Hamilton brothers in arms,….finaly!

Sorry for taking these watches up for discussion again but I really find them interesting.

Came across this Hamilton “Royal Air Force” 3992B recently. Have had the “Nato dialed” Navy one for some time and have been dreamin´ about an Air Force type aswell.
I actually got one on German ebay just a few weeks ago. Very happy about it. The air Force one 3C274, the other one has sn 3C1826. That would mean that the “Navy”-one is quite late in the production and the “Air Force”-one is quite early.

There are a few things I have been thinking about when looking and reading about these nice watches.
First of all it seems like the watch to the right (The Nato one) is used to be carried in boxes that looks about like this. It has the green textile both on the place were the watch is located and underneth the box. The air force ones have lether on these places. The air force ones also have a more smoth finish one the surface with more grind angles on the wooden parts. There are some other differences aswell, the hinges and so on. I even think that the type of wood itself may be different.

I wonder if it is possible to make any conections about if late ones has got the “Nato dial” and early ones has not. Therefore maybe the Air force boxes are earlier produced than the “Navy ones” even if the years of production is limited to three or four years.
As far as I understand these watches were delivered to the Britsh Royal Navy/Air Force after WW2 but were the boxes made in GB or in the US? It would be interesting if anyone have made a serial number inventory connected to the certain type of dial and engravings and even type of boxes even if they cold be changed over the years. If not, I got a job. According to what is written about the delivery to GB it should be strange if there were a connection as stated above. I think it would be interesting to check it out anyway. If the connection is there, these boxes presumably were made in the US.

Another thing is that I have never seen this engravings on a 3992B-mvt before, (US NAVY BU. SHIPS) -and a "broad arrow". Has anyone seen it on a 3992B before. I have seen it on I think both Hamilton mod 22 and 21 but without the broad arrow.

Regards!
Bernhard

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Those Hamiltons are great watches. Good questions about the boxes. I don't know of any research on that topic.

The U.S. and Broad Arrow on the movement most likely were added at the factory at the time the watch was made. Under the "Lend/Lease" agreements of WWII, various other equipment was marked the same way. For example, British .303 No.4 rifles were made in the U.S. and all of them were marked "U.S. Property", even though all of them went directly to the United Kingdom. Thus, I suppose it must have been the same for U.K. contract Hamilton watches.

Thanks for the images, I would like to learn more about these fine Hamilton navigation watches.

Best regards,
Greg

Thanks Greg!
How about the Canadian ones, has anyone ever seen anyone of those in a box like these?

Bernhard

how about this canadian 3992B

Thanks for the image. A rather different looking box. Any markings on it?

Best regards,
Greg

just a handmade label that says return to "H.M.C Chart and Chronometer depot, esquimalt B.C."