1980's LL Bean 9931 Field Watch

I remember back in the 1980s, in the stone ages before the internet, shopping online meant shopping via catalogs.  You would peruse a booklet of items and then had call to place an order, or mail an order form.  How barbaric!

LL Bean was, and still is, one of the prominent sellers that marketed it's products in that channel.  The only thing that's different today is you can order or view products online as well.  However, the mailman still brings catalogs to help customers select comfy and cozy items for you and your loved ones.

I also remember seeing LL Bean's field watches listed in the catalogs, but to be honest, they were too rich for likes of a poor college student like me.  I had no idea what the Hamilton Watch Co was at the time but it was important enough that it was listed in the LL Bean advertisements of the time.

The watches offered evolved over time.  Initially they were largely based on the military models like the GG-W-113.  Eventually automatics, calendar complications and dive-like cases were introduced.

The topic of LL Bean field watches brings up another interesting topic that I don't talk much about - quartz movements.  

A watch, or clock, has to have several attributes in order to work.  First, it needs a power source... typically a spring but in situations like grandfather clocks, it could be the potential energy of a hanging weight on a chain.  Next, it needs a mechanism, or series of gears to transfer the power.  Third, it needs a way to display the passage of time in a meaningful manner.  Finally, it needs a way to accurately and consistently meter the flow of power.   Even a sand filled hour glass has these four elements... the power source is the effect of gravity on the elevated sand.  The shape of the glass dispenses the sand to the empty lower chamber.  The lower chamber could have lines to display how much sand has passed through.  Lastly, the size of the opening between the chambers, relative to the size of the sand, meters the rate the sand passes through... voila - a clock.

Mechanical watches use a spring as the power source.  The various wheels (gears) transmit the power.  The dial and hands show elapsed time.  Lastly, the escapement and balance meters the flow of power.  As the watch unwinds the force of the spring can change but the design of the balance accommodates the change in power.

A battery is the source of power in a quartz watch.  The battery provides an electric current to a tuning-fork-shaped quartz crystal that causes it to vibrate at a very high frequency.  The vibrations are converted into a single electrical pulse every second, and a series of gears moves the watch hands.  You can spot a quartz watch by how the second hand moves... it clicks second to second.  It's very different from a mechanical movement where the second hands indexes several small increments from second to second.

When it comes to accuracy and precision, nothing beats a quartz watch.  The quartz crystal vibrates over 30,000 times per second, while the typical mechanical watch ticks between 5 and 10 times per second.

So why aren't quartz watches more popular?

I think the biggest reason is quartz watches weren't a thing until the 1970s and most Hamilton collectors prefer older watches prior to 1969.

Another reason is quartz movements can be very inexpensive and are often meant to be disposable.  The level of craftsmanship required is unimpressive.  The complexity and precision of a mechanical watch receives more respect.

Other factors could include the second hand indexing once a second is visually less appealing than the smooth micro-movements of a mechanical watch.  Similarly, with a quartz watch you don't hear the pleasing tick, tick, tick of a mechanical watch.  Instead all you hear, if anything, is a click once per second.

Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and not all collectors turn up their noses at quartz watches.

I've restored lots of LL Bean field watches, especially the military looking versions.  I recently was asked if I could do another and when it arrived I realized it was a quartz version.  This is the watch offered in the catalog snip above (third from the left).  It has a mineral glass crystal that looks frosted over.  It's not working though, maybe it just needs a battery?

The case is marked 9931 and unscrews with a typical case opener.

To be completely honest, I don't work on quartz movements.  Sometimes they are serviceable but it's not a genre of watchmaking that interests me.  Looking closely at the circuitry, I see a lot of corrosion.

I contacted the owner and told them, "I'm sorry, I don't work on quartz movements" and that I'd send him back the watch.  

One of my personality traits is "I ain't no quitter" and I felt bad that I couldn't do something.  So I investigated just replacing the movement.  The caliber is stamped next to the battery, it's an ESA 955.114.

Turns out, I was able to find a new old stock movement online.  So I rolled the dice the decided to see if I could resurrect this watch after all.

The first step is to remove the crown and stem.  The movement has a little arrow that points to the set lever release.  My tweezers are pointing to it and I'll depress the button and pull the crown out.

With the movement and dial removed from the case, the next step is pull the dial.  There are two J-shaped clamps that secure the dial feet.  I just rotate the two opposing clamps and lift the dial off. 

In this shot you can see the two clamps rotated out.  Notice all the corrosion under where the battery was.  I doubt this movement is serviceable but the cost of servicing it is higher than the cost of replacing it - assuming you can find another movement.

