1959 Chadwick

In my last post I talked about "awards division" watches and how they often were slightly modified versions of obsolete models.  This time I have another example to show you.

In 1959 Hamilton introduced the Chadwick, part of the Medallion line.  It's easily identified by the unique shape of the delicate lugs.  It was produced for four years.

In 1960 an alternative all-numerals dial was also offered.

The Medallion line offered the 770 movement and solid gold cases.  It harkened back to the days when the solid gold models got the 982M movement... the M was for medallion.  The 770 was in other lines too though too.

The Chadwick had a sterling silver dial and solid 14K numerals and markers.

I recently landed a Chadwick but it's an awards watch so it's dial is a slight variation, it has two different styles of markers in addition to numerals at 12 and 6.  But you can tell it's a Chadwick case from the shape of the lugs.  Notice also that it says "Masterpiece" on the dial - a sure sign that it's an awards watch.

This one is in pretty good shape, just the crystal is a little beat up, otherwise it's very nice.

This watch was a service award for 25 years of service to GM in 1965.

The Chadwick is a front-loader, as you can tell from the female portion of the two-piece stem in the  movement.

The case has a very long stem tube to reach into the 12/0 size movement.  There's also a metal movement ring inside to support the squarish movement inside the round case.

Everything is thoroughly cleaned and dried.

I like working on the shock jeweled Hamiltons.  Its very easy to clean the balance jewels because all you have to do is squeeze the sides of the shock springs to release the jewels.  The now-running movement is off to the timer.

Rats... it's running with brisk amplitude but the beat error is a little too high.  3.0ms is usually my threshold.  It's a pain to adjust it but I've made it this far... might as well go the distance.

Adjusting the beat error often means guessing which way to move the hairspring collet.  You have a 50% chance of being right.  As the old knight in "Indiana Jones, the Last Crusade" said, "I chose wisely", and reduced the error to a respectable 1.3ms.  Notice how more closely the two lines are now.  The closer to zero the beat error, the closer the lines get to each other.  Ideally they should be right on top of each other.

A new crystal will make this 1965 model look like a 2016 model.

A fresh teju lizard strap completes the restoration.  This turned out to be a beautiful watch!

1958 Courtney - sort of

In the 1950's and '60's Hamilton had a special division called the Awards Division.  This group marketed watches to companies that wanted to provide service awards or watches for presentation.  Most companies wanted watches that could not be found in your local jewelry store so recipients wouldn't find their award available for sale.  To satisfy this need, Hamilton would sometimes use cases from obsolete models and outfit them with slightly different dials.

Awards watches are an interesting niche in collecting.  You can usually spot an awards watch because they are specially engraved on the back in a consistent manner, regardless of the company.  Eventually awards watches got "masterpiece" on the dial too.  So if you see a watch with "masterpiece" on the dial, it's almost certain to be an awards watch, even though it may look like a regular model too.

A good example is the 1958 Courtney.  The Courtney was produced for three years.

In 1959 the Courtney was also offered with a diamond dial.  Even though it was part of the "masterpiece" line, it didn't have "masterpiece" written on the dial.   So "masterpiece" written on the dial, is the clue that it's an awards watch.

The Courtney came in a solid 14K gold case, in either white or yellow.  The sterling silver dial had solid 14K gold numerals and markers.  When it was offered in white gold, the markers were rhodium plated 14K gold so they looked white (silver).

Inside the Courtney was the 12/0 sized 770 movement.

As you might suspect from the title of this post, I recently received a Courtney, of sort.  As you can see from the photo, it's got a different dial than you'd expect.  There are no numerals, the 12 marker is different and there's no marker under the seconds register.   It also says "WE" on the dial... which is certainly unusual.

The case back is engraved with a presentation in classic Awards Division form and font from 1969 - 8 years after the Courtney was discontinued.  WE is short of Western Electric and this watch recognized 40 years of service.  The recipient started working for Western Electric in 1929... imagine that.  A little googling revealed, best guess anyway, that the recipient was a lineman in the telephone industry and served in the Army during WWII as a warrant officer.

Like the original Courtney, this watch also uses a 770 movement. This movement is interesting though.  By the end of the 1960's, the 770 received a glucydur balance.  This special type of balance design did not have any screws or weights attached.  It was machine-balanced when it was originally manufactured.  What's interesting is that Hamilton used this balance without changing the model number of the balance.  Other grades, like the 730 and 735, became the 731 and 736 when they got the glucydur balance.

This particular movement is rather hazy, so it's definitely due for a trip to the spa.

Everything is completely disassembled before being cleaned and dried.

Here's a close up of the glucydur balance.  You can see how small sections of material were removed to poise the balance when it was originally assembled.

The reassembled movement goes onto the timer and it's running just fine.  The beat error is on the high side of acceptable.  It's risky to adjust it with little to be gained by attempting so I'll leave it as is.  I'll also leave it running a smidgen fast and recheck it after a while.

There are two different height cannon pinion options for 770s, depending on style of the dial.  Sometimes when the longer setup is called for, a spacer plate is used under the dial.

