I have recently picked up two Hamilton 977's. One came to me as a movement and is pretty rough, less so after Samie worked it over. The other shown here is in a case and is private label E. McAyeal. SN is 61,402.

Are these as rare as they seem? I rarely see them for sale on Ebay and it appears they were not made in huge quantites. What do you think of Mr. E. McAyeal's Watch? There is the obvious Boo Boo on the dial, and as seems common, some scratching around the detent screw on the movement, but I like it. It came in today's mail

Mike-

I am always a sucker for the private labels. I reall like this watch! i don't have any early hamiltons and one like this is what I will pick whem I do buy an earlier hamilton 16s.

Jared

Nice Hamilton Mike.

I don't know how accurate this is, but I'm sure if it isn't someone will correct it, but I see in the "VINTAGE AMERICAN POCKET WATCHES" by Ehrhardt, Meggers, and Selover, that there were only 3,600 of the 977 Hamiltons made, and all Hunting cases.

Regards,
Larry

Nice watch Mike, not sure if your interested but it appears your jeweler might be Edward McAyeal of Morris, Stevens County, Minnesota. He is listed as a jeweler in that city, he was born March of 1860 in Pa. This info is from the 1900 census.

Your watch appears to have been shipped in 1899 to another jeweler in Minneapolis, he apparently placed orders for other jewelers.

Tom

Lawrence, I am not sure about the actual figure, but I know they were not produced in the numbers that many grades were. I did a half-hearted count in the Gelson list and for the most part, they were made 2-300 at a time. Takes a lot of runs to get serious numbers.

Tom, yes I am interested. I was hoping you'd chime in with your knowledge and research. Seems to me there were a bunch of Private Labels early on, and from Minnesota. That's pure anecdotal observation and worth nothing without back-up.

It would look like the numbers Larry gave would be close, I can only see where 17 runs were made for that grade & as mike said in runs as small as 55 up to 299 but the total is about 3600, and that is if they made everyone listed.

It looks like Mr Edward McAyeal died Aug. 15, 1915 in Stevens County.

Tom