1954 Morton

The mid-1950's was an exciting time for Hamilton - all sorts of funky designs were created and new movements where being introduced throughout the decade.  It seemed like if you didn't like the Hamilton line-up all you had to do was wait a year and dozens of new watches would be revealed.  The 1950's saw the introduction of 12/0 sized 752, 753, 754 and later the 770 manual wind movements.  It also saw the introduction of myriad automatic movements from various Swiss manufacturers.  The Illinois brand was reintroduced (briefly).  Swiss manual wind movements were added to the entry level model line up.  And finally, the Electric movement was introduced to the world.

One of the watches launched in the 1950's was the 1954 Morton.  It would be produced for four years.

Originally the Morton was introduced with the 19 jewel, 12/0 sized 753 movement.  When the 22 jewell 770 replaced the 753 in 1955, the Morton was outfitted with the 770.  It's interesting that despite the movement change, the Morton didn't become a Morton B.  But I guess since the case and dial technically are unchanged, the Morton wasn't really altered that much.

The case is 10K gold filled with a gold filled back.  The sterling silver butler-finished dial has solid 18K gold numerals and markers.

Although other watches were offered on metal bracelets, the Morton appears to have only come on a strap.

I recently received a Morton project watch.  It's a nice example - although well used.

The case back is rather pitted as well as scratched up.  I'm not sure what causes pitting on case backs.  I see it occasionally but not too often.  I know there are people who have a sensitivity to gold and I wonder if certain people's chemistry can affect gold.  Or maybe there's an issue with the base metal beneath the filled gold layer.  The scratches are definitely man-made.

Here's a shot of the 753 movement.  It's remarkably clean although even a clean-looking watch will leave a surprisingly murky cloud in the cleaning solution after a bath in the ultrasonic.  The serial number (82380F) dates the watch to 1954 so this is clearly a first-year Morton.  In about 1955 Hamilton stopped putting serial numbers on movements... so you won't see a 770 with a serial number.

If you look really closely you can see the watch is missing the head on the "hairspring stud" - just to the right of the balance jewel where the blue arrow is pointing.  The hairspring stud secures the hairspring to the balance cock - and fixes the position of the hairspring so the balance can rotate back and forth.  You need to be able to unscrew the screw to remove the balance from the balance cock - but this one is permanently stuck in place since there's no head to engage with a screw driver.  But, that will only be a problem when it becomes a problem and right now it's fine.

You can see below the case back is engraved with the model name.  This was done a lot in the 1950's.  Unlike other manufactures who used case numbers to identify models (to order parts) - Hamilton used model names.  The serial numbers inside the case backs rarely provide meaningful information.

Everything was cleaned up, lubricated and timed.  The dial has an interesting tan-toned patina developing on it. Although the dial is original, I find that cleaning a dial like this usually makes it look worse before making it look better.  It's certainly not bad enough to justify getting the dial redone - so the risk of ruining an otherwise nice dial is too great.  Sometimes it's best to just let sleeping dogs lie.

The Morton takes a 19mm strap and the biggest I have is 18mm.  A proper fitting strap will look much better.

1933 Putnam

I think some of my favorite models are the mid-1930's models.  The watches were larger and they featured all sorts of cool art deco-inspired aesthetics like tiered details, parallel lines, curves... you name it.

To me, one of the best examples of this classic 1930's look is the 1933 Putnam.  It was produced through 1935.

The Putnam is a very popular model and it's extremely hard to find in really nice shape.  It came in a gold filled case, either in yellow or white, and it almost always shows some wear through to the many corners of the bezel or along the sides of the flat rear cover.  The sides are stepped with slightly curving ledges that also feature rounded details from the side.  I always think of the Empire State Building when I think of Art Deco details like this.

Two dials were available, an applied gold numeral dial (called a raised gold figure dial at the time) or a luminous dial.  The RGN dial is complemented with gild hands in the "spade" style.

Tucked inside will most likely be a 17 jewel 6/0 sized 987F movement.  A 1935 example might have the 987E - with the E standing for Elinvar... the elastically invariable hairspring that Hamilton introduced around that time.

I've wanted a Putnam for "many moons" as my distant Cherokee-ancestors might have said.  They always sell well above my usual bid range unless they have so much case wear that they would cost a fortune to restore.

However, as fate would have it I was able to purchase a great example of a very generous fellow collector at a price we both could live with.

As you can see in the shots below, this RGF-dialed example is in excellent condition.  The dial is a refinish but it looks great.  The case is superb.  All it really needed was a spa treatment in the ultrasonic and a fresh mainspring.

My collection now has a new personal favorite!

1957 Paxton

In the early 1950's Hamilton re-introduced the Illinois brand that they owned from purchasing the Illinois Watch Company in the 1920's.  The new Hamilton Illinois branded watches featured Swiss-made movements of various ilk.  The reintroduction only lasted a few years - at which point Hamilton just used Swiss-movements simply branded as Hamilton.  However, they still had a lot of leftover Illinois-branded movements and they used them in a variety of models with "-B" designations.

One example is the Paxton.  In 1956 it was the Paxton B.   I posted on the B model in March... You can see it here. The non-B Paxton was introduced the following year and made for two years.

1956 Paxton B advertisement

1957 Paxton ad

Now, not all "-B" designated watches involve Illinois watches.  The designation was used whenever there was a formal movement change when the model continued to be produced.  But in the 1956 /57 timeframe my personal observation thus far is that most of the B models had Illinois branded movements and the non-B models had Hamilton branded movements - and the movement makers might be different.  For example the Illinois model might be an ETA movement while the Hamilton-branded movement an A Schild.

Anyway - the two models are identical from the outside and come in a 10K rolled gold plated case with a stainless steel back.

I just picked up a Paxton project watch.  As received it was very dirty and the crystal needed to be buffed - which I did prior to taking the shot below.

Inside you will find an A Schild 1200 movement, known in Hamilton parlance as a 17 jewel 673 movement.  This one was very dirty but would run - which was a good sign that all it needed was a cleaning.  You can say what you want about the Swiss movements Hamilton used... they're not the same quality as the US-made movements - but they are still very robust movements in my opinion.  And they are very easy to work on (excluding the Buren micro-rotors - I'm not a fan of those).

This watch had a broken "set lever spring", also know as a "set bridge".  It serves as a detent and holds the stem out or in when setting the time or winding.  As you can see, the one on the right is the broken one - I happened to have a spare.

And here's the finished product, all cleaned up and on a nice croc-grain leather strap.  The white finished dial has an interesting patina forming around the circumference and the numbers.  I might have been able to clean it off but I kind of liked it's authenticity and didn't want to risk losing the crisp printing in the process.  A dial is only original once, you know.