The finished watch looks great, much better than my "after photo" makes it look out to be.  The photo isn't bad but the watch is much nicer in person.

1955 Mystery Automatic K-2...something

One of the things I appreciate with vintage Hamiltons is you usually don't have to worry about "counterfeit" models.  That said, you do have to be mindful of recased movements or in some situations "frankens", or watches that are assembled from parts - as in Frankenstein.   Every collector has bought a franken at one point or another.

I recently had someone contact me regarding what they believed was a K-100 that would wind manually but not automatically.  Being part of the 100 line, it would have a solid 18K gold case and there are not a lot of them out there.  So I agreed to take it on.

The K-100 was introduced in 1955 and produced for three years.  In addition to the 18K case, it also has moveable lug covers that span between the lugs.

The watch that I received was not a K-100 and I'm not really sure what it is, to be honest.

If you look closely at the dial, it appears to be very close to a K-100 dial, but it doesn't have lines going through the hour markers and the numbers don't look like a perfect match.  Check out the shape of the 8s, for example.

The case isn't a good match either.  The lugs don't appear to be even close to the K-100s, even if the lug covers were missing.

The case back has no markings whatsoever.  It looks like its been overly polished so perhaps the original markings were polished away?

Well, the inside of the case back has at least a dozen watchmaker's marks inside from past overhauls.  It's marked "Hamilton W. Co Lancaster PA" - so that's a good sign that it's a legitimate model.  If it didn't say that I would declare this watch to be a franken, but I can't go there yet.  I don't recognize the case maker's mark... let me know if you do.

Moving on to the back, the movement looks pretty dirty so I wouldn't say this watch was cleaned any time in the recent past.  I expected to see the rotor had come loose (explaining the lack of winding) but it's attached.

Well, if the font of "AUTOMATIC" on the front of the dial wasn't a good clue, the markings on the back of the dial are a clear indicator that this dial has been redone at least once.  Maybe it was a K-100 dial originally - but I'm still not sure based on the shape of the numbers.

This is something you don't see every day... the main plate has been cleaned clear of it's nickel plating.  It should be an even silver color but now it looks like brass.

With the barrel bridge and train bridge out of the way, you can see the other side of the main plate is bare as well.  I have a spare main plate from a parts movement - so I'll just swap main plates once I get all of the other parts out.

I found the issue with the automatic winding.  The bushings for the transmission wheels are oval.  My tweezers are pointed at one, there is another just to the upper right.  Looks like someone in the past put a jewel in one of the bushings for the reversing wheels, down by where it says "Swiss Unadjusted".  This watch has had a LOT of wear and this underscores why it's important to regularly clean and oil mechanical movements.

Everything is cleaned and ready to be reassembled.

The train bridge goes on to cover the four wheels.  The nickel plated main plate looks much better than the stripped brass plate, don't you think?

The movement is now running, so it's off to the timer.

Something is going on with the balance... a little too much noise so I'll reclean the hairspring.

There, that's much better.  Now to just slow it down a little by tweaking the regulator.

Slowly the two lines approach horizontal.

Now I will flip the movement over and put all the setting parts back on before reinstalling the dial.

Now I can put a new rotor carrier on the back of the movement.  This one has better bushings so the oscillating weight will actually wind the watch.

 

The crystal that came with the watch was a little beat up but it was also too small and rotating in the bezel.

 

Well, here's the finished watch.  The over polishing of the back makes me think perhaps the front was over polished too - so maybe the lugs should be less rounded?  There are only five 14K K-2XX models out there and this case does not match any of them.  So this is an odd watch... let me know if you think you know what it is.

UPDATE:  The plot thickens... I had someone contact me regarding restoring a family piece that looked just like this watch - although it was equally beat up.  I agreed to take it on, out of curiosity to see it, plus it's a Christmas watch - which are very hard to resist.

The case is the same as my project watch above.  Sort of makes you wonder where the hands went, doesn't it?   Notice the dial is very similar, although it's interesting to note that the markers are pointed outward like the K-100s.  My project watch above has them pointed inward, but that dial was also refinished so they probably put them back on backwards.

The case back is very worn and there's a faint engraving that says "To Wylie from Mother 12-25-56".

I'm going to guess that it's been a few decades since this watch last saw a watchmaker.  The stem and movement ring are a bit rusty so a little water definitely got inside at some point.  The movement still ticks though - so that's a good sign.

The inside of the case back is just like my other project watch although the serial numbers are no where near each other so there must have been more than one lot of cases ordered.

The movement is now bright and shiny.  I replaced the crown and installed a new, rust-free stem.

With some replacement hands, a new crystal and a nice strap, the watch is back in nice running condition.  You can just make out a few of the lines extending in from the hour markers (see the 11 , 9 and 7 markers) so although this dial was refinished at some point, there's still a little evidence of what it once looked like.

A very light polish of the case back makes the engraving a little more clear.  Wylie is still a little too worn to be legible but the rest is legible.