A Ghost of Christmas Past

I woke up this morning and caught "A Christmas Carol" on TV.  Every Advent I try especially hard to  get in the Christmas spirit and "A Christmas Carol" is a great way to do it.  One of the things I like about Hamiltons is they were often given as Christmas presents.  Christmas watches are always appealing to me and I will usually pursue one when it's in good shape and in need of a little TLC.

After a good inoculation of Christmas spirit, I thought I'd share with you a Christmas Hamilton.  This one is from 1937 and it's a Clark... one of my favorite models too.

The Clark was introduced in 1936 and made through 1938 with a 14K gold filled case.  If you see one in a 10K gold filled case, it's a different model, the 1940 Yorktowne

The Clark is an easy watch to find but a hard watch to find in nice shape, as it's especially prone to wear through on the edges of the case back and tops of the lugs.  Mine has a hint of wear to the lower right lug but is otherwise in fine shape.

This watch was given to Edward from Gertrude on Christmas in 1937.  This was a very fine gift for the tale-end of the Great Depression and I imagine Gertrude was very excited to give it to Edward.  I wonder what became of them...?  One thing is for sure, this watch was initially given with love.

Gold filled models in the 1930's with a 14/0 movement received the 17 jewel 980.  There are actually three different variations of the 980 over the 1930's.  The first ones had 980 stamped on the balance cock.  This is the second variation, with the 980 on the train bridge.  I'll explain another difference later in this post.

While everything is being cleaned, I'll prep a new glass crystal to replace the worn plastic one in the watch now.

Ah... spic and span and ready for reassembly.

There are two moments of relief when reassembling a 980 or 982 movement.  The first is when you get the three-wheeled train bridge to seat properly and the other is when you get the balance seated and it comes back to life.  Now it's off to the timer.

The watch is running a wee-bit fast so I'll slow it down with the regulator. The amplitude is over 200, which is good, and the beat error is on the high side of acceptable.  These old 980's and 982's can be finicky... not as much as the pre-Elinvar 987's but almost as much.   Attempting the reduce the beat error means taking on the risk of goofing it up and, personally, I don't think "the juice is worth the squeeze".

A little tweaking brings the beat rate down a bit and the beat error too.  Notice how the two lines have approached horizontal (just under the 244).

Here's a shot of the dial-side of the movement and now you can see the next indicator of a second generation of the 980... the split set bridge.  This variation has two parts, one covers the setting wheel and minute wheel and the other holds the set level detent.  On the third (and later) variation, this is all one piece.  Also, note the balance cap jewel has one screw... later it has two screws.

Before the movement goes back into the case, I'll add my mark to the dozen or so other watchmakers' marks inside the case back.  Edward took good care of this watch and had it serviced regularly.

The Clark has a narrow 14mm lug width and that's a tough size to get in a manly strap.  I happened to have an old Speidel expansion bracelet that is a perfect fit and looks pretty good, I think.  This is a nice looking watch, suitable for a man or a woman by today's standards.

I wish all my Hamilton Chronicles fans and fellow collectors a holy and merry Christmas, whether you celebrate the holiday or not, I hope you have a nice week and a joy-filled New Year.  

May God bless us, everyone.

1955 Amherst - AGN dial

I try to only create new posts for new models that I haven't shown before.  I've had a bit of a dry spell recently and I was excited to land a watch I hadn't seen.  I thought it looked familiar, but there are a number of square models from the 1950's with dog ear lugs and this one was unusual.

Well, I was stumped when it arrived and not really sure what it was.  The applied gold numeral dial didn't seem quite right.  When I looked closely I thought maybe I had gotten a "pig in the poke", as the dial looked just like a Dewitt dial.



The watch uses an 8/0 size 730 movement which is a 2nd generation version of the 747 movement used in the Dewitt.  I figured, "Oh well, you win some and you lose some".

I wondered, if the dial was a Dewitt dial, then what is the case?  The best I could come up with was a 1955 Amherst which I did on the blog in May 2014.

Then I dug a little deeper and found that the Amherst actually had an applied gold numeral dial starting in 1957... mystery solved.

I further went on to re-learn that the Amherst was also available in a white gold filled case - which I have never personally seen.  In fact, I've only ever come across the marker-version of the Amherst so I thought I'd post the AGN version separately, as it was "new" to me.

Anyway, my project watch came with a presentation on the case back for 25 years of service in 1961.

The crystal in the project watch was a thick domed plastic version and distorted the dial.  With the crystal out of the way you can see the dial is very Dewitt-like.  If I still had a Dewitt I would see if it was the same... but I don't so it will have to remain an untested hypothesis.

