Attached are photo's of a rare and unusual early Hamilton, called the Hamilton Oxford. I understand that 2 were produced in white gold, and less than 200 were produced in yellow gold. The dial is horrible and the hands are incorrect. When I get the watch cleaned up and with the correct hands and dial, I will post some additional photo's. Bryan Girouard and Will Roseman know much more about this model, and I will asked them to tell us "the rest of the story".

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Actually, the production figures in the Hamilton records I have are as follows:

138 in yellow
122 in white

All of the yellow ones were made in 1934 only. Most of the white ones were also made in 1934, but a few as late as 1940.

The dial is the correct dial, it has just been improperly refinished with the incorrect seconds bit and Hamilton signature. The hands are incorrect as Bill stated.

Bryan, I appreciate your help. It is great to have the production numbers. This is not my favorite Hamilton. Not by a long shot. The Early Cambridge that you picked up at the St. Louis show two years ago is far more attractive, in my opinion. I think it is very interesting that those 2 watches share the same back and center portion of the case, yet differ in the bezel.

I appreciate your contributions to this board.

Bill,
Thanks for sharing the pics of the Oxford with us.
this is the first actual pic of an Oxford that I have seen. Bryan-thanks for the info on the Oxford.

Restored Oxford:

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Yipes! I need to clean the case better...

Is there not a good argument for leaving a case essentially as found - rather than possibly overpolishing and losing detail and edge sharpness.

Clean the dirt and oxidation off -- but try to remove as little metal as possible.

Dan.

Dan,

Thank you so much for your help. I appreciate it so much. Although many members of the IHC may not know this, you are the Dan from the UK who worked and continues to work with Rene Rondeau in generating THE catalog of Hamilton Electric Watch information, and both of you add an enormous amount of information to all things Hamilton.

I appreciate all of your work.

Recently, I've seen your interest in the early Hamilton watches. As a fellow who restores watches, I look to you to tell me what to do.

The photo's I posted shows a watch with dirt.

What shoud I do?

WJH

Bill Great looking watch

Case Cleaning.

Depending on the case and its material and value I either use a buffing wheel mounted on an electric drill and use jeweller's rouge, or I hand polish with a mildly abrasive metal polish. The high speed buffing wheel can however take a sharp edge blunt.

In polishing the case of my recently acquired Captain Rice I decided to hand polish only, and accept some deeper scratches as evidence of historical wear.

After polishing I immerse the case in cigarette lighter fluid in a little glass jar in my ultrasonic tank. The petroleum fluid cleans all the dirt out, and evaporates without discernable residue.


dan

In short, Bill - for the Oxford, a case that is valuable, I'd hand polish only and clean in the petroleum fluid.

An old toothbrush is also useful for cleaning crevices in watch cases. Old crystal cement often softens in hot water - old epoxy cement needs Acetone to dissolve it out.

Dan.