This chart should help you identify your Hamilton 992, 992E, and 992B Factory Railroad case with a quick glance at the pendant.

Robert

They didn't have much luck with Model 12, I suppose they felt the Number 13 would really be unlucky! Looks like Model 12, Number 3-tu-tone, and Model14 had the shortest life of all the 992B cases.

I don't believe the Model 9 was advertised in any catalog, but Hamilton mentioned it in their records.

Robert

thanks robert for the posting....

even shorter may be the ones not 'technically' identified... "b" 'c'.... and a couple of others in the history...

Terry,
It would really be nice to positively identify the "B" and "C". Hopefully, it will happen sometime down the road.

Robert

Can anyone put a specific year or year ranges for each of the Hamilton factory cases....

Regards,
Jerry

Good going Lin. A nice piece of research!

Thank you Lin, this will help a lot of members when trying to tie in their watch and case together....I for one, appreciate all that you do for us here at IHC185....

The 185 SPECIAL IS GOING PLACES....ALL ABOARD...!

Regards,
Jerry

Thank you, Lindell. This will be especially helpful for those like me who are still struggling to identify what goes with what based on the period.

Can we add to Lin's great chart which dials would be from what period, and what cases would be appropriate.

This listing is subject to revision as more specific facts arrive on the scene.

I'll start by listing what I have learned here so far.
P-Porcelain Enamel M-Melamine HA-Heavy Arabic BM-Blind Mans BMN-Blind Man Numeric (Montgomery) HG-Heavy Gothic CPR early Canadian Pacific ML-Mainliner 950B-No description necessary. RWS-Railway Special

The 992 and 950 era.

Crossbar.........HA,CP,BM,BMN, all P
Model 2..........Any current dial, available through 1953 production
Model 3..........HA,CPR,BM,BMN, early HG (1) all P
Model 4.......... (Same as above)
Model 5.......... (Same as above)
Model 6.......... (Same as above)
Model 7.......... (Same as above)

Towards the end of the 1920s the HA and CP dials are gradually removed as standard offered dials.
Into the Elinvar era

Model 8..........Introduction of Elinvar,

BMN, early HG (1) all P (BM gradually phased out)

Model 9.......... (Same as above)
Model 10........ (Same as above) But...HG Dial 519 changed to heavier figures with thin, long minute marks. Later the figures became thinner. The Model 10 ran into the "Railway Special" and phased out after the war.

Mainliner........ Introduction of 950E, ML dial, some with HG or BMN dial.

Into the "Railway Special" 992B era

Model 11......... P,HG RWS,BMN RWS
(Then intro of 992B 1940)
Model A.......... P 950 until intro of M, or
any RWS dial.
Model 12......... P,HG RWS,BMN RWS
Model 14......... P or M, HG RWS, BMN RWS
Model 15......... (Same as above)
Model 16......... M,HG RWS,BMN RWS
Model 17......... (Same as above)including 950-B

Note (1) refers to the first HG 519 dial. that's the one with moderately heavy, square figures and heavy minute marks.

Keep in mind the HG variants, the single sunk emergency dials, the conversion era from Porcelain to Melamine, and the Melamine, BMN dials that were marked "23 Jewels" towards the end of production.

This is what I've gathered from the IHC 185 postings. I haven't researched any Hamilton papers, etc.

I know from a "B" or "C" case like a cow knows the meaning of Sunday.

Feel free (like I have to tell anyone) to make corrections.

Man, this string is becoming fantastic with information and is now being tied together which makes it one of the best research documents we have....

Thanks, Mitch, for adding your dial research to this information string, it is very valuable....

Regards,
Jerry

You're welcome, Jerry. I made a few additions to my post.

More information on this one post than in the whole library on that "other site". That's why I'm a proud to be a Life Member of 185. Not to mention our intrepid Fearless Leader.

Would anyone have the approximate production end dates for models 1-17, mainliner and lettered case models?

Mitch, any way you could post a pict of the dials that you have mentioned? us rookies would find it very nice to see what each looks like. thanks

Joe, I agree with you wholeheartedly so lets get this thing started....Maybe by doing so it will encourge others to post different dials and I'm sure someone can give them the proper names and numbers....

Here is two that have been posted recently:

Regards,

Jerry

This one is HG - 519 Dial according to Edward P.

Here is the CPR Dial from Lindell....

All three of these first ones are double sunk.

1934 Advertisement "Blind Mans" Numerical Dial....

Someone might want to move these Pictures to there own String - Post.

These are from a 1951 Hamilton book I just purchased on Ebay

As soon as my scaner is working. I will edit these photos.

I could zoom in on the dials if this would help.

Dial #332

Here is one on my 950B a Melamine Dial

From left to right.

Numerical Dial 151

Heavy Gothic 168 (Melamine Single-Sunk HG)

Heavy Gothic 121 (Melamine Double-Sunk HG)

I believe this is a 536 dial which is porcelain-enamel.

This is an interesting page. It states the numbers, letters, markers and stars on some 12s dials are 18kt applied.