While cleaning some old stuff, i've found a watch that i believed in first place to be some kind of replica. A few google seachs later it appears to be an Hamilton 987A.

My horology(*) knowledge being dangerously close to zero, the question is:
can the markings help us to put a date on this watch or bring us some clues on it's history ?

the back of the case is marked : H1 / ORD.DEPT. / U.S.A. / OD-79972
inside the back case cover : STAR WATCH CASE CO / BASE METAL / 5232272
(plus what i beliebe to be a repair mark)
behind it's dust cover, the movement serial is 0309481

Thanks in advance for your help.
(*) i did'nt even knew this word 2 days ago :-)

i try to join some picts:

face :

and the back :

Vincent, Your watch is not a replica, but a genuine Hamilton WW-2 era watch. This model is known, unofficially, as a garrison watch. This watch has the buff dial and is not hack set. This differs from the tactical model, which has the black dial and is hack set.

Tom

Tom,
Many thks for this confirmation and the garrison/tactical details.

Does the serial nbr teach us the year of manufacture ?
Is there also anything to learn from the OD nbr ?

Krgds,
Vincent

Extrapolating on the serial number on the movement, it was made approximately 1944.

The "OD" on the case back is a designation for watches with 15 to 17 jewels.

The number after the "OD" is just an Ordinance Department number and has no known (to me) special significance other than perhaps equipment accountability for military hardware.

Hello,

reading the post was interesting...tnks!
isn't that number the Gvmt contract number?
I am also puzzled by the H1 which appears often and H3 which also appear somewherelse on the Hamilton...
tnks rgds

Enzo

"OD" is one of several codes used to designate the attributes of the watch, such as the number of jewels and sometimes the type of case. The number which comes after the code, in this case after the OD, is the serial number of the watch. Watches for Army ground forces usualy did not have contract numbers.

Good question about the H-1 code. I'll have to see if I can find any information about that.

Best regards,
Greg

The "H3" on later Hamiltons meant "Hydrogen 3" or Tritium, which had something to do with radiological items on the watch ie, luminescent hands and dial markers. I don't think that marking was used on WW2 Hamiltons.

The "H1" I saw mentioned somewhere but am having trouble finding it.

Just to add a bit, the U.S.A. stands for United States Army. The Navy and Army Air Force had watches with different markings on them. This particular watch would have been the 70,972nd watch provided to the Army made using the OD specifications. It could have been issued to all sorts of men in the Army ground forces, from a frontline infantry soldier to a clerk who never left the US. There is no way to tell as the Army did not seem to keep records of who was issued what watch. I have found no records to date that provides postive proof that such a white face watch would have been issued only to con-combat types while black face ones were issued only to combat types. While there may have been an intention that white dial ones would go to non-combat types I am sure that with war-time shortages such a plan was likely thought of as 'flexible'. The more important feature for issuing watches would have been the hack vs. non-hack ones. Hacking was important to soldiers who were trying to coordinate their attacks.

Another observation about this watch is that it has the wrong strap. These watches were issued with canvas one-piece straps that wove over one strap pin, under the watch then back out over the other strap pin. That way of one of the pins ever broke, the watch would not be lost since it would still be held on the strap which would be securely buckled around your wrist.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you will not want to mess with the material on the hands or the numbers. That would be radium. The reason it no longer glows in the dark is not because the radium has lost any of it radioactivity - is is only because the phosphorus that was originally mixed in with the radium has been burned to a crisp. The energy from the radium made the phosphorus glow in the dark, at least until it burned it after the first 10 or 15 years. Radium has a half-life of 1,620 years which means the radium on your watch that was applied in the early 1940s has about another 1,560 years to go before it decays to the point of being half as radioactive as it was the day it was sold to the Army. There is a relatively small amount of radium on the watch so it should not be a problem if you don't disturb it and don't breathe in any dust from it. It might also be a good idea to keep it away from small children.