"A Tale of Two Winslows"

"It was the best of models, it was the worst of models…."

I'm not too proud to admit when I am wrong and one of the things that makes collecting Hamiltons fun and interesting is to occasionally get thrown a curve ball.  It doesn't happen too often, thanks to the amount of information that's available on the web.  I bet 15 years ago it was a LOT harder.

I think my favorite genre of Hamilton watches is the 1930's.  I must be an "old soul", as they say.  A lot happened with Hamilton during the years prior to WWII… new advances to materials and newly introduced movements enabled Hamilton to firmly establish itself as the pre-eminent American watch company.

I recently snagged a 1930's watch that is very uncommon - so uncommon it was set up as a ladies watch… which is sort of understandable once you see what it is.

It obviously needed some love and was missing it's crown but the price was right and you very rarely see a Winslow in the wild.  It was only produced for two years, 1935 and 1936 and it originally came on a cord strap.  The cord strap isn't very masculine so it wasn't a very popular model.

I received the watch and noticed it came in a three-piece case that was marked 10kt gold filled and didn't say Hamilton… un oh!  Then I looked more closely and the lugs on my project watch have a groove in the middle while the Winslow lugs are sort of T-shaped and flat in the middle.   Did I buy a franken?  Oh well - at least the 987E movement inside was working.



Then, while strolling through the catalogs I noticed the 1935 Ellsworth - that's an even more rare watch - only made one year.  Look familiar?  I thought so too - that's my project watch, only part of the lugs are missing.  They must have gotten damaged and have been lost to time.

Well, as fate would have it, I saw a beat up Winslow for sale and it was so ugly that no one else wanted it.   I bought it and thought I'd try my luck again.  As you can see, it's had a hard life thus far.

Now you can see side by side the differences between a Winslow (left) and an Ellsworth.

The back of my watch is engraved but it's so dirty and scratched up that I'll have to clean it in order to read it more clearly.

Unlike the Elsworth, the Winslow comes in a two-piece case.  It's very similar to another mid-1930's model, the 1935 Prescott.  In fact, the Winslow and Prescott share the same applied gold marker dial.  The Winslow also has and applied gold numeral dial (like the Ellsworth) and a two-tone gilt dial.

My watch has the original marker dial - you can tell it's original by the bright metal area in the seconds register.

The serial number on the 987F dates this watch to 1935.

The inside of this case back is marked Hamilton and 14K gold filled, just as it should be.

987's are notorious for having set mainsprings.  This one is about the size of a Quarter.  Anytime you purchase a project watch with a 987 you should expect to have install a new mainspring too.

While everything is in the ultrasonic, cleaning away, I will turn my attention to the case and taking off the ladies cord bracelet.  It's way too short for me.

Hopefully I'll be able to reuse the hardware when I install a new cord.  Now I can clean the case and replace the crystal.

Leather used for bolo ties is a great solution for replacing the bracelet on a watch like this.  This is 3mm braided cord in dark brown.

Turns out the crystal is the same one I used on the Piping Rock I recently restored.

Everything is cleaned and ready to be reassembled.  The dial cleaned up fairly well, considering what I started with.  It's a little worn in the center field area though.  I think I'll used the AGN dial from the Ellsworth instead.

The hardest part of this project so far is getting the 3mm cord through the 2.9mm hole in the bezel.

The newly serviced movement is running fine… I slowed it down a little from where it started out.  But the amplitude is good and the beat error is acceptable.

Everything goes back together and here's the almost finished watch.  I think it turned out really well!

Now that the back has been polished, I can see the engraving better.  It says Robert B Lee.

The buckle end on the ladies bracelet is just too small for this heavier cord so now I need to figure out how to secure it to my wrist.  I left the cord long enough I can actually tie it but I'd rather have a more practical solution.

If anyone has a good idea for how to secure the other ends of the bracelet, please let me know.


UPDATE:

A trip to the local "bead shop" resulted in some guidance on how to secure the clasp-end of the straps.  It involves some brass wire, two decorative grommets, and a lobster claw clasp.  There are other clasp styles but I wouldn't want to risk an 80 year old Hamilton dropping to the ground because the "pretty clasp" separated.

The grommets cover the cord ends and have a hole to pass trough the wire.

First, I measure the watch to set the length of the watch strap - 7" is my target, a standard length for bracelets.

Next, the two cord ends are bound together by wrapping them with the wire.

Once the ends are wrapped, I'll trim the leather flush and leave the remained of the wire pointing outward.

Both ends are now neatly wrapped.

The leather and wire will be further bound using special glue.  Apparently it's not something you want to sniff.  I can do about 10,000 more bracelets with this tube, I think.

Once the glue dried a good bit, the decorative grommet goes on top and dresses up the ends.

Now a loop is formed in both ends and the excess is wrapped around the loop.

One end gets a ring...

… and the other end get's the clasp.

And here's the finished product on my rather svelte wrist.  Unlike most wrist shots, I don't clutter mine up with excess arm hair - so it's always a pleasing shot… ha ha!

and here's the business-end of the clasp.  It took me a little while to get it on, to be honest, but I don't wear bracelets so I'm not really practiced at it either.

UPDATE to my UPDATE -

My lobster claw solution worked but it was really a bugger to fasten.  You need to use one hand to put the strap on your arm, a second hand to hold the strap steady and a third hand to open the lobster claw.  Unfortunately, I only have two hands, so I continued my search to find a better solution.

