Hi Timothy,
Sorry to join this converstation late. The shock absorbing material used was made out of NEOPRENE. Which was somewhat new to that age. It is the same material used in diving suits today. The neoprene rubber is impossible to get in the cylindrical shape like a "pencil" which is about the diameter of it, about 5/16 in. I am restoring my case myself and this has been a slow project. My neoprene shock absorbers were rotted out and giving a foul odor. I had to remove them unfortunatly. What I will end up doing is purchasing some neoprene rubber sheets, using hole punch to punch out several 5/16 in discs. Then stacking these discs together to form the small cylinders. This seems to be the best answer for me. I will share photos of the case when restored. Thank you for giving your imput on this feed. Michael Payant

Well I have finally finished the restoration of this case. I am one for keeping things as original as possible but the condition I found this one in was quite unacceptable. The outer shell was very sloppily lacquered over and over again and was covering the glass viewing portal, latches and hinges. The latches did not work properly due to this heavy laquer. Also on the bottom there was black paint under the lacquer as well as four worn down rubber slip discs that were lacquered over to. Inside was not much better. The Neoprene shock absorbers were rotting and giving off a very fowl odor. Several had fell off and were rolling about inside the case. The inner watch holder was in Ok shape and I was able to save the original felt watch liner. The upper and lower wooden “sandwich” pieces were in Ok condition and they were just cleaned with some special wood cleaner/oil. Under the bottom watch holder piece a black tar like substance had dripped along the left side and under, that had to be removed as well.

I used a gentle “Furniture Refinisher” not stripper to remove the several layers of laquer, paint, tar and what ever else was covering this thing. I then had to apply a stain to match the original walnut color inside the case. I then applied a satin laquer to match the original non glossy finish. The neoprene shock absorbers were tricky trying to find the correct material and making the cylinders to match what was original. I ended up getting some thick Neoprene sheets and punching 5/16 circles. I then glued these circles together and made the 16 side shock absorbers as well as the 8 absorbers that are placed under the inner wooden holders. This had seemed to be my best option.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am one for originality and keeping the history or such an item but if you had seen this prior ( I am sorry for not taking before photos ) you would agree. This was not useful at all and non operational. Plus my little guy (4 yrs old) said it “stinks like poo” and could not have it like that. Please let me know what you think and please let me know if you have any more ideas for the shock absorbers as they are not glued in, they are just held by the resistance they give each other from force. I did this so if I had to remove them it would be quite easy. Thanks all and Happy Holidays!!!!!!!!

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Michael,
You appear to have turned a sows ear into a silk purse! Very nice job, it looks like an original finish to me.

Michael,

I am wondering how you know what material the shock absorbers are made out of? Do you have some kind of documentation on these watches? I would love to learn more about their history.

I will post some pictures of mine. I wonder how many of these there are out there still.

- Tim

Oops... not as easily done as said... downside of a 7 megapixel camera... need to downside the pictures.

:-)

hi Timothy,just reset your camera to take Jpg pictures

Timothy, The only information I have on these shock absorbers is going off someone who I trust greatly. He is a master woodworker and has been creating, restoring and fefinishing these military timepiece cases for years. He does everything from Model 21 cases to the model 22's gimblaed and non-gimbaled. He has all the information amd more that I would ever need about these cases in particular. He told me that the absorbing material was NEOPRENE and is not found in that cylindrical form any more. He now uses the material iside fabric used on specialized boat seating fabrice. I wanted to stick with the original as possible so I opted using NEOPRENE discs formed together as a cylinder for my project. Sorry no documentation I know is around.

I was hoping to pick everyone's brain here. We all know of the military commissioned wooden box for the GCT 4992b's which in this thread we have seen a few examples. Was there ever a wooden case made to hold and store the Hamilton Model 23 chronostop. The design is different between the 4992b and the Model 23 and I do not think the Model 23 would fit in the 4992b case. Espeacialy in the winding area. Does anyone have or know of an example of a wooden carrying case for the Hamilton Model 23? Probably used by the Navy same as the 4992b version. I do know of the Adamson Canister cases that can fit both 4992b and the 23 as well as others. FD

I've only seen 23's shown mounted on the sides of sextants myself, as they were used for navigational sighting.

Scroll down to the October 1943 National Geographic Hamilton ad shown in this string:

https://ihc185.infopop.cc/eve/f...8073/m/848104482/p/7

Regards! Mark

Mark, Would you know or anyone know the sextant style or Mk # on the sextant that was used with the Hamilton Model 23. What a presentation that would be to have the Model 23 and the correct sextant together again!

I sure, don't, Mike. Sorry.

Regards! Mark

The "Mk 2" was the USN sextant during WWII.

Bob

Hello all and Happy New Year!
I hate to bring up old subject matter but I have small update for this thread. I left the last posting completely not satisfied with the material I used for the shock-absorbers in the case I refinished. Well I found a material that is extremely close to the look, consistency and feel to the original material used NEOPRENE rubber. It was literally just inches from me the entire time......MY MOUSE PAD! If you have a mouse pad take a close look of what is inside. I peeled off the smooth protective cloth on top and used the 5/16 inch hole punch to create the rubber cylinders.. My mouse pad is quite thick and was just the right size for the span between the two wooden walls. If anyone is thinking of refinishing their box or just need to replace these absorbers due to condition or if they are missing this is the best material I have found so far. I just wanted to update those that had an interest. All the best to you in this new year.

I looked up the possible material mouse pads are constructed of. It was interesting what I saw as NEOPRENE was on the list and it resembles almost so exactly what the original shock absorbing material looked like. Below:


Materials: Modern mousepads are typically made of lesser density rubber composites (open cell styrene, butadiene rubber or open cell SBR) with fabric bonded to the upper surface. However, many other types of material have been used, including fabric, plastics, recycled rubber tires, neoprene, silicone rubber, leather, glass, cork, wood, aluminum, stone and stainless steel. High-quality gaming mats are usually made from plastic, glass, aluminum or high-tech fibers.

Hi all,
first I´d like to wish you all a Happy new year, second let me congratulate you two (Tom and Michael)for showing me (us) those two fabulous Navigational watch boxes...I wish I had one...
Oh well, at least I´ve got the 4992B 24 hour GCT watch to go in there! Maybe one day...

Regards

Werner

Michael,

That mouse pad idea was excellent. It looks like it should.

Best regards,
Greg

How about posting a picture of the watch,Timothy And to Werner, I sold you my beauty of a box,that I consider to be one of the finest in existence, so smile broadly and enjoy,meine Hannover freund

It hasn´t arrived yet, but waiting for it is half the fun...Thanks Tom