1923 Model 914 Pocket Watch

I did a post earlier this month on the model 916 pocket watch movement.  Prior to the 916, Hamilton produced the 914.  It was in the line up from 1912 through 1923.

The 914's specs are very similar to the 916's - it's an open faced, pendant set, size 12 movement.  It has 17 ruby jewels set in solid gold chatons.  It has a micro metric regulator and the compensation balance is adjusted to temperature, isochronism and three positions.

Like the 916, several dial and case combinations were available directly from Hamilton.

I picked up a 914 a long time ago and it's been sitting on my bench with some other pocket watches, patiently awaiting it's turn at the spa.  It was in nice shape and actually has the same No. 14A dial as my recent 916.  Although it runs, it loses time so I suspect the cannon pinion will need to be tightened.

The cannon pinion holds the minute hand and it drives the hour wheel (and hour hand) via the minute wheel - that's what keeps the hour and minute hand in sync.  The cannon pinion is supposed to be tight enough that the center wheel will drive it but loose enough that the keyless works can set the time without putting force on the center wheel and gear train.  If the cannon pinion is too loose, the watch will run fine but appear to lose time as the cannon pinion slips on the center wheel shaft.

The movement is nicely damascened and is very attractive.  Hamilton took pride in making it's movements look as nice as they ran - which is an indication of the high quality they produced, since customers would rarely see the movement itself.

Based on the serial number, I can tell that this movement is from 1923, the last year of production of the 914.

In order to remove the movement, first the front bezel is removed and then two case screws are pulled from opposing sides on the back of the watch.  Then movement will drop out the front.

The movement has a general haze over it but it still sparkles a little.  Just wait until it's been cleaned!

Once the hands are pulled, three dial foot screws need to be loosened and then the dial will come off.

With the dial out of the way you can get a good glimpse of the springs that keep this "negative set" movement in the time setting position unless the stem is pushed in (to move the clutch wheel up and into the winding position).  Now I'll take off the hour wheel and cannon pinion in the center of the movement.

With the mainspring fully let-out. I'll take the winding wheel and ratchet wheel off the barrel bridge (as shown).  Then I'll remove the barrel bridge and train bridge.

With the bridges out of the way, you can see the train.  Power is conducted from the larger mainspring barrel all the way through the wheels until it's released tick-by-tick through the balance.

The balance wheel is connected to the balance cock at the hair spring stud.  Two screws hold a plate over the stud to secure it.  Loosening the screws allow the stud to drop out and separate the two parts.

With the balance out of the way, the only thing left is the pallet fork.  This little anchor-shaped part retains all of power of the mainspring.  Without it all the wheels would whirr away the power of a full wind in a matter of seconds, instead of a matter of 40+ hours.

Everything is cleaned and dried before being reassembled with fresh lubrication.

The now reassembled watch is ticking away with just a couple of turns to the ratchet wheel.  I will give the movement a full winding when I reinstall it in the case.

Here you can see the setting wheels that transmit the turning of the crown and stem through the clutch wheel until ultimately turning the cannon pinion and hour wheel - thus setting the time.  As the watch runs, not only do the hands turn, but all of these wheels do too.  So they need to be lubricated to reduce friction and wear, just like all of the other wheels.

Now the cannon pinion and hour wheel are back in place, as well as the cover over the setting wheels.  All that's left to be reinstalled is the dial and hands.

With a full-wind on the movement, it's off to the timer.  It's running a little fast but otherwise it's in good shape.

A couple of turns to the micro metric regulator screw and the beat rate is brought right in line.  There's nothing too shabby with this performance.

And here's the finished project all polished up.  It's a nice looking dress watch, no?

The initials engraved on the case back are very well done but I have no idea what they are.

The inside dust cover is as pretty as the outside and says Hamilton Watch Co. Lancaster Pa.

And here's a final shot of the movement - it sparkles brilliantly now that it's been cleaned.  Look at that blurred balance wheel spin!

