No mention of what is under the hood - any thoughts guesses clues etc ???

Had to have the dial - maybe I am Canadian at heart

Me thinks 992!
Roger

Looks nice Jon, I hope you scored. My guess is a nice 940.
Gary

Seller did say:

Weight: 119g
Width: 54mm (2.13 inches)


So, fingers crossed it is an 18sz (dont jinx me Roger )

I'm going with 992.

Jon, I dub thee honorary Canadian

992. Jon did you get the staffs.

Jon:

All you need for it are the Canadian 24 hour hands.

Larry

Larry -

Me likes

Where there many of the 24hr Monty style hamilton dials made?

Nice looking Hamilton, Jon!My guess is a 936....Regards, Ted.

Hello Jon:

Yes I have a few Canadian private labels with 24-hour Montgomery dials, and one of my favorite, Grade 940 with a beautiful double sunk Monty 24-hour dial, I will post later when I take a photo of it.

Larry

I have a couple of non marginal minute dials but this one is an 18S from a 946

and here's one on a 992

Ralph,

Is the 946 a Private Label movement?

Lots of nice ones here - giving more of the bug for these awesome looking 24 hr dials on hammies

Ted,

Wishing on a star that we can change the middle 3 of the 936 for a say - a FOUR... As in 946

Larry,

Cannot wait to see some more of your hidden gems!

Harv,

Sent an email about the staffs

Hi Jon, the 946 is not PL, marked as a 23J movement.

I couldn't resist. Sorry for the chips. On another 992.

This dial is a 3-foot 16s. Looks like the critter in question.

Jon, I was going to guess 946, but afraid I might jinx you, you'd probably ok with a 950 though wouldn't you.

Hamilton 16 size, 24 hour dial from my first railway pocket watch. I bought back in June 1973 when I started back with the CPR on the running trades as a switchman at the CPR Alyth yard in Calgary, Alberta.

Larry

Hamilton in script on a 16 size, double sunk,read 24 hour tract, black bold Arabic track 1 to 12 with Canadian 24-hour hands on a 23 jewel Grade 950 Hamilton yellow gold filled pocket watch.

Hamilton in block letters on a double sunk, CPR 24-hour dial in the Hamilton Railroad No. 7 white gold filled case, with a 23 jewel. Grade 950E movement.

Larry

Gary,

The thought of a 950 never crossed my mind - for some reason stuck on the 18sz concept as the lottery ticket. However, after looking at Larry's 950 Gems - that would be something.

Larry,

Like your 1st RR watch... Looks like you got your moneys worth out of just the crown. How many times you figure you wound her up? And betting she is still a runner - Good stuff!!!

Jon:

:

The first railway pocket watch I bought was in June of 1973, I had hired on as a switchman (Yardman) at the Canadian Pacific Railways Alyth yard in Calgary Alberta, and was making student trips before I could mark up on the spare board. When I was hired by the General Yardmaster I was told as a condition of my employment, I would have to buy a railway approved wrist watch or pocket watch. Railway approved wristwatches sold for $175 at that time, when I was making one of my student trips there was an engineer trainee on the job, in conversation asked me if I had a railway watch. I told him no, he said he knew a watch inspector who had a pocket watch for sale for $50. I always had an allergy from wearing jewelry, rings, chains, and wristwatches where the metal touched my skin would break out in a rash. At that time, Lee jeans had good-sized watch pockets and $50 sounded better than $175 that was quite a bit of money to put out at that time, although the company did provide payroll deduction where you could pay for your watch in quarterly installments. I went and saw the watch inspector Miklos Biber at Classic Jewelers who were CPR watch inspectors at that time, he sold me a Hamilton 992 for the $50. It was in a very worn gold filled case and ran nicely, it had a 12 hour dial that the watch inspector said he would change to a 24 hour dial for me later. I paid for the watch, and he issued me a watch card, I was always intrigued by the beautiful damaskeening of the movement, there were also many repair marks scratched into the back of the American Watch Case Co. "Fortune." 10K gold filled case of particular interest were the four numbers engraved under the right side of the case under the serial number 3938977. Under close magnification, they revealed: I-1849, I-3671,I-3277, & I-3831 there were many other repair marks made over the years so the watch obviously had a long history of railway service from when the pocket watch Serial No. 1632591 was manufactured at Lancaster, Pa. By Hamilton in 1922-1923 these Grade 992's were made from 1914 to 1931, the first run 1085801, the last 2584300, 438,213 of these pocket watches were made.

