1948 Eric

 I think my favorite decade for watches is the 1940s.  That may be because that was the WWII era and I find the military models the most interesting.  However, I like the timeframe in American history as well.  The nation had come together to defeat fascism and a new era of prosperity was beginning after the Great Depression.  It was also when my parents with children and I like to imagine the sort of world they grew up in... not unlike the movie, "A Christmas Story"... aka "you'll shoot your eye out".

Watches in the 1940s tend to be the smallest of all the decades.  Some men's models are so small that they'd even be considered small for a woman by today's standards.  However, my view is if they were bog enough for the generation of men who stormed the beaches of Anzio, Normandy and Iwo Jima, who am I to judge?

One of the 1940 models that isn't too small is the 1948 Eric.  It was produced through 1951 so it's not a terribly hard model to find.

The Eric is very easy to misidentify or confuse with the Dewitt, which was offered at the same time.  Both models have similar lug designs, although the Eric's are more square-shaped.  Both models have all-numeral dials but the Eric was also offered with a two-tone gold numeral and dot dial as well.  Both models featured the 17 jewel 8/0 sized 747 movement.

Interestingly, the Eric and Dewitt were offered on a bracelet or a leather strap.  There were earlier models that offered bracelets but that was few and far between.  The propensity to offer bracelets was more common starting in the late 1940s and it quickly became the norm.

The Eric differed from the Dewitt in one key way, the Eric was offered in a 14K gold filled case while the Dewitt featured 10K gold filled.  So if you find the two models difficult to identify, the case material is a definitive clue.

I started to disassemble my project watch before I considered taking photos for the blog.  The only other post I did on the Eric was over 14 years ago!  So my initial photo is missing the hour and minute hands but, not to worry, they are present and accounted for.

The back of the case is in decent shape.  Most of the Erics I see show a bit of wear to the tops of the lugs and a little to the case back.  This case appears to be better than average but would still benefit from a cleaning.

The dial has been refinished at some point.  I think the pattern used is correct but the numbers scratched into the back and the glue over the rivets for the numerals are proof-positive that the dial has been redone.

Somehow I forgot to take the usual "disassembled" photo revealing all the parts after they've been cleaned and dried.  I like the 747 movement, its arguably the easiest of the American made movements to work on and if you include the 730 and 731 movements with shock jewels, the movement design was produced through the end of production in Lancaster in the late 1960s.

In the photo below the movement is reassembled and ticking away with a nice motion.  This 747 has a very low serial number and dates the watch to the first year of production.

The time tells me the performance is pretty good but the beat error is out of spec at 4.6ms.  The beat error is a measure of how well centered the balance is relative to the pallet fork.  If it's not centered, the balance will swing a little further to one side than the other.  The closer to zero the better, but my personal specs are3.0ms or less.  That's because it's a very tricky adjustment to make and if you're not careful (or lucky) you can ruin the hairspring by attempting toe adjust the beat error.  Unfortunately for me, I feel obliged to improve it.

I got lucky on my first attempt and was able to get the beat error down to a more than acceptable 0.5ms.  I'll let it run a little while before I tweak the beat rate up a little with the regulator.

I polished the plastic crystal.  It's a "cylinder" design and it's technically not the correct style but it's design has helped reduce the wear on the lugs.  Even with that though, you can still see a little wear to the lugs where they join the bezel.  It doesn't look bad though, and with a nice new strap, this watch looks as good as it runs.

1941 Wesley

Most Hamilton models were only made for a handful of years, some as few as one but two or three year runs was not unusual.  What was unusual was a production run of over 10 years.  Some models, like the Boulton, topped even that but the list of 10 year+ watches is pretty short.

One of them would be the 1941 Wesley.  It continued to be produced through 1952, with a short hiatus for WWII production.

The Wesley was unchanged through it's production run.  The case is solid 14K yellow gold and inside you will find the 19 jewel 982M, as in Medallion, movement.

The final price of the Wesley was a mere $180, that's about $2,500 when adjusted for inflation.  It think you'd be hard pressed to find a new solid gold watch of equal quality for that amount today.

