Interesting Damaskeening patterns on Hamilton 936 18sz

December 25, 2012, 17:48

Jon Hart

Interesting Damaskeening patterns on Hamilton 936 18sz

Maybe Harry or Ed have noticed the different pattern from the 100,000 to 200,000 on the 936.

Also, the location of the "17" jewel stamp on the movement changed

Pictures to see the difference

December 25, 2012, 17:49

Jon Hart

200k Serial # pic 2

December 25, 2012, 17:50

Jon Hart

100K serial #

December 25, 2012, 17:51

Jon Hart

Last pic 100k

December 25, 2012, 18:04

Jon Hart

here is a 500k

December 25, 2012, 18:37

Roger Stephens

Jon,nice 936's.I have one later than yours s/n973816 that appears to me to be different than yours.
Regards Roger

December 25, 2012, 19:53

Jon Hart

Roger - Nice one... I noticed Tony Dukes has one "fully marked" just like yours... Grrrr... One more I need to buy.

December 25, 2012, 22:03

Roger Stephens

Jon,I know what you are saying.You get one watch and then you find variants that you just have to have.Seeems as if there is no end to it.One leads to another and another!
Regards Roger

December 25, 2012, 23:03

Jon Hart

Roger,

Yup... Always seems there is another piece of the puzzle missing.

December 25, 2012, 23:25

Mike Hodge

Here's an earlier 936 and, as you can see, the damaskeen pattern is different as is the 17 J marking.

December 26, 2012, 09:54

Jon Hart

Mike,

Holy Crud... another variant to the 936. However, yours looks like Hamilton started by placing the 17j on mainspring barrel cover and the rest looks like the 100k serial # runs.

The Folks at Hamilton must have been looking for something special they just couldn't find for damaskeening patterns on the 936 or wanted folks like us to pull our hair out trying to collect all variants 100 years later.

December 26, 2012, 22:47

Mike Hodge

Jon, I'd go out on a limb and say that mine was the "original" pattern for 936s due to the SN being so low. Why they changed is beyond me other than at some point the Grade was required on RR watches. One thought is that the barrel plate is easily changed so placing the jewel count on the main plate makes it more permanent to the watch. Lindell once told me that the 936 was Hamilton's first RR grade watch. There was another with a very close SN for sale on Ebay last summer.

December 27, 2012, 00:45

Lindell V. Riddle

The markings changed incrementally over the years, grade markings were not required until 1906 in order to enter Railroad Time Service so we see them phased-in first on RR grades and eventually to nearly all the better watches. As more features were added so too were additional markings, it is interesting to see how they evolved. The one Roger shared 973816 would be the most information shown on a 936 but there would be one more step, the final run of Grade 940 would also have "Made In U.S.A." in a circular design around the left-side barrel-bridge cover.

Click to see Number 1448165 with the "Made In USA" markings.

Back to specifics on the Grade 936 which was produced from the dawn of Hamilton production in 1893 with just over 18,000 completed by 1920 when 17-Jewel watches were no longer permitted to enter Railroad Time Service and it was discontinued from their product line, by that time 18-size watches had essentially fallen out of favor.

The first marking used on the Grade 936 is shown on number 595 below and Mike's number 6256 would represent the second marking with the jewel-count being introduced.

Hamilton 936 number 595 is a special favorite of mine...