1966 Accumatic A-654

If you've followed my blog for a while, you have probably picked up how to guestimate what model  an automatic might be based on it's case material and what's inside.

For example, if you knew the case as solid 18K gold, you'd assume it was a 100-series watch.  If it had a stainless steel back, it would be a 150-something.  A completely stainless steel watch would be a 500 something.  200 is solid 14K gold.

So what would you guess a watch with a 10K RGP case with a stainless steel back would be?

If you'd say a 650-something, you'd be correct.

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule but 9 times out of ten you can get pretty close using that logic.

Another rule of thumb is if there's an ETA movement inside (689, 689A, 694, etc) it's likely an Accumatic A-something and if there's a 661 inside it would be a Automatic K-something.  If it has a date window, it's probably a Dateline.

Confusing, huh?  Well after a couple of hundred tries you'll get better at it.

My most recent project was a 1966 Accumatic A-654.  It was produced only for two years.

The A-654 comes in a funky-looking case with a florentine-style engraving in between smooth ribs.  I'm sure it looks sharp when paired with it's original bracelet.  It's definitely a distinctive case and easy to spot.  The dial is printed with marks at the hours and there's a single applied gold H at the 12.

Inside you will find a 17 jewel Hamilton 689A movement, which was made by ETA.

My recent arrival shows that it must have been well-loved and worn a lot.  Even through my slightly blurry photo, you can see the circumference of the case has been worn fairly smooth.  The crystal is cracked but the dial inside looks to be in good shape.

This sort of stainless steel case back is deceiving and if you didn't know better you would easily assume it should pop off.  You'll often see scratch marks where someone has tried to get it to separate.  But alas, this watch actually opens through the crystal.

Here's a more in-focus shot of the front.  Check out how worn the crown is.  It's virtually smooth.  Good thing this is an automatic - it would be tough to wind this watch by hand.

The 689A inside looks to be in nice shape.  It's funny to see the female-side of the two-piece stem is in the movement.  I think most of the time I find that it's the opposite.  I wonder what the rationale was to put the male-side on the crown or vice versa?

Everything is cleaned and dried.  It looks bright and shiny now.

The movement lacks the rotor assembly at the moment and at this stage it's basically a manual-winding watch now.  You can see two tiny holes just to the left of the golden color ratchet wheel.  Those holes align the rotor assembly so the oscillating weight can wind the watch.  However, at this stage with a few turns to the mainspring, the balance assembly kicks into life.  So it's off to the timer to see how she runs.

It's running a little fast and the beat error is too high.  I like to get the beat error as close to zero has I can but anything less than 1.0ms is fine in my book.  First I'll adjust the beat error, then I'll slow the beat rate down.

There... 12 sec fast per day, good amplitude and a beat error of 0.5ms.  "That'll do, Donkey, that'll do."

A new crystal is required in order to complete the restoration.  A PHD-style crystal should do the trick.

What a difference an in-focus picture makes.  Of course, a fresh overhaul, new crystal and new strap don't hurt either.  The second hand blends in perfectly with the 6 o'clock markings... it's there though. Now you know why the catalog shows it at 32 seconds.  As I said above, the case shows a lot of wear but it doesn't look too bad, surprisingly.

1976 GG-W-113 Military Watch

A while back I did a post on the Mil-W-46374B military wrist watch that was used by "ground pounders" in the US military during Vietnam and the decade following.  Hamilton was one of a handful of manufacturers that made Mil-W-46374 watches in a series of versions (B, C, D, etc).  As I said in that post, there was also a similar model called the GG-W-113 that was used by aviators.

Although the GG-W-113 looks almost identical to the Mil-W-46374, it contained a higher quality movement inside with a "hack" feature where the watch stopped when the time was set.

In the shot below, Lt Col Bob Krone of the US Air Force stands in front of his F-105 Thunderchief.  Is he wearing a GG-W-113?  No, probably not, as this photo was from 1966.  However, it reminds me of a joke... "What kind of watch would a man as tough as a Vietnam fighter pilot wear?"

Any darned watch he wanted.

Thank you for your service Col Krone.  Here's to you and those like you.

Anywho - the military watches like the GG-W-113 are fairly sought after.  They were even emulated by civilian models in Hamiltons line up like the L.L. Bean Field Watch and early Khaki series.  Unfortunately you will also see a lot of fakes out there so you have to be very careful if you're buying one.

I don't know a lot about GG-W-113's, to be honest.  I do know that they came with two possible movements, depending on era.  You should see inside either an 17 jewel 649 movement or a 685 movement.  Two mfg part numbers could be stamped on the case back, 92230 or 39986.  The case backs are also dated with a year of manufacturing and I've observed that the 92230 was used in the early 1970's and transitioned to 39986 towards the end of the '70s and used into the 80's.  Furthermore, I've read that 39986 may refer to the 649 movement and 92230 to the 685 movement... but I'm not sure about that.  I'll mention some other observations below.

There are so many fakes out there that my interest in this genre of Hamilton military watches is pretty low.  However, a fellow collector friend of mine was having trouble with his GG-W-113 so I agreed to take it on.  It was not working and the crown / stem was not connected.

