Recent pickup-Hamilton 18 size marked 943. A 943 has been on my want list for a long time.

Nice pickup, Tony....what does the face look like....

Regards,
Jerry

I think this is the dial, Tony you DID GOOD! btw you do know what they used to do to horsethiefs!

Congrats Tony, that one's on my list too.

Very nice pickup and only the 2nd Hamilton 943 I have personally ever seen!!! The one I have seen and had the good fortune to hold in my hands belongs to one of my colleagues--it was his grandfather's watch and is housed in a beautiful solid gold HC. When he learned of my interest in pocketwatches and he first tried to describe it to me we both thought it must be a fully marked 946 but then he described a hunting case that held the movement. So when he brought it to work one day to show me I was expecting to find a 941 movement and much to my surprise is this beautiful 943 fully marked. The 943 is on my want list also and seems to be a scarce watch to come by. Congratulations on your addition to your collection.

Add this one to your database.

It happens to be about 50 units from Tony's, but unmarked. The layout is different, and mine just says "adjusted".

Was there a quality or price difference from marked to unmarked?

Columbia GF case # 111170. Would this case be "of the era",1901, and correct? No other case marks.

Hands correct for movement?

One of my favorite damaskeened movements, and a very good runner to say the least.

dial

case

Richard,

Your 943 example is an earlier marking variety than Tony's. The earliest examples had no explicit grade marking and were just marked "Adjusted" with no number of positions specified. Later on Time Service rules were changed to require the grade number and number of position adjustments to be marked on the movement.

Most collectors prefer the "fully marked" versions, but there's not a big difference in value, correctness and condition count for a lot more. In that regard, your hours hand appears to be correct, but the minutes and seconds hands are of a later style, and should be changed if you wish to make your 943 completely correct.

Thank you, Ed...

Would their jeweler get the plates with the upgraded information and do a switch?

Richard, the remarking would have been done by Hamilton at the factory. It is explained in Lin's post in this earlier thread.
link

The Hamilton ledgers indicate that a number of 943's were not sold for several years after they were initially finished. For example Tony's shows being finished in Dec 1902 and sold to A. N. Anderson in July 1917. So Hamilton would have had plenty of time to make the change.

According to one fellow I met at a show, all but two, 947s are actually 943s up jeweled, and only SN 999,999 & 1,000,000 are actually 947s. The fellow who told me this owns #1,000,000! I had never known this but he seemed to know his stuff. If that is true, the scarcity of 943s could be partially due to that, the other reason being that there just weren't many in the first place and normal attrition would cut numbers by a lot. Anyone here know if this is true?
As I compare the two 943s in these photos, being of close SNs, the Barrel plates are marked differently besides the 943 marking. I suppose if Hamilton wanted to mark a barrel plate differently they would start "over" with a fresh plate as opposed to simply sticking "943" someplace?
Nice watches Tony and Richard. I love my 943!

Thanks for the link and information, Robert. Do you have the finish/sold dates for my example?

Thanks again for all the replies.

This shot of the movement shows how different the graphics are compared to a later one like Tony's.

Richard, the ledger page shows yours being finished 12/22/1902 and sold 5/18/1903 to J. W. Forsinger in Chicago.

Mike, the information I have shows that of the total of 310 947's, 308 were up-jeweled from finished 943's and the 2 you mentioned went through production as 947's. I assume the total production of 2700 943's includes those 308 so that would leave only 2392 943's sold.

Bob

It is interesting that although there have been no sales of full hunting 943s on the big auction board during the past three months, there have been two movement-only versions available. Does that mean those two were used to the extent that the case became expendable, or that the case was sold separately for its gold value?
At any rate, I would imagine that there are fewer than 1500 cased 943s spread out from here to Japan (the owner of a gold-buying store in Canada told me today that he just shipped a grade 948 to Japan). Looks like they'll get more expensive; not less so.
kh

Thank you for your time and efforts, Robert.

Yes Robert. Thanks for that verification.

Just received back my 943 from servicing.
Also, had correct hands placed.

I sent along a few "period" GF Hunter cases I had been storing to find one so the crystal would not interfere with closing the cover.

Shout out to Chris Abell, he did his usual great job.

and more

Deep red 5 minute markings along with strong Hamilton graphics.

I just checked my 943 and the serial number is a lot higher than Tony's. My serial number is 163143 and it is not fully marked. It is marked like Richards. So was there any rime or reason to remarking the 943 from the old style to the newer fully marked version. According to the serial numbers of Tony's, Richard's and mine Tony has the oldest and is fully marked followed by Richard which is not fully marked and then mine which is not fully marked.