Hamilton serial number starting with "4C"

[terry hall]

There are actually two watches with this serial number

The 4992B Military watch,

and Very Late 992B examples from about 1970 produced from 'leftover' military materials as a 'clean up' run. These were cased in model 15, 16, and 17 cases.


The lowest example of the later movements I have in my database is 4C144280

would welcome other, lower numbers to add.

[Tom Huber]

Another idea. This may also be a converted 4992B. After the war, Hamilton sold conversion kits to jewelers so the military model could be converted to look like a civilian 992B. The kit contained a dial, a fourth wheel with a seconds extension and a different hour wheel for under the dial, reducing it from 24 hours to 12 hours. These can be easily noted as they are still marked 22J on the plate, and one can see the screw hole in the center which held the sweep seconds bridge.

Tom

Tom Huber

[Don Dahlberg]

The NAWCC Library has the Hamilton ledgers for the war years. If you are a member you may go to the library section of www.nawcc.org (http://www.nawcc.org) and choose Research Request "member" Form. Just give the movement serial number and they can provide you with the type of watch, the day it was completed and the day it was sold. It will also give a serial number that indicated to whom it was sold, but we have not been able to figure out what these mean as yet.

I have two 4992B Master Navigational Watches
Serial number 4C77811 was completed and sold on Nov. 4, 1944
Serial number 4C54546 ws completed and sold on May 3, 1944. This one was converted to 12 hour after the war.

These two watches have serial numbers on either side of the one you indicated.

Hamilton 4992B Master Navigational watches were based on the 992B, but had a center seconds hand and a hack feature by which the watch stopped when the stem was pulled out for resetting.

These watches were used as short term navigational chronometers by airplanes and small boats. They were also used where good time keeping was required for periods of a day or two such as in ordinance.

Don Dahlberg