1956 Cross Country II

One of the really interesting aspects of Hamilton watches from the 1950's is the variety of innovative and unique designs that were introduced.  One good example is the 1956 Cross Country II.

It was only produced for two years.

There are a lot of oddities to this watch.  First off is the dial itself.  The hour hand is actually the black disc in the center of the dial.  It has indicators for 5 time zones.  You set the hour hand to the time zone you're in and the other indicators will tell you the time relative to where you set the hour hand.   For example, in the catalog add above, the hour hand is set to "central time".

It's very similar to two other models made during the same period, the Transcontinental A (10K gold filled case) and the Transcontinental B (14K gold case).  Both of those models use a rotating disc to represent the hour hand but they use a graphic of the United States and Great Britain to indicate the time zones.

I can only find the Cross Country II in the Hamilton catalogs but I think there's an identical looking Cross Country watch that used a 17 jewel Illinois movement.  However, in the Cross Country II you will find an 8/0 sized 735 movement.  At least that's what I found in the example below.

This Cross Country II also has it's original bracelet - a rare find!