My 1st Hamilton

September 12, 2011, 14:37

Gareth Evans

My 1st Hamilton

The aforementioned is hopefully winging it's way to me from Phil S.
It's a 974 Special dating from a 1929 run and will take up residence in a Hamilton Salesmans case again courtesy of Phil.

But (there is always one of these it seems)
Firstly It needs a #383C regulator whip spring, now I know they are available from Cas-Ker for under $40 but us foreigners have to make a minimum order of $350 and whilst they are used on many other movements no suitable nonrunners are available on the 'bay.
Secondly it is currently sans face and hands, now as I understand from my readings any of the then available hand / dial combinations were available for it Barry Hanstein has both Black and Blue hand sets available on his site but I am wondering what dial I should aim for would this be legitimate

September 12, 2011, 14:39

Gareth Evans

Combined with this hand set. As usual I am here to learn and be corrected.

September 12, 2011, 15:46

Mike Hodge

Gareth, That is a nice dial. Most 974's have single sunk dials, but there is nothing, in my opinion, wrong with a DS. That will look great in a display case just ticking away. Show us the finished product!

Mike

September 12, 2011, 16:35

Gareth Evans

Unfortunateley the only SS dials I have found so far are labelled as "Railway Specials". I guess that the purists would suggest ideally an SS HA "Electric-Interurban Special" Montgomery, or plain SS HA would be technically be more appropriate. This dial/hands configuration is on a 1932 movement which I quite like and notice it is a DS

September 12, 2011, 19:20

Lindell V. Riddle

Gareth,

The hands you will want to use are blue as the charcoal gray was not used until the 992B era, prior to that all Hamilton hands were blue. Barry is a good choice for the hands and you might ask if he would have a suitable whip-spring as well. Often the retaining screw that holds the whip in place is also missing and if you need that it is something to be sure is included.

By the way, my theory on why so many "whip-springs" are missing from movements has to do with the fact a watch that is in need of oil will tend to run very fast, one that is dirty, very slow and to make such a watch run within practical limits people would remove the whip-spring and move the regulator to an extreme setting that could not be accomplished with the whip-spring properly in place.

I agree with Mike, according to Hamilton advertising the Grade 974 would have originally come with a Single-Sunk" dial, something that should be comparatively easy to find for your watch.

And I commend your efforts toward originality.

Lindell

September 16, 2011, 08:55

Gareth Evans

So just to clarify the Dial signature should be the middle one the Script being to early and the rounded Capitals too modern

September 16, 2011, 09:06

Gareth Evans

Somthing like either of these...

September 16, 2011, 17:16

Jared Brinker

Gareth-

I pulled this dial off of a 974 special, so you should be looking for one of these. Looks to be the same as your double sunk above, only single sunk.

Thanks,

Jared

September 17, 2011, 03:46

Gareth Evans

Thanks for the confirmation Jared I'll start to look for one, unfortunateley all those I have seen so far have been the older script style 'Hamilton', but I will persevere.