movements.  The 927 was a very basic movement with 17 jewels and entry-level features.  It's not a railroad approved model because it was only adjusted for temperature and not for isochonism or 5 varied positions.  It also has a single roller balance and not a double roller - like the railroad models would have.  In an open style case, the movement was a 926.

Isochronism is the ability of the balance to maintain consistent accuracy as the mainspring unwinds.  In other words, it's accuracy 1 hour after a full wind is the same as after 10 hours later, etc.

The 5 positions that a watch would be adjusted to were (1) dial facing up, (2) dial facing down, (3) vertically with the12 up, (4) 9 up and (5) 3 up - the latter two simulating the watch on it's side in your pocket.

Although the 927 wasn't the highest-end watch Hamilton made - it was still a very fine pocket watch for the time.

I recently restored a very cool 927 and it came with an interesting story.  Well, interesting to me anyway.

I found the movement in an open faced silveroid case - nothing too special really although the dial had the seconds at 3 - which was very unusual.

I also found a non-working 7 jewel Elgin pocket watch in an 18S hunter case.

Way back when, Hamilton's watches were made to standard sizes and could drop into any generic case that jewelers had on hand (or you could buy them cased from Hamilton as well).

Anyway - I popped out the Elgin movement and dropped the Hamilton 927 into the hunter case and voila - a perfect match!

The front of the heavy gold filled case is the classic engine turned design with a shield in the center, suitable for engraving someone's initials.

Here you can see the interesting "seconds at 3" dial.  I have no idea if this is an original dial and you can see that it has the orientation for an open style case - but the gold highlights on the dial look silly in a silveroid case.  It looks much better in a yellow case - and now I can hang this watch under a glass dome and display it as desk clock.

Here you can see the balance wheel happily swinging away - 5 beats back and forth each second.   That's over 157 million beats per year!

And here's the best part of all!  Check out this excellent engraving of a locomotive on the case back!  This case is a thing of beauty and deserves to be displayed.

1918 Aviators Watch / Trench Watch

It's common watch lore that wrist watches made the transition from pocket watches in the trenches of Europe during the First World War.  The logic being that it was easier to tell the time by looking at your wrist than to pull a watch out of your pocket.   Wrist watches also included metal screens over the top called "shrapnel guards" to protect the glass crystal from breakage.

In many cases, soldiers had jewelers fashion custom wrist watches from pocket versions but there are solid documentation examples of manufacturers getting directly involved with the trend.  Check out this Hamilton advertisement from 1918.

Hamilton's first wrist watches used their smallest hunter-style pocket watch movements at the time... the 0-size (zero size) ladies pocket watches in both 17 and 19 jewel grades like the 981, 983 and 985.  They make a nice sized watch, even by today's standards, but they were very large compared to what would be produced 10 years later.  Hamilton did make smaller ladies 6/0 sized watches (the 988 and 986) but those are open faced movements with the stem at 12.  A hunter-cased movement has the stem at 3.

Cases were sterling silver and predominantly made by Fahys.  The cases had fixed wire lugs that required a special strap designed for this specific attachment type.

The dials are porcelain with luminous figures and lume on the hands to match.

Here's a very nice example of the earliest of Hamilton's wrist watches.

In the shot below, you can see your typical 17 jewel Hamilton 983 movement.  If you look closely you can see that it says "Lady Hamilton" on the barrel bridge.  It's also missing it's micro-regulator, a little spring-lever attachment on the balance cock to precisely adjust the regulator arm.  You can see the two little holes where it would attach.  The spring portion probably broke at some point in this watch's past..

And here's a good shot of the case back, clearly showing the Fahys trademark.

Lastly, if WWI trench watches are your thing, check out this site... "LRF Antique Watches".  Stan does an incredible job with his restorations and many of his projects are for sale.