Monday, March 31, 2008

Vintage Hamilton "Selfwinding"

G-Shock Week-and-a-Half is over and I'm moving on, but I hope you enjoyed it and rest assured I have plenty more G-Shocks that will be on my wrist in the future. For today, however, let us turn the clock back to some number of years before my birth, say 1970 or so, for what I think is a quite nice looking Hamilton automatic. Honestly, I don't know much about this one. I saw it on eBay and decided it was for me. Based on the design and the claimed vintages of other similar watches I would say it's from right around 1970, give or take a few years. It is Swiss made, as indicated on the dial, and also "selfwinding", and seems to be all original, although the domed acrylic crystal is really perfect so it could be newer. I like the style of the dial, as well as the look of the gold electroplate cushion-shaped case. The case actually has a faint sunburst pattern to it (which seems to be more obvious on the non-gold plated version of this watch,) and it's in decent condition. While the old "gold filled" or "rolled gold plate" watches tended to be brass underneath, I'm pretty sure this one is stainless steel, and the increase in durability over the old technology is evident. Also, at about 1 3/8 inches wide (without the crown) I can actually wear it and not feel like it's lost on my wrist like many vintage watches I own. The screw-in stainless steel caseback has some scratches from being opened at some point, but I haven't opened it myself. The markings on the movemement might prove to be more helpful than the numbers on the caseback in finding out more about this watch. As I've said before, I still feel a connection to the Hamilton brand, even now that they have no real ties to the U.S.A. Even this watch from more than 35 years ago was made in Switzerland, and I guess could have been one of the latest models made by the original Hamilton company before it was sold to Swiss interests.

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