I thought this group might find this curious Hamilton 992E interesting. It was made at the Hamilton factory as a display piece for marketing purposes, such as jewelry shows. It was also used in a couple of movies, including the factory promotional film "What Makes A Fine Watch Fine" (1947). I described the complete history in an article in the Bulletin a year or two ago. It's certainly the most interesting Hamilton pocket watch I've ever found.

Here's the picture:

Here's a picture showing the title sequence of "What Makes a Fine Watch Fine" compared to the actual watch.

One last shot, comparing the lucite movement to a conventional 992E. (I should point out that the lucite watch is completely functional.)

Terrific and thanks for posting the photos here Rene!

Are there any markings of any kind on the movement?

Fred

No markings at all.

thank you Rene !!

Very interesting... do you recall the bulletin whole number?

It was in August, 2003.

A very special watch! Thanks for posting Rene.

Rob

Very nice! I would love to hear the story of how you acquired this historical timepiece( I'm fairly sure the rest of IHC MIGHT want to know too !).

Ditto to Sam... we would love to hear the whole story..

There really isn't a lot to the story, I'm afraid. In the late 1980s to the mid 1990s I used to go to Lancaster, PA two or three times a year to do research on Hamilton. I met and interviewed 40 or 50 retired employees, and along the way I picked up a lot of amazing materials -- some watches, some parts, a lot of paper, tons of memorabilia. A lot of things were thrown out when the factory shut down production. A lot more was sold to Dr. Robert Ravel. (I discussed that story in a thread on the wristwatch forum under "Hamilton Wristwatches, A Collectors' Guide" if you want to know more about that.)There's still a lot of incredible material turning up in Lancaster, but mostly in estate sales. Most of the people I interviewed have unfortunately passed away since then. (I only go back once a year now, at most.)

When I got the lucite pocket watch from a retired employee I knew it had to have been something signficant but it took a while to document exactly what it was made for. It nagged at me because I knew I'd seen it somewhere. I dug through all kinds of material without success, but then I remembered the film "What Makes a Fine Watch Fine" again and popped it in the VCR. There was the watch in the opening sequence. It also appears in a couple of other Hamilton films. Later I found contemporary written information by digging through 1940s issues of Hamilton's employee magazine, Timely Topics. As far as I know, this was the only one made.