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.

1962 Sea Skip

Sometimes the Hamilton catalogs teased customers a little by showing a "coming soon" type of listing.  A good example is the Sea-Skip.  It was shown in the 1961 catalog but it showed it was scheduled for release in 1962. 

I did a post 10 years ago on the 1961 Sea Skip but I think it's fair to say it's really a 1962 model.  It was produced for three years though so it could be a 1963 or 1964 model as well.

Originally it was presented as coming in a stainless steel case with either a white dial or a grey dial.

That description seems to have been carried forward with the catalogs showing both versions.  There are only two manual winding models with sweep second movements in a stainless steel case and numerals at 12 and 6.  So it's not a difficult model to identify.

I recently had the opportunity to work on another Sea Skip and it's a little different than the other one, so I thought I'd show it as well.

As received, it's had a hard life.  The crown is missing and someone added a red second hand at some point.  More worrisome is the grey textured dial has something going on.  It's a little hard to tell though, as the crystal is very beat up.

The first major difference between this example and the other one I did, is this watch came in a one-piece case that opens through the crystal.  The other has a screw off back!

Once I lifted off the crystal, the movement and dial come out the front of the bezel.  Looking at the dial, it's clear that the finish has been compromised.  In fact, it looks like it's pealing off like sun burned skin.  I wouldn't dare trying to clean this dial.

Behind the dial is a manual winding 688 movement.  This is a classic ETA movement and not too different than today's modern Hamilton movements.

Once I lifted the hands off I looked at the dial from the side and it was covered with dusty flakes.  I literally blew air at it like blowing out a candle and the end of the Hamilton logo disappeared!  That sucks but leaving loose particles floating inside the case isn't good either.  It doesn't take much to stop a watch or screw up it's timing.  Sometimes when the dial finish is compromised I will spritz it with fresh lacquer but I'm going to leave this dial alone.  It is what it is at this point and getting it refinished will not turn out well, based on my prior experience with textured dials.  

This is an important lesson though - this finish loss is due to moisture getting inside the case.  If you see moisture inside the crystal, you should get the watch dried and serviced immediately.

Fortunately, the movement did not have a lot of rust inside, other than the female portion of the two-piece stem.  The stem is very worn and will need to be replaced in order to fit another crown to the case.  At this point everything is cleaned, dried, and ready to be reassembled.

My new stem (left) is rust-free and the prongs are tight so it will grasp and hold the male-hub that is screwed into the crown.  I'll need to carefully trim the male hub to the proper length so the crown fits properly.

Before I can work on the crown, I have to finish the movement and at this point it's reassembled and running with a good motion.  It's off to the timer to see how well it's ticking.

Not too shabby... it's a little slow and amplitude is low but I haven't wound it up fully since there's no crown.  I can tweak the regulator and bring the beat rate up a little.

There... just a smidgeon fast.  I'll leave it here for now.

A new crystal is in order and this case takes a smaller crystal than the Sea Skip I did 10 years ago.  So at some point Hamilton must have changed case designs or this case was swapped - but it's a good match for the catalog image.  It's a mystery, that's for sure.

The finished watch is back in the case and secured behind the crystal.  The new Hamilton crown is a good fit.  It's too bad about the logo but it was bound to come off eventually - once the finish goes, the printing is done for. 

Let me know in the comments if you have a Sea Skip in your collection and if it has a one piece case or a two-piece design like in my 2015 post.

1958 Norman

Hamilton had a special group that focused on watches for awards and presentations.  The awards division could create special models or customize dials to make the award with special.  The back of the watch could also be engraved with a unique presentation.  

The main intent though was to provide awards that the recipient would not find in their local jewelry store.  So awards watches were often modified slightly or based on models that were discontinued and no longer commercially available. 

One of obvious tells of an awards division watch is if it says "Masterpiece" on the dial.  Even if the back is not engraved, you can be sure that it's an award watch.

Its not always obvious though.

I recently had a project watch that was based on the 1958 Norman.  The 58 Norman is the second model to utilize that name.  It was produced for three years and was originally offered on a bracelet or a strap.

In 1960 the Norman was offered just on the bracelet.  The dial is sterling silver and features solid 14K gold markers and dots.

My project watch is obviously a Norman, based on the dial but it features the company logo of Blaw-Knox, which is still in business.  They make construction paving equipment.  My project watch has a beat up crystal and is missing the second hand, so I'm sure it can tell a story.

The case back has some wear, most significantly at the crown but also on the opposite side - perhaps from someone trying to pry the two-piece case open.  The presentation has been worn down a bit but I can see it's a 25 year award watch from 1962.  The Norman was discontinued in 1960, making it a good candidate for an awards division model.

The dial has a bit of dial rash and the tip of the missing second hand has swept a scratch into the finish.  I may be able to clean it up a little but it is what it is.  I definitely don't want to risk losing the logo.  Notice how flat the dial is... there is no contour whatsoever.  It's just a simple sterling silver disc.  Even the markers and dots are flat.

Behind the dial is a 22 jewel 12/0 size 770 movement.  This is the top of the line Hamilton caliber used from 1955 through the end of US production in 1969.

The 10K gold filled case back doesn't have any service marks inside.  I wonder if it's ever been seen by a watchmaker before now?

I neglected to take my usual disassembled photo but all of the parts are thoroughly cleaned and reassembled with fresh lubricants.  The reassembled movement is ticking away with a decent motion and sitting on my timer.

Yikes, it's running very slow but the other specs look okay.  I wonder if the hairspring isn't in the regulator?

Sure enough... looking closely from this angle I can see that the outside loop of the hairspring has come of the of the two pins of the regulator.  The two pins (fork) adjust the length of the hairspring so that if you move the pins toward slow you lengthen the spring and if you moved it toward fast you'd shorten the length.  If the hairspring isn't in the pins then it's length is defined by the hairspring stud and that's as slow as it will go.  I need to put the hairspring back into the regulator and try the timing again.

Okay... now the watch is running a little fast but a large beat error was introduced.  I'll need to adjust the position of the balance relative to the hairspring stud to better center it and reduce the error.

I'd rather be lucky than good - and in this case it took only one tweak to get it near perfect.  The closer to zero the better but 0.2ms is pretty much spot on.

I installed the dial and hour and minute hands and then fit a new second hand.  It's about as long as the one that left the scratch so I should be good to go now.

Metal bracelets can take their toll on lugs - eventually they wear grooves into the lugs as shown below.  I personally prefer a leather strap unless the bracelet is the original design in the catalog.

The finished watch now looks great with a new crystal and everything cleaned up.  The dial still shows some scrapes but that's just part of it's history.  A fresh black leather strap completes the restoration and this 1962 Norman is ready for wrist time.