Today I'm wearing a vintage Hamilton Thin-O-Matic on a Speidel expandable bracelet which seems to be about as old as the watch (1960s.) This one was purchased by my dad and I don't believe he had it serviced. It's similar to my other Thin-O-Matic that was my grandfather's, but this one doesn't have a solid gold case and some of the details are different. If you look at the position of the hands you can see they don't line up correctly. This is easily fixed by removing the hands and resetting them, but while considering that I realized the case has no removable back, everything goes in from the front. Then I found this link that shows the tool and procedure for removing a crystal like this. I suppose if I want to have it fixed I'll probably take it to my watchmaker since I don't have the right tool and have little use for it, so I probably won't buy one. This watch is good looking and seems to keep good time, but if I keep it in my collection I will probably have it serviced and cleaned as well as fit a leather strap. I'd also be curious what movement is inside (whether it's a micro-rotor or regular automatic) and what year this one is from; I'm sure my watchmaker could tell me.
Hi. I have a thin-o-matic the same as in the pictures in this site, except mine has a removable back. There are six indented grooves evenly placed around rim with a Hamilton trademark too. It has an inscription. It was my grandfather's and a received it when he passed: 25 YEARS J.A.FOLGER & COMPANY (his name) OCTOBER 4, 1963. Did they made two types? One removable? or was it added becaue of the inscription? Did all Folger's Coffee employee's receive one at that time for their service? Dose it hurt or help the value of it? Anything anyone who knows about this would be a great help and give me a little insight about him and his life, Thanks. His grandson.
ReplyDeleteJon, the one you have is probably a slightly different model with a removable caseback. Inscriptions never help the value of a watch (unless it belonged to somebody famous, I suppose) but it shouldn't hurt it terribly. If yours is a solid 14k gold case it's worth at least a few hundred dollars, but if it's gold filled or "rolled gold plate" (R.G.P.) it would be worth much less, under a hundred.
ReplyDeleteJust recieved one of these as a gift from a friend.Were all of these automatics?.Mine is a windup!!!
ReplyDeleteMike, all the Thin-O-Matics were automatics, so one of two things has happened to yours: Either it has had the movement replaced with a non-automatic one, or the automatic winding function is no longer working. I encourage you to seek out a local watchmaker and let them take a look at it. I'd love to hear what you find out and to see some pics of it. Thanks.
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