1964 M 89-3 Automatic

1964 was a funny year in the Hamilton lineup - there are a number of M-series models (for "male") but they were included in the usual catalog for that year.  I don't know if they were for a special market or what the reason for the line was but there are 12 different M-models to try to locate today.  There are F-series models too if you collect ladies watches… there are 14 of those in the 1964 catalog.

I've already found two other M-watches… the M 59-3 and the M 69-2.  Now I found a third, the M 89-3.

Unlike the other two M-watches, the M 89-3 is an automatic watch.  It comes in a stainless steel case.  The dial has a white radial finish with printed black numerals and silvered markers.  The silver hands are luminous and there are luminous dots at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 positions.

Under the dial is a Swiss-made Hamilton 689A movement with 17 jewels.

My M 89-3 example came with an grungy Speidel bracelet, which will have to go.  The dial is a little faded but otherwise everything else looks promising.

The back of the case screws off - which is nice because that means no pesky two-piece stems to fuss with.

The movement doesn't look like it's seen a watchmaker in quite a while.  The rotor has some green verdigris that will hopefully come off in the cleaner.  The watch is running though - which is always a good sign.

With the movement out of the case, my instincts tell me to leave this dial alone.  The last thing I want to do is accidentally remove what printing remains on the dial.  It is 50 years old, after all, and it's still very presentable, even though it doesn't look new.

The 689A is an ETA movement.  It's an interesting design in that the only thing that passes from the back of the base plate to the front is the second hand post.  The "center wheel" on this movement is actually off to the side - you can see it in the lower left in the photo below.

The center wheel drives the third wheel and in this movement the third wheel engages the cannon pinion from the side.

The rotor assembly is the first thing off the back and I'll break it down into pieces for a thorough cleaning.

Everything gets cleaned and rinsed and then set out to dry before reassembly.

With everything oiled and lubed as appropriate, the watch is running a little slow right out of the chute. The beat error is okay at 2.7ms but the beat error is easy to adjust on this movement so I'll go after the that first.

Adjusting the position of the hairspring stud on the balance cock changes the beat error (or centers the impulse pin with the pallet fork).  A beat error of zero is perfect alignment so the balance swings equally on each side.  

Now that the beat error is 0.2ms, I can speed the watch up by tweaking the regulator.  You can see the beat error decrease by the two lines getting closer to each other.  Initially I movement the hair spring stud the wrong direction and made the error greater than the photo above.

Tweaking the regulator adjust the effective length of the hairspring so now the watch is pretty much running dead-on with good amplitude (238 degrees) and a low beat error.  Time to put the rotor back on.

The rotor is held on with two screws but you need to line up the gears so they will mate with the gold ratchet wheel over the mainspring barrel.

Flipping the movement dial-up, the next thing to go on is the hands, set at 12:00 so they will stay in sync with each other.

Finally, everything goes back in to the freshly polished case and a new black lizard strap completes the restoration.  The dial looks pretty good but not great.  Cleaning it would ruin it for sure so I'll quit while I'm ahead.  I'll take a presentable original dial over a nicely refinished dial, any day.

And here's a wrist shot of a much nicer M89-3 example, courtesy of a fellow collector.  Not only is his fail way better, his example even features the original bracelet!

UPDATE:

Well, you've got to love the 1960's.  Hamilton threw a lot of curve balls in the last two decades of US-production and there are many examples of legitimate oddities... dial variations, differing hands, case and dial combinations, miss-marked case backs... you name it.

I recently saw an eBay auction for what looks a lot like an M89-3.  There are some subtle differences though.  For example, the H on the dial is silver and not black.  The hour markers extend to the edge of the dial.  And the real biggie is the case is a one-piece case.

The crown on the auction example isn't marked with the H logo, where my example is.  The auction stated that the watch had a 689 movement but there was no photo of it.  This would be an earlier version of the 689A in my watch.

It's very hard to tell for sure, but it looks like the lugs on the auction watch are a little more slender and maybe a better match to the catalog - that's a tough call though really.

So - there you have it... another example of Hamilton-oddities captured from the wild.  I'm not sure these are really that different.  The M-series only shows up in the catalogs in 1964 - but they were supposedly made from 1961 through 1967 so other variations might exist.   They certainly were intended to be separate from the other models for some reason.  Maybe they were produced for another market or for sale through a special channel.