My project watch is in very nice condition but it's fully wound and not running.  That could be as simple as needing to be cleaned or it could have something broken inside.  Only one way to find out.  The metal bracelet is a Gemex brand and very nice, as far as bracelets go.  However, in my opinion, a watch of this quality deserves a fine strap.  The crystal on the watch is plastic and a new glass crystal will go a long way in improving the appearance.

The movement and dial are secured in the case back. It's a pretty tight fit and I think someone pressed down on the dial to get the movement into the case and ended up bending the dial a little.  I'll see if I can straighten it but I don't want to risk ruining the dial so I may end up leaving it alone.

The inside of the case back makes identifying the model easy.  Hamilton started putting model names in cases in the late 1940s and continued for only a few years.

The serial number of the movement dates this watch to 1951.  It also has a presentation on the back for 25 years of service in 1952.

The mainspring in the barrel is an old blue steel spring and will need to be replaced.

All the parts are cleaned and inspected.  I found the escape wheel was missing a pivot - that was the reason the watch was not running.  Hopefully now that it's replaced and everything is cleaned, the watch will run now.

Sure enough, the reassembled movement is ticking away with a nice motion.  Now we can see what the timer thinks of it.

Nothing wrong with this movement now.  It's running great.

The finished watch looks great with a new glass crystal and it runs as well as it looks.  Every collection deserves to have a solid gold model and the Wesley would be an excellent choice.

1929 Barrel - World Series Presentation

Most Hamilton collectors are aware of the 1928 World Series Piping Rocks that were given out to the winning New York Yankees.  The watch is so popular that Hamilton reintroduced it in the 1990s as a registered edition in both quartz and mechanical versions.

Hamilton did the same in 1929 with the winning World Series team, the Philadelphia Athletics. 

Instead of the Piping Rock, a different model was used.  In this case it was the Barrel, but cased in sterling silver.  Based on production records, I'd estimate no more than 213 sterling silver Barrels were produced by the end of 1935, so they are extremely rare.

My project watch is a great find.  You'd be forgiven if you thought it was a white gold filled, or possibly solid white gold version.

The back is where it gets really interesting.  It was presented to you William (Bill) Breckinridge who was a pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics.  It was his rookie year, and only year, in the major league.

Bill Breckinridge played in only three games and not at all in the World Series.  Since he was rostered on the Athletics when they defeated the Chicago Cubs, he received his full share of the players' bonus pool.  He was given a minor league assignment the following spring so he chose to retire at 22, and attend college - eventually becoming a lawyer.  Not quite a Lou Gehrig but an interesting story nonetheless.

The inside of the case back is marked Wadsworth, after the case maker with an H for Hamilton and 6/0 for the size of the movement.  The STERLING is the most interesting part of the inside.  I doubt I'll ever see another sterling Barrel again.

The center section of the three piece case is stamped with the last four digits of the case back serial number - so you know this was an original pairing.  Inside is a 17 jewel 987 movement.  Based on the color of the chatons (jewel settings), it's been a while since the watch was last cleaned but it does appear to tick... thank goodness.  Watches from this era are notoriously finicky and can be very temperamental.  I will be too, when I'm 97 years old.

The owner complained the watch would run out of steam after a few hours.  Looking at the old blue steel mainspring inside the barrel, I can pretty much assume that is the reason.  It has surely set into a tight coil and lost most of it's potential energy.

Yup - I've see this a time or two.

A nice white alloy Dynavar spring will power the movement nicely.

Everything is carefully disassembled and cleaned.  Now it's time to put it back together with fresh oil inside all the wear surfaces.

It doesn't look like it in the photo, but the watch is ticking away with a decent motion.  Let's see what the timer has to say about it.

Ooof!  The shotgun pattern says something inside is making a lot of noise.  I'll reclean the hairspring and the pallet fork to make sure everything is perfect.

There... that's much better.  It took a couple of attempts but I got there.  The amplitude is very vigorous but as long as the balance doesn't swing all the way around to the pallet fork again, the watch should eventually settle down.

A baseball is a good background for this ultra-unique watch.  This is a very interesting watch and I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it first hand and give it some extra life.

Bill Breckinridge died in 1958, at 51 years old.  I wonder where this watch has been since then?