17 Jewel Hamilton Sidewinder

[terry hall]

Gerald,
You have a grade 925 Hamilton movement. It is from about 1908 or so.

It is an 18 size, 17 jewel, hunter movement. It has been cased in an open face case. This combination is known as a sidewinder.

Hamilton had certain patterns of what you called "engraving". We call it Damaskeening. Some of the patterns were carried over between grades, but for the most part the higher grades of watches carried more elaborate patterns.

Take a look around the site and look at some of the pictures folks have posted. You will see some dandies!

[Kent]

Gerald:

Going by the serial number of the movement, and information in "American Pocket Watches Serial Number Grade Book, 1993 Prices," Roy Ehrhardt & William Meggers, Jr., Heart of America Press, Kansas City, MO, 1993 (Still in print, see Heart of America Press (http://www.hoapress.com)), your watch is a Hamilton grade 925 made around 1911. It is the hunting-case version of the grade 924, as can be seen in this 1916 Hamilton Pocket Catalog (http://www.knology.net/~ksinger/1916_925.jpg). Hunting-case watch movements are designed to go into a case with a metal cover over the crystal, having the winding stem at the 3 o'clock position. This is so that when the crown is pushed in with the right thumb, to open the cover, and the left hand supports the cover as it opens, the 12 o'clock position ends up at the top. When such a movement is placed in an open-face case, such as yours is, the winding stem ends up at the 3 o'clock position and the watch is referred to as a "sidewinder."

The Hamilton Watch Co. started up in Lancaster, PA in the middle 1890's. From the start, it positioned itself as a manufacturer of quality watches. For about 50 years, over 50% of the pocket watches it produced were the high grade necessary for use in the railroad market. At least two of its railroad grades were produced in quantities of a half of a million each, over a period of decades. Production ceased in the U.S. in 1969, although the firm has continued existence as a member of the Swiss conglomerate, SMH. The book, Time For America - Hamilton Watch 1892-1992, Don Sauers, Sutter House, Lititz, PA, 1992, has an excellent history of the company.

Hamilton made over 72,000 of the grade 925 between 1900 - 1919 (approximately).

Only a small percentage of American watches were cased at the factories prior to the mid-1920's. Most watch companies just made movements in industry standard sizes. The case companies made cases in those same sizes. The practice at that time was to go to a jeweler, select the quality of the movement and then pick out the desired style and quality of case. The jeweler would then fit the movement to the case in a matter of moments.

Nickel cases, sometimes referred to as nickel-silver cases, were relatively inexpensive and are durable. When polished up properly, they attain a nice luster, appearing like silver, but not quite as "white." American watch case companies produced nickel cases under various trade names including, Alaska Metal, Oresilver, Silverine, Silveroid and Silverode. As yoou can see, Silverode is the Philadelphia Watch Case Co.'s trade mark for its nickel case.

The book, "History of the American Watch Case," Warren H. Niebling, Whitmore
Publishing, Philadelphia, PA, 1971 (available on loan by mail to members from the NAWCC Library), has a fairly good history of the Philadelphia Watch Case Co., including reproductions of over twenty photos taken inside of the factory. Briefly, quoting from page 48,

"MR. THEOPHILUS ZURBRUGG bought out the watch case company of Leichty & Le Bouba in 1884, in Philadelphia, Pa.

"About 1888 he changed the name to the Philadelphia Watch Case Co. He made various types of cases, using a crown as one trademark and an arm and hammer as another. ... The company moved to Riverside, N.J. in 1902. ...

"In 1904 this man managed a series of mergers, which brought together his own Philadelphia Watch Case Co., Bates and Bacon, Crescent and the Keystone Watch Case Co."

From page 7:
"... After a series of mergers in 1904 the name became the Keystone Watch Case Co., Riverside, N.J."

Kent :smile:

P.S. I see that Terry came up with a good answer while I was taking my time typing away. The difference in the date between Terry's response and mine may be due to the use of different references. Hamilton's serial numbers weren't assigned in strict chronological order. Instead, huge blocks were allocated by watch size. Watch movements could take nine to eighteen months from the time the serial numbers were assigned to a run of parts until finished watches left the factory. Also, watches might not be finished right away and be kept, unfinished, in inventory for one or more years.

Kent

[This message has been edited by Kent (edited 02-17-2002).]

[terry hall]

Welcome back Kent!

No problem with the dates for me!

Thanks for all the other info ....gotta learn it sometime!