Can anyone tell me if the Hamilton 18s 930 & 931 used a SS dial or a DS dial? Since they are 16 jeweled I'm going to go out on a limb and guess they are SS? I can not find anything out doing a search or in the Hamilton catalogs.

Thanks,
Harry

Harry, I haven't found any documentation on this either but data on the 18 size watches generally lists the dials which were standard but for the 930 and 931 I do not have that information. However, I found statement that in late 1898 just before the last 930 and 931 went to finishing, the price list shows that the 924 and 925 (which first went to finishing in mid 1899) were the replacements for them. For the 924 he lists the SS dial as the standard one with the DS available for an extra charge. So I would say that for the 930/931s also the SS dials were standard.

Harry, my 931 is SS and period correct. I do believe SS is correct but I also believe in 189X, when you purchased a watch and asked for a DS dial, you wouldn't get an argument as to authenticity.

Until Mr. Ball did his spin that SS is better, typically if a watch grade was RR approved they normally were fitted with a DS and if it was not RR approved it got the typical SS dial.

I tend to agree with Robert from his comments about the 924/925 so the 930/931 were probably sold with a SS dial.

Unfortunately there is little in the way of Hamilton advertising on their early watches. But from what I have seen the Hamilton 932 seems to be their lowest grade number with what appear to be original Double-Sunk dials so I would agree with the findings of Robert, Mike and Claude above.

Don

Thank you Robert, Mike, Claude and Donald. I believe SS was standard also. Both my 930 and 931 have a SS dial. The 931 could use another dial and since I have far more SS dials than DS I wanted to put a good SS dial on if it was correct.

Thanks,
Harry