Looks like a fancy swiss watch on the inside.
...and machine built , right?

Amazing.

...a thing of beauty!!!a delight to the eye!!!thanks Lin...

A great Hamilton Model 23, Lin. According to Marvin Whitney in his book, MILITARY TIMEPIECES, pg.348; these were issued to the US ARMY AIR CORPS, NAVY BUREAU OF AERONAUTICS and the AIR COUNCIL OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.

To the US Military it was known as the Type AN 4752-1 (the AN stands for Army-Navy combined stores). The military called it a “navigational stopwatch”, though it is in fact a chronograph, given that it combines the functions of a regular watch with the functions of a stopwatch.

Whitney depicts this watch mounted in an octant, which is an instrument used for air navigation. Given that your example is exactly like those shown in the book, but without markings, I would assume it was made for govt. service but somehow the markings were overlooked. It may have been supplied to the United Kingdom where the markings were not applied because it was never issued. The US Govt markings would appear on the outside back of the case and would include, AN 4752-1, the serial number, contract number and so forth.

Best regards,

Greg Crockett

My model 23 has no military markings on either. Every one I have ever seen has lacked the military markings. Who knows why?

Now that you mention it, Jerry, I have only seen one with military markings. All of the others have had blank backs. The markings noted above are per Marvin Whitney’s book.

I have my late uncle's Wakkman (Breitling) navigational/stop watch that is the Swiss counterpart of the Hamilton Model 23,but with 18 jewels. The dial is identical in colour and layout. I could watch the accumulator mechanism for hours-and have,when I first got into pocketwatches,trying to figure out how this little jewel worked. In fact,this watch is the reason for my addiction! .I will post a photo if I ever receive the adapter for my new lenses The clean and functional movement is a true work of art for the machine age...Oh yes,it has the full military markings.

Here is another Hamilton Model 23... I bought this one at the Chattanooga Tennessee Regional on Friday...

These are a very interesting movement, this one P3259 is from the first year, no government markings on the case back.

close up

My grade 23, which bears no military markings is serial # P8334. None of the lists I have show dates for P serial numbers.

these model 23,s are not real easy to recase,they are 16 size but the stem has to be removed before the movement can be removed from the case..
most standard 16 size cases would not work on the model 23 because of the stem.

My model 23 at serial P12541 has the military markings on the case-back. It also has the original box as well as some interesting military extras from the original owner.

If I can manage a decent photo I will try and put it here later this week.

Fred

I think that Jim's thought that unmarked ones may be post-war selling off of never delivered surplus production or maybe post-war continued production for civilian sale makes some sense to me. The U.S. military was (still are) a real stickler for having everything marked, especially things that had some value. There are several reasons including keeping things from being sold on the black market, inventory control, being able to know what kinds of spare parts to order, etc. No military markings on something like a watch indicates to me that the case at least, and maybe the whole watch was never sold or delivered to the military.

I do not have a Hamilton 23, but I do have a new old stock porcelain dial. Does anyone know if white dials were ever used on a 23?

Larry

Hi Larry,

Was the dial in the original package? Well, that would be too easy, if the package had military markings. I have not seen any examples of this watch in a military case with a white dial. Otherwise, I could only speculate.

Larry,
I asked the local military expert ( my father) and he told me that he has indeed seen model 23's with the white dial, but they are very uncommon. Its just a guess, but after the war Hamilton experminted with selling their military clocks and watches in the retail market. I suspect that maybe the white dial was used for that purpose. The thought being that the white dial would be more eye appealing than the black military dial. ( the military specs on this watch called for a black dial with white hands & numerals )
Fred

Here is a picture of the optional dial for the model 23.