Hamilton 956 Dial Question.

[LarFure]

I have on my bench a Hamilton 956 open face movement that I need a dial for. Would the dial for a 956 be the same as one for a 974?

[LarFure]

I have on my bench a Hamilton 956 open face movement that I need a dial for. Would the dial for a 956 be the same as one for a 974?

[terry hall]

I have seen the 956 with a couple of dials, including a metal dial... with specific features..

Most I have seen have been double sunk...

I don't have time this morning to scan or post image because of having to transfer to off site hosting....


.

[LarFure]

I was just wondering if the dial feet were the same. The 956 and the 974 look like the same movement,other than having different grade numbers stamped on them.

What part of North Carolina do you live in? We have a son that lives in Gastonia.

[Robert Sweet]

LarFure,
The Hamilton "Timekeeper" from 1919 shows two different dials for the 956 and 974, but Hamilton generally offered a selection of dials for each model.

Robert
http://static.flickr.com/81/253392404_5b85a77401_o.jpg

[Don Dahlberg]

The Hamilton 956 dates from 1914 to 1924.

The 974 ran for a longer time, so there are some early dials and some late dials that would not be appropriate for the 956. Early 974 even had four foot dials. The 956 came on the scene after four foot dials had been discontinued.

The 956 was introduced to be a cased version of the 974. It was only sold cased at the factory with a special series of single joint cases.

Hamilton records show no information on what dials could be purchsed with the watch. Illustrations show just the single sunk Antique Roman dial (See Robert's post above), but some price records show that double sunk dials were also sold. So even in 1940, Hamilton was not sure on the answer to your dial question. To be safe, it should have the Antique Roman dial, but nobody could prove you wrong with any 974 dail from the same period.

Don

[terry hall]

I am about 70 miles north....


I have seen these 956 movements in apparently original condition with other dials besides the roman numeral....

one that seems frequent is a Double sunk dial with a small 'rr track' outer indicator with slanted numerals... Like in the image below in the lower left... this is a scan from a 1923 Otto Young catalog that Roy Ehhardt copied for his book... thanks to Roy, RIP.

http://web.InfoAve.Net/~ehall/1923ottoyoungpage.jpg

have also seen a DS dial with small 'dots' for 5 minute markers similar to the ball dials..

Single jointed.... that is not counting the bezel right? :wink:

The case is what I would call a clam shell case, the bezel swinging down from the pendant, and the movement hinging at the 9 o'clock position... these were available in engine turned and plain polised gold fill.....

It appears that by 1923 the case choices also changed.

.

[Robert Sweet]

Below is an excerpt from the Hamilton (1920) Material catalog.

Some of these dials may pre-date the 956 and 974, but its an excellent reference source.

The credit goes to "Doug Sinclair" for sharing these images.

Robert

http://static.flickr.com/102/253666302_7e8de74c60_o.jpg

and the dial numbers and descriptions.....


http://static.flickr.com/87/253675097_23e96f20e9_o.jpg

[LarFure]

Thanks everyone for the great information. :smile:

[Tom Huber]

I have a 956 that has it's original gold tone, metal, arabic dial. THe case is green GF and the gold dial sets it off nicely.

Tom

[Robert Sweet]

Hello Tom,
Care to share an image?

Robert