Hamilton Pocket Watches
My first pocket watch purchase was a very nice Hamilton 992.
I have a whole section devoted to the 992 and its kin:
Hamilton Watch Company
The Hamilton Watch company was located in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and made watches
from 1892 to 1969. It bought the Illinois Watch Company in 1927.
Here is a
chart of grades by serial number
Ball Hamilton
I see some pocket watches marked ast "Ball Hamilton, Chicago".
It seems that the Hamilton Watch company made watches for Ball.
One model, the "Ball Cleveland Rail Road" had a production of about 27,600
and is nearly identical to the 992B. They had a minute dial that was not
a Montgomery and were made from 1940's through the 1960's.
There is also an 18-size with 999 full plate movement, which is interesting.
I have also seen a 999B, which is not a full plate movement and very nice.
It is said that Ball Watch company "defined" the railroad watch and that
the expression "being on the ball" comes from the company name.
There is the Ball "Official Standard" pocket watch.
The railroad watch standard was established when trains ran on single tracks
and precise time keeping would prevent collisions.
In keeping with "closing the gate after the goats got out",
the standards were put in place after some horrific head on collision.
This collsion took place in Kipton, Ohio in 1891 and killed 11 people.
The cause of the crash was a 4 minute error.
The 1891 railroad watch standard stipulated:
- American Made
- 16 0r 18 Size
- 17 Jewel Movement (or more)
- Temperature Compensated
- Adjusted to 5 Positions (Face Up, Face Down, Crown Up, Crown Down, and Sideways)
- Lever Set (avoids accidental reset of time)
- +/- 30 Seconds Accuracy a Week
- Must have:
- Open Face
- Each Minute Delineated Around Face
- Plain White (or Silver?) Dial
- Winding Stem at 12:00 O'Clock
- Double Rollers
- Patented Regulator
- Steel Escape Wheel
- Black Arabic Numbers
This changed in 1978 in response to the advent of the Quartz movement.
The new standard simply stated that each employee must have a pocket or
wrist watch accurate to +/- 30 seconds in any 24 hour period.
There is a list of approved and certified watches.
See: this link.
Hamiltons in Bunn Special cases
I have seen some 992B movements in cases labelled "Bunn Special".
Apparently Hamilton absorbed Illinois watch company at some point and the
speculation is that they were using Illiniois cases.
Either that or the watch movement was simply recased at some point
in an Illinois case.
Have any comments? Questions?
Drop me a line!
Tom's notes / tom@mmto.org