Forgive my grungy finger tips.  The weather was very nice today so I painted some light fixtures outside and the paint on my hands wouldn't come fully off.

The 730 movement is largely identical to the 747 with the exception of the balance jeweling.  I like the 730 and the 747, they are simple and robust movements so they are easy to learn how to disassemble and reassemble a watch.

While the movement is in the ultrasonic, I'll prep a new glass crystal for the bezel.

Everything is nice and sparkly.  Time for reassembly.

The now-running movement goes onto the timer to see how it's performing.

Nothing too concerning about this movement's performance.

Everything goes back into the case and a fresh lizard strap completes the restoration.  I think the AGN dial makes a dramatically differently statement than the marker dial.  It looks like a totally different model and maybe a little older than it is.  Perhaps it's styling was too old fashioned and it was less popular.  That would explain why this is a much less common version.

1953 Robert

It's been a while since I've update my blog.  That's for a couple of reasons... first, I've been super busy with other stuff and second, I haven't had much luck finding watches that I haven't already posted about.

I guess after 450 models, it might get a little harder to post as often.  Don't worry though, there were over 1,000 different models made before 1969, so I have plenty more to find.  It's just going to get a little harder since I've done the most common ones already.

One of my recent finds is a 1953 Robert.  It was made for two years.

The Robert was part of a select group of models introduced in the 1950's that were paired with ladies models.  The Robert's mate was the Roberta and they make a great his & hers set.

The Robert and the Roberta each came in solid 14K gold cases and you'll find them in white or yellow gold.  They also came with black or a two tone silver butler finished dial.  So if you like to collect al variants, there are four different Roberts to choose from.

Tucked inside a Robert is a 19 jewel 12/0 sized 754 movement.  The 754 was used only in solid gold cases.  14K gold filled cased models would get the 19 jewel 753 and the 10K gold filled models received the 17 jewel 752.

Like most projects I receive, my Robert was in pretty rough shape.  It would tick though - so that was a good sign.

Without the beat up crystal in the way, you can see the dial is dirty but looks promising.  It might just clean up, you never know.

The movement has a frosted appearance.  That's a clear sign that it hasn't been cleaned in a long time.  Notice the color of the winding and ratchet wheels - they should be bright and shiny.

You have a 50:50 chance of being able to identify a 1950's watch using the case back.  Sometimes the model name is inside and sometimes it's not.  Sometimes it's even wrong... for example, the K-455 often says Transcontinental A inside.  But that's a different post.

You can see ROBERT is stamped inside this case back, along with the requisite Hamilton Watch Co Lancaster PA.  If you don't see Hamilton Watch Co (etc) inside the case back, it's likely not an original model... that's good to know when you're looking at platinum "top hat" models with 17 jewel 980 movement.

One thing you don't see inside this case back are any watchmaker's marks.  I wonder if this watch has ever been cleaned?

The dial-side of the main plate shows evidence of a little water getting inside.  That should clean up okay though.

I happened to have a decent dial that looks to be a good candidate if the cleaning process goes awry.  Actually, while writing this post I realized the seconds register isn't the same.  I think the dial in the baggie is maybe for a Gordon?

A new glass crystal will be a nice improvement over the beat up version that came with the watch.

Everything is cleaned, dried and ready to be reassembled with fresh lubricants.

The first thing to go back in is the mainspring, with a little grease to keep it well lubricated.

The reassembled watch is now running nicely.  After doing this for about 5 years I've started to get a sense for how well a watch is running just by looking at it.  Well, I can see if it's not running well, lets just say it that way.  This one is looking good but only the watch timer can really say for sure.

Running nicely, as I suspected.  Just a smidgen slow but that's easily corrected.

Out of curiosity I looked at the back of the dials too.  The one on the right is the correct model.  Notice the dial feet are in differently locations.  The one on the left is for a 14/0 sized movement like the 982.

The dial and hands go on and then everything is tucked safely back in the freshly polished case.  The new crystal and a nice croc strap complete the restoration.  The dial cleaned up pretty well - it's not perfect but it's better than my unforgiving camera lets on.  Definitely an improvement over what I started with - don't you think?

UPDATE:  Jan 19. 2016

Here's a photo of the same watch with a refinished dial.  I think it looks much better.  It's hard to get one of these two tone dials to be perfect as there is a lot going on with the two colors, various lines and hour markers.  This one looks pretty sharp though, note how the lines are evenly spaced around the markers.