1958 Newlin

In the mid-1950's Hamilton introduced their flagship movement - the 12/0 sized 770 movement with 22 jewels.

A watch is considered fully jeweled at 15 jewels.  Hamilton marketed it's status as a premier manufacturer of high grade watches by producing no movements with less than 17 jewels.

A fully jeweled watch typically has jeweled bearings at each end of each wheel... the center wheel, the third wheel, the fourth wheel and the escape wheel - that's 8.  The pallet fork adds four more jewels... two for the arbor (or axle) and two for each pallet - that's 12.  The balance wheel adds three more... two for the ends of the balance staff and one for the impulse pin - that's 15.

Two cap jewels covering the ends of the balance staff jewels bring the count to 17.  Two more cap jewels covering the escape wheel's jewels gets you to a 19 jewel movement.

Two more cap jewels over the pallet fork gets you to 21 on a 21 jewel pocket watch.

On the 770, in addition to the basic 17, there are cap jewels on the escape wheel, the dial side of the pallet fork, and over the escape wheel, fourth wheel and third wheel on the train bridge - for a total of 22.

The 770 was used in round watches, rectangular watches and even asymmetrical watches throughout the 1950's and 1960's.  It was the last movement Hamilton made in the US when Hamilton ceased production in 1969.

A good example of the 770 in a round watch is the 1958 Newlin.  The Newlin was produced for four years.

The Newlin comes in a 10K yellow gold filled case with a choice of two different sterling silver dials... one with solid 14K gold numerals and the other with solid gold markers.

I've only come across one Newlin example... the one with the numeral dial.  It's a good sized watch, especially for a vintage model.  It's about 32mm wide, excluding the crown and 40mm lug tip to tip.

It's a very clean, elegant design and a sharp looking watch.  Don't you think so?

1964 M 59-3

Hamilton produced a number of M-series watches during the 1960's but I've only seen them in the catalogs for one year - 1964 and I'm not really sure what the background on the models is.  There are at least a dozen different M-series watches from 1964 in both manual winding and automatic movements.  One theory is they were specially marketed through a discount channel and were thus not affiliated with the regular Hamilton line sold through fine jewelers.

A good example of a 1964 model is the M 59-3.

The M 59-3 comes in a yellow rolled gold plate case with a stainless steel back.  As you can see in the photo below, it's hard to tell if this watch opens through the crystal or opens through the back.  A lot of period watches will open through the crystal as part of it's waterproof design.

Looking very closely at the side of the watch, I can see an ever so slight gap.  It wasn't big enough to get my usual case knife into so I pulled the crystal off just to see if it would come out.  I wouldn't, so I knew I was going to have to separate the bezel from the back without tearing anything up.

That's a job for a case opener like the one below.  This tool is great for snap-together cases that just don't want to separate (not the screw down type though).  It's spring loaded so what when you push the rounded red section toward the watch it compresses to a certain point - after which it snaps and seems to fire the point into whatever it's touching.  You have to be careful with it, of course, but this little tool packs a wallop-full of persuasion right where you need it.

With the bezel and crystal removed, you can see this watch dial is in excellent shape.

Inside the case back, you can see the M 59-3 runs a Swiss-made 686 movement.  This looks very similar to the 687 I just overhauled for the Thinline 4003 from a recent post.  However the 686 is a slightly thicker movement.

With it all disassembled, cleaned and set out to dry, the movement is ready to be lubricated and put back together.

A lot of Hamilton collectors stop their collections at 1969, after which Hamilton was no longer US-owned.  Some collectors limit their collections to US-made movements and exclude the Swiss-made movement-based watches.  The Swiss-made models were slightly less expensive than the US-made movement models.  But say what you will, you have to admit that the Swiss-made movements still run really well as evidenced by the photo below of my watch timer.  I could adjust the timing to be 0 sec/day but I like to leave it slightly fast to account for the energy in the mainspring releasing over time.

And here's the finished product, all cleaned up and ready for wrist time.

When I bought this watch in a local shop, it came on the bracelet shown.  I was hoping it would be the original bracelet.  I could very well be original to the watch - but it's not the one shown in the catalog.  It looks great with the watch though - so I'll leave the two together.

1962 Thinline 4003

Super-sleek designs became very fashionable in the 1960's.  Think about how the first generation Chevy Corvette evolved into the Stingray.... sweet!

Hamilton had all sorts of stylish watches in a variety of grades and some of the ultra-thin models were in the Thinline lineup.  A good example is the 1962 Thinline 4003.  The Thinline 4003 was only produced for two years.

In person, the Thinline 4003 is very cool looking watch.  I love the funky hour hand and baton minute hand!

I recently purchased a project watch and it was in great shape.  All it needed was a fresh overhaul and a strap.  It's interesting to see how the catalog's artistic representation has a slightly different crown than the real watch.  I know mine is correct because the case has stem tube that protrudes so the gasket in the crown can provide a waterproof seal.

Under the dial is a 17 jewel 687 movement.  The outside circumference of the watch movement is tapered or beveled to give it the ability to fit into a very thin case.

The dial is super nice too with a gold band going around the perimeter.  It gives the impression of a large reflective ring inside the crystal, but it's really a part of the dial.

The overhaul went great all the way up to my installing the screw into the mainspring barrel arbor - and then I broke it off!  %^&%*!!!  I was able to back the broken part out of the arbor - but now I need a new screw so that I can wind the watch.

I reassembled it and it looks fantastic - but, alas, it will just have to wait until I get a new screw for the ratchet wheel.

UPDATE

I happened to score another 4003... this one came in it's original box with it's original bracelet... sweet!