I'm sure this has been discussed 'ad nasium' in the past, but I couldn't find anything in a search, so I thought I'd toss it out again.

Is there any significance to a Hamilton 940, built in 1903, to NOT having any significant markings other than Hamilton Watch Company, 21j, and adjusted on the movement and nothing else?

I've seen them with every kind of markings imaginable, but not one that's as basic as the one I traded for last Sunday.

Nothing else remarkable about the watch. It has the single script 'Hamilton' on the single sunk dial, and is in a sterling silver Dueber case....but nothing else marked on the watch. I had to look up the number before I was even sure it was a 940, but sure enough, it is.

Is this just a basic 940? Odd? What?

Like I said, I've never seen a movement so 'un-marked' before myself, so I was curious.

Regards! Mark

Mark

This might answer your question.

The Un-Marked 940's

Tom

Ooops, sorry about that.

The serial number is 254503.

Yep, like I said, I KNEW this subject had to have been hammered to death by now, but at first attempt I just couldn't shake out the information.

Thank you all for your input! I am now illuminated!

Regards! Mark

As a follow up....Chris sent my 940 back to me last week, and it is running, but apparently a 'blacksmith' got hold of it long before it reached Chris' hands.

He was able to clean it and install a new mainspring, but he tells me that there is rust on the hair spring, and apparently some clown in the past decided that glue was the best product to use to hold several items together on the balance.

He was able to clean most of the glue off the parts, and it's actually running about 20 seconds slow per day, but only with the replacement of the hair spring and a possible new staff it will ever perform to any kind of railroad standard. I'm ABOUT to touch the regulator to see if I can pick up those 20 seconds, as I don't know what will happen to that hair spring.

That said, though, it's soldiering on in my pocket as we speak, and for a carry watch, it's still trying to do it's best to perform the duties it was built to do.

Most folks would recommend I just dump the watch on ebay and find a better example....but for some reason I always root for the underdog. It has honest wear, and is in it's original Dueber sterling silver case...though worn, still serviceable.

Sad, but at least it's alive again.

Regards! Mark

This is a continuation of an old post. I recently bought a 940 number 1444800 that has the "Made in USA" around the left barrel plate screw, I'll show it below this post. It appears mine was in a run shortly before your run Lindell. One of our members currently has a movement for sale on ebay that has an earlier number 1440196 but is not marked. I put the ebay listing in pitfalls so look for it there if you are interested. I was trying to determine when these were actually started to be marked as such. It does appear very few were so marked.

After looking at the numbers it appears the last two runs included movements marked with the "Made in USA" but not the 3rd from the last.

My movement number 1444800

To follow up on this old thread, that 940 of mine is long gone, traded to a friend who just wanted an example in his collection and could care less how, or even IF, it ran.

Oddly enough, I have not run across a single 940 since in my ramblings around antique stores. They just dried up in my area of searching.

I had forgotten that watch until you brought this thread back.

Regards! Mark

Mark if you go to the bay and type in a search for "Hamilton 940" you will most likely get bored looking at all the 940's. A great watch but very common. The Hamilton 992 is another great watch that seems to be very common on the bay. But buying off the bay may mean you end up with another glued watch.

Oh, I know. I'm talking about finding them in antique stores. They're just not as abundant as they used to be in my area. That glued watch CAME out of a shop, so it's just not on the 'bay you find those monstrosities!

Regards! Mark