I've read that wrist watches for men became more popular around the time of WWI because servicemen found them more convienent to use than a pocket watch.

Does anyone know what grades of Hamilton wrist watches were used in WWI? Any pictures? Would these have had ordnance markings?

Thanks,

John III

So far as I am aware, Hamilton did not provide wristwatches to the military during the Great War. The US military provided very few wristwatches to soldiers and the only ones I know of are the ones issued to certain kinds of soldiers in the Army Signal Corps.

Of course many soldiers brought their own privately purchased wristwatches as well as other personal items such as lucky rabbits' feet and such, but none of these are military issue and so calling these military watches or rabbits' feet or whatever is not accurate. Ebay is full of such private purchase wristwatches that may or may not have ever been worn by a soldier since the style of privately marketed wristwatches was pretty much all the same.

Below are the only issued US military wristwatches from this war that I know of. These photos are of the amazing collection of John Barros that he posted on this website a while back.

Thanks Jim. That would probably explain why I haven't seen any Hamilton wrist watches from WWI.

Amazing Signal Corp watches from John Barros.

John III

I would imagine there are Hamilton wrist watches from that era that were sold in jewelry stores, and if so then some would have been personal items brought by soldiers to the war. But as I said, I have not heard of any of them being military issue.

Many people get confused and think any watch from this era with large numbers, maybe some radium on them, a second hand in a sunken dial near the 6, perhaps with small auxilliary 13 to 24 markings, or perhaps a red 12 are all military, but that was just a popular style back then. I have also heard silly marketing ploys by some sellers that extra wide lugs mean that it is a pilot's watch because you could use an extra wide and extra long strap so it would fit around the arm of the coat the pilots wore. I also am amazed by how many face grilles one sees on these watches on Ebay and the sellers touting them as being trench watches since the grille would protect the crystal from being shattered. If there really were as many of these as their being so common in the market today we would have had so many soldiers the war would have been won in half the time. I feel it is pretty likely that most of those grilles are reproductions added to an ordinary civilian watch of the day to increase the price people will pay.

John:

You may find this site of interest concerning Hamilton military watches. They do show some Swiss Hamiltons made for the British during WWI, with some really good pictures.

http://www.antiquevintagewatch...ilitary-watches.html

Marty

Hi Marty. I took a look at the webpage but I did not see a reference to Swiss made Hamiltons provided to the British Army and issued to its soldiers in WW I. Could you please lead me to where I should look on the page? Thanks. Jim

Jim:

It appears as if I looked to quick and pressed the button before I read it all. I thought that the section for British watches was for WWI, but now I see that I was in error, and I regret if I got your blood flowing.

Anyway.........it's not a bad reference site to have.

Marty

No worries. I am just eager to keep on learning about WW I timepieces.