This is not the first quartz movement I've replaced.  I don't do it often but I have learned a thing or two.  For example, the came caliber could have a different day wheel.  It could have or not have a second hand.  So you have to be careful selecting a replacement movement to make sure everything matches.

A new battery is definitely called for.  The SR920 in the old movement is replaceable with a 371/370 battery.

Now I can install the dial and advance the time until the date changes - now it's midnight and I can install the hands.

The new battery is installed so hopefully I'll see the second hand move.

Success - the watch is ticking once per second.  Now I can put it back in the case.

Everything is back in the case and the previous stem and crown in installed.

I replaced the mineral crystal with a new acrylic crystal and the completed watch looks like it's brand new.  A purist might prefer a glass crystal but this isn't a museum piece and another crystal could always be installed later.  Now it's at least functional and I was able to bring it back to life.

What do you think?

1958 Prentice

I've documented over 80% of the men's mechanical models that Hamilton produced.  I'll probably never get to 100% because some of them are super rare and / or super expensive.  That's understandable, all forms of collecting have their "white whales". 

However, there are still quite a few more garden variety models to be found.  One to check of the list is the 1958 Prentice.  It was produced for four years.  In 1958 and 1959 it was offered in a 10K yellow GRP case with a stainless back.  The dial featured embossed numerals and markers.

In 1960 and 1961, the dial was changed to feature solid 14K gold numerals and dots but at the same price point.  This is a fun and interesting aspect to identifying models - sometimes the dial changes depending on the year.

Tucked within the case you will find an 8/0 size 730 movement, regardless of the model year.

My project watch is a 1960 or 1961version based on the dial.  It's a little beat up and dirty but I think it will cleanup well.

The flat stainless steel back is unremarkable other than it doesn't show the typical wear through that a RGP or gold filled case back would have.  Sometimes case backs can be worn all the way through to a hole - but not stainless steel.

The glass crystal is very scratched and hard to see through.  A replacement will make a huge improvement.

The dial has a dusty looking patina but I don't think it's actually dust.  Cleaning dials is something I try not to do because you stand a good chance of making it worse.  For example, I don't want to lose the printing of Hamilton or the seconds cross hair.  Instead, I'll use rodico putty to gently dab the dial and brighten up the numerals and dots.

I like the 730 movement.  It's not bullet proof but it's about as robust as you'll find.  It's essentially a 747 movement but with shock jewels to protect the balance.  It a great movement to learn on.... you can goof it up but it almost reassembles itself if you're careful with it.  It's definitely easier than it's 735 sibling with a sweep second hand.

Everything is cleaned and dried.  Time for reassembly.

The movement is noticeably shinier now that it's had a bath and it's ticking away with a nice motion.

It's running a little fast but the beat error is great.  The amplitude is a little low but it's not fully wound yet.

A quick tweak to the regulator brings the beat rate in line.  It doesn't take much to adjust the timing of a watch... good or bad.

A new glass crystal is definitely in order.  This crystal is 23.5mm by 23.5mm but the shape of the contoured edges is important to match up with the bezel opening.

The finished watch looks great and paired with a nice brown leather strap, this watch is ready for some wrist time again.  The dial still shows it's patina but when you get to be 65 years old you tend to have a few extra spots too.

1957 Chanticleer

Perhaps one of the most interesting models in the 1950s line up is the Chanticleer.  The Chanticleer was introduced in 1957 and produced for three years.  What makes it's interesting is it has an alarm complication.  I think the name is interesting too... Chanticleer is the name of the proud rooster in Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales".   It's very fitting, we have two roosters in our little farmette and they will definitely wake you up! 

Hamilton produced a few other alarm models in the 1970s and I provided an overview of them in this old blog post.  This was my first opportunity to work on an actual Hamilton model.  They're very popular and always sell for more than I'm willing to pay.

Fortunately, my friend Andrew Krug, author of the Hamilton Field Guide recently picked one up and asked me to overhaul it.  It's always interesting to see a model I haven't seen before but this one gave me some trepidation.  I checked it out briefly and had second thoughts.  I don't mind screwing up my own watch in the cause of learning - I chalk it up to a round of golf (or two).  You spend your money and at the end of it you have nothing to show for it but the experience. 

Andrew was very gracious though, so I decided to give it a go.

As received, the watch is in typical, "as found in a drawer" condition.  It not fully working but does tick.  Notice the two prominent round windows.  The one on the right tells you if it's wound up and the other one tells you if the alarm is set.  The white window implies the watch is wound but the red window says the alarm is off.  

