I recently acquired a nice 1924 912 12s Hamilton with a gold metal dial. It was serviced by the seller and runs excellently. It is however, housed in an Emperor base metal case. All of the information I have read says that Hamilton only sold the 912's as complete cased watches. I have also read however that they did sell uncased movements to jobbers. I'm wondering if my case could be original to the movement or if it is probably a replacement for the original that may have been sold for gold value during the depression or simply wore out. I have not been able to find out who actually made the Emperor base metal cases but the inside of the back cover has a crown that looks very similar to the one used by the Philadelphia Watch Case Company. The word Emperor is under the crown along with the words base metal.

Any information would be appreciated.

Beautiful dial.

I'll have to add that this watch is a superb runner. After some small adjustments, it is now running within 2 seconds per day. I can't get my 21j RR grade Waltham Crescent Street to stay that accurate.

Welcome Donald,

This often frustrating 12-size casing issue was true of Hamilton, along with certain Illinois examples, Howard and South-Band movements as well. Management realized they could maximize profits and also deliver a more reliable watch by selling them factory cased and timed, having these oddly sized movements allowed that practice to become the norm.

Hamilton 12-size movements are slightly oversized as to diameter which allowed a slimmer movement, for that reason they will fit only into cases specifically made for them, those factory cases will usually have Hamilton markings. What you have is very unusual, it may be a case that was designed to be a replacement or someone may have modified the case.

See if there is any sign of other case screw indentations.

Don

It was my understanding from other sources that the Hamilton 12s movements were smaller, not larger, than standard. If you are right that they were larger then that may explain the marks around the movement that someone told me appear to be grinding marks.

Here's the inside of the back cover.