I thought I would share with you these photographs of a true Hamilton rarity. His is the Hamilton Otis. It was produced in 1938 to 1940. It was cataloged in 14K yellow gold fill. Will Roseman, a tremendous student of the Hamilton Watch Company, suggested that his records from 1939 indicate that 4 examples of the Otis were produced in solid 14K yellow gold, and 1 in platinum. He is looking into the records for 1938 and 1940.

This example, unengraved and in extremely fine conditiion, was discovered at the Orlando Show last week by a friend of mine.

Enjoy the pictures

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Great watch Bill

Wowwe Bill nice watch and White gold..

Very nice watch Bill! Thanks for showing it.

But watch out for the solid silver MODERN Swiss made replicas which turn up from time to time !

Dan

By "watch out" do you mean to beware of it, or to keep yours eyes open for one? In spite of being a replica it is a nice-looking watch. Was this made under Hamilton sanction or is it a counterfeit?

The Silver "Otis" is modern. All have same case serial number and a dial that is not quite the authentic Otis. It appears to be a casting using a mould, whereas the vintage Hamilton version is built up from a number of stampings.

dan

I will certainly defer to Will Roseman, Bryan Girouard, Rene Rondeau, Dan Mitchell, Mark Cardelluci or any other Hamilton Expert on this matter. I don't for a moment suggest to put myself into this class of experts.

However, I do believe that the Hamilton Otis was only produced by the Hamilton Watch Company of Lancaster PA between 1938 and 1940. My information is that it was only cataloged in yellow gold fill. Will Roseman and Rene Rondeau both suggest that it was also made in very, very limited numbers in solid gold. According to Will, several special order examples were also made in platinum.

I don't know of any data that suggests that the HWC made any in Sterling Silver. I've seen a few examples of Sterling Silver Hamilton Otis watches show up on Ebay. I've never seen one authenticated by a Hamilton expert. I'm very curious about the example that Dan recently pictured on this site. I've never before seen a silver example hallmarked with the name "Hamilton Watch Company". This example has other markings that, to my knowledge, aren't consistent with the practices of the Hamilton Watch Company.

I have no idea of this Silver Otis is "real" or not. I suspect that it is not, but I'd love to hear from others on this matter.

This is exactly why the IHC is so amazingly interesting....

Dan is correct, but to put it more bluntly... the silver Otis models are fakes.

I've seen several at shows, usually offered with an accompanying story that they were from a former Hamilton employee or executive, etc. and therefore authentic.

They all have the same serial number. Plus the case construction and markings are inconsistent with what Hamilton used on the Otis.

The fakes have 980 movements and genuine Hamilton dials, albeit the wrong dial... one from another model.

I do not know where these watches originated. There are a number of places in the world where excellent copies of high-end watches such as Rolex and Omega are produced, perhaps these fake Hamiltons came from there.