April 03, 2009, 08:49
Tom BrownBall Hamilton 18s 999 in Loaner Case
I just received this watch & before I describe it I wanted to explain how I came to own it & let anyone that saw the auction for it know I didn't get it underhanded.After seeing David Abbe's loaner case Illinois I really admired it & thought I would keep an eye out for something similar.
I ran across this watch on Ebay, at the time the bid was at $6.00 but of course the reserve had not been met. I thought I would bid $500 to start, so that is what I did & it met the reserve & I was the high bidder.
The next day someone else had out bid me, I then began to figure out how high I could go at the end.
About a day later I saw where the auction had ended early & I thought someone had offered the seller money to end the auction. I emailed teh seller & asked him if he was going to re-list it, he wrote back that he had pulled the auction because the watch would not set, he told me that he had offered the high bidder a buy it now price but the bidder wanted a few days to get the funds together but the seller stated he wasn't willing to do that. He then offered it to me for the same price, he said if I didn't want it he was going to send it in for repair & then auction it again.
I bought the watch at that time.
When I received it yesterday I discovered that there was no problem with the watch, it appeared the seller did not realize this was a lever set watch.
So that is my tell of how I came to own this. The watch is a Ball Hamilton 18s 999 Serial number 497433 which according to the Gleason list puts it at 1906 & it is a 19 jewel.
The case is a Keystone Ball Model Silveroid case and no additional case screw marks are visible. The dial appears perfect.