Ultimately I found a more appropriate clasp.  In order to use the clasp I had to switch to a slightly thinner cord.  Since this watch is rather feminine, the thinner cord isn't really a concern.

I think it looks just as nice and now it's much easier to fasten with just on hand.

1953 Signamatic - overhaul

Hamilton's first foray into automatics was in 1953 with the introduction of the Hamilton Illinois brand.  Up until 1953, all of Hamilton's movements were made in the USA but post-war Europe was creating a lot of high quality movements at low price points - so competition in the watch industry was tough.

Many American companies folded during this time of the last century, or they were acquired by other companies.  In fact, Hamilton survived a hostile takeover by rival Benrus!

Hamilton reintroduced the Illinois brand that it had acquired in the 1920's.  Conventional wisdom has it that they reintroduced the brand in order to protect their trademark, but I think it may also have been a way to test the market and introduce Swiss-made movements into the Hamilton line - albeit one step removed.  If it failed, it would be an Illinois-failure and the "true Hamilton" reputation would be unblemished.

What's ironic is the Swiss-grades were the first to introduce automatics, calendar complications and shock jewels into the Hamilton model line.  So despite the price point, the models introduced were highly innovative.

Well, it turns out that time is time, regardless of what continent made the movement.  The Illinois label was dropped in 1955 and Swiss movements were introduced into Hamilton's entry-level line up of watches in rolled gold plate and gold fill.

Regardless of case material, all automatics have Swiss-made movements.

One of the early Hamilton Illinois watches that has always intrigued me was the 1953 Signamatic.  I'm not exactly sure how you're supposed to say it though… is it Sig-na-matic or Sign-a-matic?  Regardless, it's an interesting model because it has an up-down indicator, aka wind indicator (as in wind a watch and not the wind blows).  So there's a little dial under the main dial to show how much it has been wound and thus, how much run time the watch should have left.

In 1954 a couple of other dial options were added and the Signamatic was broken into the Signamatic A and the Signamatic B.  Other than the dial options and bracelets, I'm not entirely sure what other differences there might be.  It does look like the case on the Signamatic B has slightly shorted lugs.

As you can see, the Signamatic comes in a stainless steel case with luminous hands and luminous dots applied to the hour markers.  Under the dial is an ETA 1256 variant - set up with the additional parts needed to drive the wind indicator.

These watches tend to sell above my usual project watch target price.  Up until very recently, I've never successfully snagged one.   But I finally got lucky and got one that arrived non running with a missing crystal - which is odd since it was listed as running and with a crystal.  Go figure.

The case back is screwed on - normally they're not too hard to get back off.  Notice the 9516 number.  I believe this is the model number of the watch as other Illinois automatics have similar numbers like 9514 and 9515.

Here's the ETA 1256 - this is a common movement from the 1950's and you'll see it in a lot of other brands.  At the time, ETA was an "ebauche" maker - and made partially assembled movements in a variety of grades and other companies could complete them, add their logos, etc.

The stem and two case screws hold the movement in place - plus, in my case, some crystal cement - which I had to bust loose in order to get the movement out.  Once the movement is out, I can get to work removing the hands and dial - so I can finally see what makes the wind indicator tick - if you pardon the pun.

Well - here you have it.  There's a tiny dial over the hour wheel and an extra spacer plate to create the space needed for the extra parts.  The geared wheel at the top is on the lengthened mainspring arbor - which passes through the main plate.

The dial just lifts right off.

And it has teeth on the back - note the teeth are missing in a little section.  This allows the indictor to reach 40 and then stay there, even though the mainspring may continue to be wound, it slips inside the barrel so 40 is as high as it goes… unless you have the Spinal Tap version that goes to 41. (ha ha!)

With the wind indicator out of the way, it's starting to look familiar - but I need to remove the spacer plate next.

Notice it has a spring wire.  I suspect it helps keep the dial indicator in place so it's properly driven by the other gears and stays at 40 when it reaches the maximum wind tension.

Getting closer to looking like a typical movement now.  Next to come off are the wheels on top of the mainspring barrel area.  They have to come off to get to the hour wheel in the center.

There are actually three sets of gears stacked in that assembly.

There's one more gear in the upper left to take out and then all that is left are the parts that any traditional movement will have on the dial side of the main plate.

The post on the second hand came off the hand when I removed it.  So I need to take the post off and hopefully not lose it before I re-attach it to the second hand.  The post is not supposed to come off the hand - but it does happen occasionally.

With the front clear of parts, I can turn my attention to the back.  The first thing off is the rotor assembly.  Three screws hold it in place.

The rotor assembly has a series of gears to transmit the motion of the rotating pendulum to the winding wheel on the barrel bridge.

With the rotor out of the way, this looks like an average ETA manual winding movement now.

With the bridges out of the way, you can see that there's an extra gear under (or on top of) the barrel that brings the motion of the mainspring arbor to the front of the main plate (via the gears we already removed).

Wow - this is a lot of parts.  I have to admit I was a little concerned that I would forget where everything is supposed to go.  That's one reason why I took so many pictures.

Everything gets cleaned and oiled like you've seen me do before and the now working movement goes onto the timer.  It's running pretty well. The "noise" in the middle under 2.7ms is me fussing with the movement holder.

I had to refer to my photos a couple of times but I managed to get everything back together without any extra parts left over.

I relumed the hands and even-numbered hour markers, installed a fresh crystal and a nice lizard strap and this watch is ready for wrist time.