I bought this watch a few years ago and it had a chipped dial around the seconds hole, missing the seconds hand, had a broken balance staff and a broken forth pivot. I did not search any further for damage. I only had $55 in it so I figured I could not go wrong.

The serial number of the movement was 1679643 and was stamped "Made in the USA". This movement was I of a run of 2000. I found this serial number 1680662 which is out of the same run of 2000 so they are brothers. Instead of fixing the many problems I decided to replace the movement.

Now I have been told that movements marked "Made in the USA" where meant for sale overseas. I don't personally know. If this is true however would this "Hamilton Electric Railway Special" dial been put on a movement stamped "Made in the USA"? I assume again that this dial was meant for service in the US. Since this is not a RR grade watch it would have been used for a position that did not require a RR grade watch.

It also came in this Keystone heavy duty case complete with inner duct cover. Again I assume because it was meant as a workman's watch and not as a dress watch. I have been thinking about putting it into a GF case but the jury is still out on that.

If anyone wants to shed some light on anything I have assume wrong please do so.

Harry

Dial with repair around seconds hole.

Back

Dust cover.

Movement

Harry,

Yes, the dial is correct for the movement. If you go to the Hamilton Electric, Interurban, and Electric Railway "Special" Series Database you’ll see a movement that is also marked MADE IN U.S.A. If you can find any documentation that Hamilton watches marked MADE IN U.S.A were made for export please share it.

RR

Thank you Richard,
No I don't have any documentation. I have an old 975 that had a metal dial with no seconds hole and it was marked "Made in USA". When I was trying to find out why someone would go to all the trouble to get a 975 instead of a 974 and have a special metal dial made and have the 4th pivot removed someone suggested since it was marked "Made in USA" that it was for an overseas market and that they commonly did not use the seconds hands over there. That is what I was told to the best of my memory and I don't even remember who told me that.

What it looks like to me is that a number of Hamilton models where marked "Made in USA" in the newer years starting in the 1920's and later and that there are so many in this country marked that way that it most just be a design change which just added "Made in USA". But I don't know I am just guessing. I actually added the s/n 1679643 to the Hamilton Electric page. Well I had a moderator do it so I will look and that may be the one I have here. But unless there are a group of watches in the list marked "Mae in USA" then that could just be a wrong dial placed on the wrong movement. Now if there were several with very close serial numbers then that would mean something.

Like this watch with a movement out of the same run s/n 1680662, I could not put it in the list because I don't know what dial it had on it originally.

Harry