Hamilton private-label single sunk Arabic 24-hour dial marked Cooper, movement marked AE Cooper Hamilton, Ont

Hamilton Grade 975 Serial No 305318 Date finished October 7, 1903 Date sold October 26, 1903 to the Montréal Watch Case Co., Montréal, Québec

Railway map of London, Ontario, and surrounding area. The city is located on the CPR, and CNR railway lines from Toronto, Ontario to Windsor, Ontario on the heavily traveled Detroit to Toronto route, and is close to St. Thomas on Lake Erie, and Sarnia, Ontario on Lake Huron


Larry

Longines private-label Double sunk, Arabic numberals 1-12 in black, 24 hour 13-24 in red dial marked "Longines Express Monarch Made Expressly For The Canadian Governement" note the European spelling of Government

Longines 18 size, 23 jewel, Express Monarch movement Serial No. 1518605 manufactured circa 1904

Dial in case

Movement in case

Larry, that Canadian Governement dial is very nice, have you ever seen another one?

Regarding the Schaefer Bros. Hampden 16J, 5 days after you posted it I bought a Hampden Special Railway 17J with exactly the same dial(not private label though). I have only seen one other Hampden 24hr but it was single sunk.

Hello Lorne:

I have only seen one reference to it in one of Kent Singer's articles on Longines pocket watches. I would love to see some photos of your Hampden Special Railway if you could post them.

Larry

Hamilton 18 size, 19 jewel, Grade 944, Serial No. 522621 Private-label double sunk, bold Arabic 24-hour dial marked A. Ross & Co. Port Arthur, Ont.

Dial close-up

Hamilton ledgers indicate that Serial No. 522621 Date finished June 12, 1908, Date sold September 30, 1908 To the Montréal Watch Case Co. of Montréal, Québec

AWC Co. Gold filled Fortune case back inscribed "Grand Challenge Killarney Bonspiel 1904" from what I've researched the Killarney Bonspiel is played in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

A caricature of David R. Dingwall jeweler and CPR watch inspector of Winnipeg, Manitoba from 1908 that Tom Brown posted on page 24 of this thread, in his biography it stated that he was interested in curling and donated the Dingwall trophy, the Grand Challenge prize in the Manitoba Bonspiel the discrepancy between the date on the case back of 1904 and the movements manufacturing date of 1908 I cannot explain, possibly a re-case sometime in the past

I take it this Bonspiel is a major curling tournament.

That's correct Ed, curling is a big sport up here in Canada, and native to Scotland. They made a comedy about it with Leslie Neilson I believe called "Man with Booms"

Larry

Hamilton dial

Hamilton dial on, Grade 940

Hamilton, Grade 940 Serial No. 414602, Date finished June 11, 1904, Date sold August 3, 1904 sold to Montréal Watch Case Co., of Montréal, Québec. private-label movement marked "The Thomas Co. Bracebridge, North Bay,And Sturgeon Falls, Ont."

Barrel bridge

North Bay, Ontario is on the CPR line from Sudbury, Ontario to Montréal, Québec and is an important junction point.

Postcard view of downtown North Bay, 1910 in between the red and white striped awning and the blue and white striped awning is the storefront of The Thomas Co. jewelry store that published many postcards of the area.