Upon receipt, I was a little suspicious.  The GG-W-113 had fixed bars for a one-piece strap, at least in the 1970's, so the two part strap could only be installed if the fixed bars were removed or if the watch was a fake.  I can see by the angle of the crown that it's not connected to the movement... that, or it's irreparably damaged.

The markings on the case back look legit to me.  They're not uneven, sloppy or otherwise suspicious looking.  The 99230 is a 1970's number.  If this was a 1979 watch or a 1980's model, I would expect 39986.

The buggered up lugs look to me like someone drilled out the fixed spring bars.  The holes are way bigger than necessary, in my opinion, and actually limit what you could use to secure a strap.  Big, fat spring bars are required now.  That's actually a good sign that this is a legitimate model though - as a fake watch probably wouldn't have big ol' holes like this.

This female stem is damaged somehow, splayed too far outward to hold the male-side of the stem.  Looks to my eye that the stem is a larger tap than I would expect... maybe an 8 or even a 6.  The best I could do to replace the stem is to replace the crown with one with a smaller tap 10 stem.

This is a 649 movement... that calls into the question if 649's were used solely in 39986 watches.  It's definitely in at least one 92230 watch.  The movement is filthy - so that's a good sign that it's legitimate too... or at least a really old fake.

The dial feet on a 649 are held in place with spring clips.  You can see one has been swung outward, freeing the foot to allow the dial to be lifted off.

Looking at the dial-side of the main plate, you can tell (well I can, anyway) that this is an ETA movement.

With the barrel bridge out of the way, you can see the little golden clip used to stop the watch (hack) when the stem is pulled out to set the time.  Also, notice that the main plate is jeweled at the barrel arbor.  That's one of the 17 jewels inside the watch.

With the balance out of the way, just the pallet fork has to come out now in order for the main plate to be cleared of parts.  In this shot you can see that the 649 is based on an ETA 2750 movement.

Here's the inside of the case back - clearly this is a legitimate Hamilton watch case.

Everything gets thoroughly cleaned in the ultrasonic. This watch spent almost 30 minutes in the cleaner and two rinse cycles.

The 649 has a 21,600 BPH beat rate, which is visibly faster than the 18,000 BPH rate that most vintage watches utilized.  If I saw this fast a motion on a pre-1969 watch I would be really worried.

The timer tells me there's something not right inside.  Something is making extra noise.  It doesn't take much to make noise like this.  Re-cleaning the hairspring and/or running the watch through a demagnetizer normally clears it up.

Phew! It took a while but I finally got it dialed in.  Good amplitude, low beat error, running just a smidgen fast... just the way I like to see them after an overhaul.

I repainted the second hand white.  I don't think the red paint on the tip was original but I left it anyway.  I believe it actually should have luminous paint on it.  The replacement crown is a decent match but not perfect.  It'll have to do until my friend can find a stem to fit the original crown.  At least the watch looks and runs like it should now - so I'm sure he'll be happy with it.

1968 Sea Rover III

It's interesting to see how Hamilton had so many nautical models in their line up.  There are so many that many model names were used two or three times.

A good example is the Sea Rover III.  The original Sea Rover was introduced in 1960.  A case change to stainless steel resulted in the Sea Rover B in 1961.  Then in 1960 the Sea Rover II was introduced. Finally, in 1968 the Sea Rover III entered the line up.

The Sea Rover III came in a stainless steel case with a matching bracelet or leather strap.  It was produced through 1969.  Inside is a manual winding Hamilton 688, produced by ETA.

I recently snagged a Sea Rover III project watch.  It was in good shape but looked a little grungy in the seller's photos.  I was hopeful I'd be able to clean it up nicely.

The case back is inscribed with a presentation that seems especially fitting.

The Sea Rover III opens through the crystal and once it's removed, the crown can be turned to reveal the opening in the two-piece stem.  Then the movement can be leveraged out of the case using the stem as a hinge.  You need to be careful to align the stem though so you don't break it.

Here you can see the female side of the stem.  This is what you look for when you turn the crown.  That ensures the stem can pivot on the male side attached to the crown.

The Hamilton 688 looks like an automatic 689 or 689 without it's rotor installed.

The crystal was a bit scratched but the real concern is the the dial is a bit grungy.  It looks like the hood of a white car that's covered in pollen after a light rain.  Little spots are evenly distributed over the entire surface.  With luck it will clean right off.

I'll get out a new crystal to install after everything is reassembled.

Everything is cleaned and dried.  I wasn't able to get the dial to look any better.  In fact, I was probably 5 seconds away from losing the printing in HAMILTON.  It's still there fortunately.

With the movement reassembled and running, it's off to the timer.

Well, that's not too shabby but I can slow it down very easily with a slight tweak of the regulator.

That'll do.

Everything goes back into the case and a fresh strap is installed to complete the restoration.  The hour markers and numerals are faceted so they are very reflective.  The dial is a little splotchy but at least the Hamilton logo is still mostly there.