Did you know that "barrel" is English for "tonneau"?

I got a really fun watch today which I'd like to share.I have some questions for the Hamilton experts(a.k.a. "Hamsters")too.
first pic:

So I found this Hamiton and offered a hundred because it looked old and it had a great inscription on the back.

Last pic is the innards:

O.k.-So the watch looked nice but not "Wow". I got it back to the office and tried to look it up. It wasn't in "Shugart's 'Complete'" or the Ehrhart books so I looked at Rene's book and found that it is a "Barrel Plain(1928)* The asterisk led to more info which included production totals for each version. Well, I looked for my tu-tone GF version and, huh, not there. Around this point, as I looked at the back, the words "solid gold" became apparent. "so thats why there wasn't any wear anywhere!Doh!
I went back to Rene's book to reinvestigate but found my watch falls outside the box. The info reported states there are:
"18K yellow: 51 (including 4 for Tifanny)
14K white: 1,307 plain,777 engraved
14K green: 726 plain 422 engraved
18K yellow: 9 plain "(I'm not clear how these differ from the top line)

The middle section of mine is clearly yellow and the front and back are clearly white. So I checked the serial nos. and found that everything matches.

So, this is all fresh news and I may have some error somewhere and I hope to hear any input.
Thanks!
-Cort
p.s.-see also: there is info on Wikipedia that describes the Franklin auto. They had a lot (goin' on) but they got weeded out pretty early in the game.
p.p.s.-so far all I've done to it was to remove the metal band and exchange it for something less
harmful. It's keeping time too!(always a perk)

Your Barrel with a two-tone case is correct. Several models of the early Hamilton wristwatches were made with two-tone cases... Oval, Square, Square B, Barrel, Barrel B... all models with cases made by Fahys. Don't know why other models made by other case makers weren't made in two-tone for Hamilton.

They were not advertised or catalogued, and were probably available by special order. They are mentioned in early Hamilton documents... and all were apparently made in 1929. I don't have production figures for all the models, but next to the two-tone Oval, the two-tone Barrel is probably the rarest. I have only seen 6 or 7 of them.

Great find, Cort! Very rare according to Will Roseman's site. Here's the link to his description:

Two-tone Hamilton Barrel

Bryan,Thomas, Thank you both!That is incredibly
good information and great news too. The linked Hamilton sites are both remarkable. I was going to write to the Will Roseman site to report that there are now nine gold two-tone Barrels(plain) known to exist but I see that Bryan is now a moderator at that site so I'll assume the info is passed along. I wrote to the Franklin Auto club site to see if they would be interested in the pics. I would guess the car co. wasn't passing out too many special order gold watches after the recession hit in October '29. They were out of biz by '34.
Again, thank you for the info and direction!

-Cort

Cort -- I want to shop where you shop!! Please do tell us where you were so lucky to have found it!!

I have been dreaming of walking into an antique store or pawn shop and locating a Hamilton 2-tone for a few years now -- ever since I first saw a few of Bill Hansen's. (An Oval, Barrel, and Square if memory serves.) While the Barrel is probably my least favorite of the early Hamilton Geometric-named watches, I (and most others here, I bet) would be thrilled to have found this for $100! CONGRATS!!!! I rather like The Franklin Auto inscription also...

Rick,
It would be pointless to tell you where I bought it because they only had one . I was invited down to see if there were any goodies in the junk boxes kept in the back and there surely were none. This watch was displayed in the front jewelry case with about 30 other used wrist watches. I don't get out to shop much so this was just luck. It is a little embarassing that I didn't even pick up on the fact it was gold. My offer was based on it being an early Hamilton with cool engraving. I was so impressed that there was no "brassing" at all on an 80 year old watch! The good news is that there is still stuff out there!

I've heard back from the Franklin club and have forwarded the pics to their club historian. Two interesting facts about the Franklin car are: H.H. Franklin coined the term "die cast" and, the Franklin was the first air cooled gas engine.
-Cort

Cort,

Nice find. FYI, Rene Rondeau has posted a two-tone Barrel on his website. Just for comparison, you might want to take a look. Rene Rondeau's Mechanical watch listings

Regards,

Cary

Thank you Cary. I've been meaning to call Rene to get his take on my watch (and I will).His is a very clean, sharp example but I am happy that mine is engraved as it is. Though I appreciate all original engraving history, it often isn't easy to interest folks in what are perceived as other peoples watches. This is silly, of course, but I do understand.

A pic of my watch is now posted on the Franklin car site and the site moderator seems confident that new info will be reported.

-Cort