Perhaps they are two mid-year variants of the same model and just not cataloged as a M89-3 and M89-3B like what would have been done in other situations when models evolved over model years.

Who knows?  But apparently no one's collection will be complete until you capture them both... ha ha!

1926 916 Grade Pocket Watch

There is a dizzying array of Hamilton pocket watches.  There are at least 30 different movement grades, not to mention the variety of dials and case designs.  They come in two general flavors… dress pocket watches and railroad watches.  They also come in three general sizes, 12, 16 and 18 size.

Of course, you could add the ladies pendant and bracelet watches to the list and that would bring in several more 6/0, 0 size movements.  But as far as men's pocket watches go, let's stick with the 12, 16 and 18 size models.

Most collectors seem to gravitate to the railroad models, or at least the 16 and 18 size grades in general. Of that, the 16 size is usually of greater interest.  As the jewel count goes up, so does the general value - but some grades are very scarce so that adds to their collectibility.

The poor little 12 size grades are often overlooked - but that's mainly due to their smaller size and not being "railroad approved".  However, even the most basic 12 size movement is still a very fine watch.

Take for example, the 17 jewel 916 movement.  It was produced from 1923 to 1928 - a short run for pocket watch movements.

The 916 was produced along with the 922 and the 902 movements.  The 922 has 23 jewels, the 902 has 21 and the 916 has 17.  Other fine details are added as the jewel count increases and often the higher grade movements were installed in solid gold cases.  They are all very nice looking movements as well.

The 916 is a finer grade than the more common 912 movement that was introduced in the mid-1920s.  Some of the main differences include the jewels being installed in solid gold "chatons" (settings) as well as the adjustments to temperature, isochronism and three positions.

Isochronism is the ability of the watch to compensate for the decrease in strength of the mainspring as it lets out.  When isochronism is an issue, the watch will slow as the tension lets out.

Eventually the 916 would be replaced by the 918 movement… someday I'll post more info on that grade.

I've had a 916 on my bench for a long time.  In fact I have several pocket watches waiting for some love.  One of the reasons I didn't tackle the 916 was the stem sleeve needed to be replaced and although that's not hard to do, getting the right parts requires a decent selection of parts to choose from.

You may heard me explain the difference between a "negative set" watch and a "positive set" watch" before.  But just in case you haven't, a negative set watch has springs inside that keep the watch in the time setting position.  You have to push the stem in, against the springs, to put the watch in the winding position.  Negative set pocket watches used a "sleeve" installed in the case to hold the stem in position while it's pushed into the movement and keep the watch in the winding position.  If the sleeve fails (due to wear, etc), the springs inside the watch push the stem (and crown) out to the time setting position - and if you touch the crown the hands will move and adjust the time.

On my project watch the sleeve was shot and the stem would not stay in the winding position.  I could push it in but it would just pop right back out.  Changing the sleeve is a function of three things, the type of stem, the type of case, and the sleeve that matches the stem and case.  Sometimes there's a lot of trial and error to get a good match.

I decided to send the watch out to a favorite professional watchmaker of mine and he replaced the sleeve for me while he overhauled the movement too… killing two birds with one stone, as they say.

My 916 is a pretty watch, in my opinion.  I came in a white gold filled case.

During this time, you could pick the dial the movement had as well as the Hamilton case it went into.  This dial is a No. 14A

The back of my watch is unengraved, but the inside dust cover is engraved with it's original owner's name and an important date from their lifetime.

Here you can see the 916 movement itself.  It's nicely damascened and the only detraction to my eye is a scratch from a past watchmakers screwdriver near the blue screw in the upper right.  The micro metric regulator adjustment is a great feature.  The gooseneck spring allows you to fine tune the regulator's position using a long screw on the side of the balance cock.

The 916 doesn't look that much different than a 912 really.  The differences are really in the finer details like the solid gold chatons and balance adjustments.  But the 912 had a much longer production run so there are a lot more of them out there.  I think that makes the 916 a more collectible grade - since there are fewer of them and they are a slightly higher end grade as well.