There are two crowns, the one at 3 is the typical winding and time setting crown.  The other one at 4 will move the red-tipped alarm hand and if you pull it out it activates the alarm.  Once activated, when the hour hand advances to the red-tipped hand the movement will start a hammer that strikes a cover inside the case - rattling away to get your attention.

This watch isn't really functioning properly and part of that is because the crowns are loose and only turn one direction.

The bezel is 10K gold filled but the back is stainless steel.  It took some muscle but I was able to open it with my case tool

Tucked inside is a very gummy gasket and a unique cover.  The cover has two small holes to access the two set lever screws that secure the stems.  The other larger hole allows you to access the regulator.

The cover is somewhat dented as if someone tried to pry the cover off.  It's lifted on one side and pushed in on the other.  Rather than trying that method, I'll pry around the circumference and try to pop the cover off.

Inside the cover is a post that the hammer strikes to make the alarm noise.

The movement inside is a 675 movement.  This is based on a Venus 231 caliber.  This is new territory for me so I'll go nice and slow and take lots of photos so I can stand a decent chance of getting it back together again.

At first I thought the stem on the alarm setting crown was broken.  However, it's really just super short.  All it does is turn the alarm hand and activate the alarm complication.  There's only one mainspring to power the watch and the alarm and the other stem winds that.

The traditional crown has a full length stem.  The crown has a long tube - I've never seen a crown with a tube this long.

I can tell by the state of the sides of the movement that it's been a LOOOONG time since this watch saw some cleaning solution.

Hmmm, there are no dial feet screws anywhere on the side of the movement.  How do you get this dial off?

Ah ha!  There are two screws that have a flat side that when turned will release the dial feet.  One my tweezers are pointing at, the other is in the edge of the movement just to the right of the Co in Hamilton Watch Co.

I see a few springs to be careful of, they're easy to lose.  There are a lot of parts on the dial side of the main plate.  Screw by screw, piece by piece I will carefully remove everything and try to order them so I can remember which screw goes with what part.

My first order of business is to remove the balance assembly.  I definitely want to protect that.

I'll let down the mainspring and start to remove the ratchet wheel.  There are several parts under it that changes the wind indicator (right red/white marker on the dial).

Flipping over to the dial side, I'll start to strip the parts from the front.

Interesting... under the big gold wheel for the alarm hand is the typical cannon pinion and hour wheel.  This hour wheel has raised fingers that connect to the gold wheel.  There's a curved spring that lifts the gold wheel up and away.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what all these parts do.  I'm just going with the flow at this point and taking things off in a disciplined manner so I can get them cleaned and (hopefully) put back in the right places.

I'm making progress.

Getting warmer.  Check out this set bridge / yoke - it has two arms for the two stems and set levers.

Okay - back to the reverse side and removing the barrel bridge.  The barrel bridge also supports the hammer mechanism.  Both the ratchet wheel and winding wheel are held in place with reverse threads (lefty tighty instead of lefty loosey).

The barrel bridge is out of the way and I can take a mental note (and picture) of all the parts that were hidden by it.

Making progress - now I can pull the two screws that hold the train bridge in place.

The fourth wheel drives the second hand and goes through the center wheel.  The third wheel is just to the lower right.  It's hard to see but the escape wheel is just to the lower left, in the shadow.

One last bridge supports the center wheel.

Alright, home stretch now.  It's back to the front of the main plate to pull the remaining parts.

The set bridge / yoke is removed to review the minute wheel and the keyless works.

I'm almost finished with disassembly.  All of the parts are laid out with their screws so I know what goes with what.

Finally, everything is cleaned and dried.  Now it's time for reassembly.  Wish me luck.

I'm going to go basically in the reverse order of how I removed things.  Starting with the dial side.

I put the train wheels in place and set the train bridge.  All the wheels spin freely, that's a good sign.

Back to the front to continue the installation.  Everything seems to be in place.

Oh No!  At some point the upper third wheel jewel cracked and broke away!  I was so close!  The watch will run if the third wheel is in the right place but it won't run for long without the proper support.  I'll need to try to find a replacement jewel.

Looking in the parts manual, the part number for the jewel is 276751.  Hopefully I'll be able to track one down.

Surprisingly the balance ticks somewhat decently but I won't bother making any adjustments until the jewel is replaced.

Like a humble bumble I reinstalled the dial and hands.  Everything seems to work now.  I set the alarm to 6:30 so Andrew will get up nice and early... haha!   A new crystal, fresh lume and a case polish complete the restoration.  Well, almost anyway, I still need to find a new upper third jewel.