For years, I wondered about the provenance of this pocket watch, in 1979 I qualified as a locomotive engineer and started my career in engine service, about 1986 I was working a yard assignment in the Calgary passenger depot where are duties were to switch coaches and locomotives on and off of the two transcontinental passenger trains that arrive daily, on this assignment, we had a lot of down time waiting for the passenger trains to arrive especially when they were running late. I took the advantage of this time off to go across 9th Avenue to the Glenbow Museum where they had a research library and photo archives on the third floor looking through their extensive archives on Alberta and Calgary local history I found the watch repair ledgers of George Forbes Richie born Novar, Ontario 1890 passed away in Calgary 1971 he came to Calgary with his parents in 1904 and entered the watchmaking trade working for D.E. Black. He became an authorized CPR watch inspector in 1914, at which time he opened his business at 1314 9th Avenue, Southeast in the Inglewood district near the Alyth yard and roundhouse was where most of the CPR engineers, firemen, trainmen, and conductors took their railway grade pocket watches to him for cleaning and inspection during their careers, the repair ledgers cover a period from 1917 to 1969 when he retired and sold his business. Perusing the ledgers. I see he had a system of making his entries using a prefix of an initial from his name starting with "R" and changing as each ledger was full after 10,000 entries, once I had figured out his method of recording information in his repair ledgers I was able to find the following:

4274 I 1849 April 1943 992, 16, 21, GF, 0F 1632591. Clean 11,849 Case SN 3938977 Gale F.T.
4275 I 3071. March 1945. 992, 16, 21, GF OF, 1632591 Clean 13,071 Case SN 3938977 Gale F.T.
4276 I 3277. June 1945. 992 16, 21, GF, OF 1632591 Mainspring 13,277 Case SN 3938977 Gale F.T.
4277 I 3831 September 1946 992, 16, 21, GF, OF 1632591 Clean 13,831 Case SN 3938977 Gale F.T

Now I knew where my watch had came from Frank Gale he had entered the service of the CPR as a switchman on August 28, 1940, and was promoted as a yard foreman on August 26, 1943 this was right in the middle of World War II when there was a shortage of railway grade pocket watches approved for service, this would explain why the pocket watch was approved for service in Western Canada with the 12 hour dial, in 1945 Frank was promoted to a yard master position, at the time I hired on, 30 years after his promotion in 1943 he was the Deputy General Yardmaster at the CPR Industrial Yard Office, this would explain why the last time he had it cleaned and inspected in 1946 and probably put it away, not needing it in his position as a yard master where there would be a standard clock in the office. He was retired at the time I made my discovery that he owned the watch in the 1940s, so I telephoned him and asked him about it, he remembered it very well and he had traded it in to the CPR watch inspector at Classic Jewelers, and received a $25 discount on the purchase of a Bulova Accutron railway approved wristwatch, the watch inspector cleaned it and sold it to me making $25 profit which I found out later was a common occurrence. I asked Frank where he had bought a watch from at the time, we hired on there was a CPR clerk named Ted Starrett who worked out of the General Yard Office at Alyth, I asked him if Ted was still around, he said he had retired long ago and was living in a retirement home and was able to find me his phone number, I phoned Ted and explained and described the pocket watch, he remembered it quite well and told me that he had bought it from a "boomer" brakeman, during the depression years in the 1930s. So my first Hamilton pocket watch definitely did have an interesting history.

Larry

Well-worn case back

The George Forbes Richie watch repair ledgers at the Glenbow Museum archives circa 1996

A photocopy from one of the watch repair ledgers

George Forbes Richie at a Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen convention picnic at Bowness Park, Calgary July 1930

Larry,

To put it in basic terms - that is pretty awesome...

The watch is priceless and perfect the way it is! You went the extra mile on your due diligence. Gathering information gives the watch heart and soul, and purpose if you will... Plus, your pictures always complete the story!

Thanks for sharing