I am trying to limit my collecting to Ball watches and in doing so I have run across Hampden watches that people claim were made for Ball. So were these watches all marked as Ball watches or how do you know if the claims are real. The same question applies to Howard, Seth Thomas etc.

A good place to start is the 2012 Complete Price Guide to Watches, Page 149, and the Ball Company Research Forum right here on IHC.

Perhaps Bill Kapp will spot this post. Bill concentrates his collection on early Ball watches. Reading some of his posts I believe he has stated that there are only 37 known remaining open face Hampden Ball's.

OLD POST

Beware the "three Ball" hype and any other unmarked Hampden that sellers like to hype as Ball products. One is named after a street that Ball did business on and may have been bought by Ball as a private label, but there is no documentation of this.

Folllow the link in the old post for more Ball info. You might want to check that site for an article on Early Ball Hampdens also.

happy hunting

Nick I collect Hampdens and have for quite awhile. I do not own a Ball Hampden and probably never will. I do believe the 37 known figure is correct and there may be others out there but unfortunately as Bill Knapp notes there is a lot of crap and outright dishonesty out there on this subject. Another problem is that the Hampden records are gone, so it is not possible to say with certainty which serial numbers were assigned to the Ball watches. Personally I have run across 2 Ball Hampdens for sale in the last 10 years or so.I have also run across several "extremely rare etc." sales of 3 ball Hampdens and other Hampden models that were attributed to the Ball company and which in fact were not Ball Hampdens. In 2 cases the sellers absolutely should have known better, in other cases one could be charitable and say they made a mistake. Remember also that if it is rare it will be faked by someone. The only thing I have is a Ball Hampden dial with a hairline so let me know when you find the movement!