1964 Galen

The number of watches in Hamilton's lineup seemed to increase every year starting in the 1960's.  Between the Thin-o-matics, Accumatics, Electrics, Thinlines, and the variety of high end US-made models with 770 movements (et al), there was a huge variety of models at every price point.

One of the entry level models with a Swiss-made ébauche movement was the 1964 Galen.  I was produced for four years.  Many of the entry level models came only on a bracelet, matched to the design of the case.  The Galen is a good example of the practice.

The Galen features bold dauphine-style hands and textured seconds register.  Being the embossed dial is a Hamilton 686 movement.

I recently picked up a Galen project watch but the bracelet has been lost to time.   There's a little spotting to the dial and the watch could use a thorough cleaning but it looked like a promising project.

The stainless steel case back is engraved with the name of the probable original owner.  I always find engraved watches to be very interesting.  They make me wonder about who the owner was and where this watch went.  I especially like watches with an obvious sentiment as part of the presentation.  The presentation is pretty basic... maybe it was a service award for a work anniversary.

The movement is shiny but it's also very dirty.  A thorough cleaning is definitely in order.

Everything is cleaned and dried.  Time for reassembly.

The movement is now back to running order.  The balance motion looks good so it's off to the timer to find out for sure.

Well, the beat error of 8.1ms is way too high.  The amplitude is under 200 degrees too.  I'll run this through the demagnetizer and make sure it's fully wound.

It's still a bit noisy inside but the amplitude has increased.  I'll reclean the hairspring and see what that difference that makes.

Still a bit noisy... I don't see anything obvious so maybe the noise is pallet fork related.  I'll reclean the hairspring and the pallet fork and see what different that makes.

Alright... getting a clean signal, now I just need to adjust the beat error.  That's easy to do on this movement as the hair spring stud is adjustable.

You can see the two lines slowly get closer together as I tweak the hair spring stud.  The final position is under the 0.2ms on the display.  I'll leave the watch running a smidgen fast - as it will slow a little after a while.

The finished project turned out well.  The dial spotting is obvious but it isn't too bad.  This is a radial finished dial and the textured seconds register might make this a difficult dial to get redone correctly.  So I'll leave it as is.