And now for something completely different: a prototype of the third and last attempt at making a "thin" Electric watch at Hamilton.

The design of the Model 500 and 505 Electric movements made them quite thick, at a time when thin watches were very much in vogue. Hamilton tried to make a truly thin Electric movement but failed completely with the totally redesigned Models 508 and 510. The last attempt, this Model 511, took a simpler approach -- essentially shaving down a conventional 505, but also with some significant changes.

The layout of the gear train was redesigned, as were the index wheel and balance. The most important difference was that the electrical polarity was reversed. The result was a substantial reduction in contact wear. Hamilton had experimented with extra-hard platinum contacts in the 505 to replace the soft gold that was used, but platinum tended to develop heavy carbon deposits very quickly, fouling the electrical continuity. Reversing the polarity reduced the arcing.

It's a shame that this discovery hadn't been made sooner as it would have eliminated the one design flaw in the 505 -- rapid contact wear.

Eleven 511 prototypes, all rather crudely hand-made, were put to test. This one is number 6, and was kept by Jim Reese, one of the three inventors of the Hamilton Electric. He kept it running on his desk from 1966 until his death in 1992. In the late 80s and early 90s I visited Jim often at his home in Manheim, PA, and he never failed to remind me that the contacts had never been replaced in all those years. He was extremely proud of this movement.

Ultimately I bought the movement at the family's estate sale after his wife died in 1997. At the time I put a battery in it but it didn't run. I had too much going on in my work so I set it aside, and literally forgot about it until I was working my latest book and took it out to photograph. I started wondering how long it had been since it was overhauled. I doubt Jim Reese had cleaned it for a great many years before he died, and that was 14 years ago.... It seemed pretty obvious that the reason it didn't run when I put a battery in was that it was long overdue for overhaul. The other day I finally took the time to work on it. I was fascinated by the odd construction. I was also amazed to find that the platinum Z-pin contact was still perfect, no wear at all and just an insignificant bit of carbon after 26 years of operation. I cleaned and oiled it and the moment I dropped a battery in place it took right off... I consider quite a testament to Jim's memory.

Alas, the 511 was killed off on March 20, 1967, with the comment that "The decision by the Watch Review Committee to cancel the 511 was based on its belief that the 511 will not fill a need in the market."