This is one of my personal favorites. From World War II the fascinating Hamilton Model 23 Chronograph. This highly complicated Chronograph is an exceptionally accurate watch with 12-hour dial. It also includes a fully independent thirty-minute elapsed time start, stop and re-set to zero timer.
Hamilton Grade 23 Chronograph has many interesting features...
Posts: 10553 | Location: Northeastern Ohio in the USA | Registered: November 19, 2002
As you can see this is a very complicated movement. 19-Jewels, Adjusted to Heat, Cold, Isocronism and Positions. A beautifully designed precision instrument.
Model 23 Movement Number P13970 is a fascinating study...
Posts: 10553 | Location: Northeastern Ohio in the USA | Registered: November 19, 2002
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
Posts: 2015 | Location: East Lansing, Michigan USA | Registered: November 24, 2002
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.
Posts: 2015 | Location: East Lansing, Michigan USA | Registered: November 24, 2002
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.
Sam Williamson
Posts: 618 | Location: Northwestern Florida in the U.S.A. | Registered: November 27, 2002
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.
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.
Posts: 873 | Location: Baltimore, Maryland USA | Registered: September 20, 2004
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.
Posts: 2015 | Location: East Lansing, Michigan USA | Registered: November 24, 2002
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
Posts: 324 | Location: Daytona Beach, Florida USA | Registered: November 29, 2002