993 2 Tone unmarked Special

[backntyme]

Kent, today an early unmarked grade 993, 2 tone, unmarked "Special" sold on Ebay. (see auction no. 2672970569) BTW, I believe this example was marked adj. 5 positions, but not sure. (versus 8)

As I know you have been recording marked and unmarked 992/993 Specials, thought this might be of interest.

My question is this. How many 993 2 tone watches do you have recorded? (ie known to exist) and how many marked Special versions? I'm also curious as how this compares to your totals of 992's.

Thanks in advance for your input, James Dean

[backntyme]

Kent, today an early unmarked grade 993, 2 tone, unmarked "Special" sold on Ebay. (see auction no. 2672970569) BTW, I believe this example was marked adj. 5 positions, but not sure. (versus 8)

As I know you have been recording marked and unmarked 992/993 Specials, thought this might be of interest.

My question is this. How many 993 2 tone watches do you have recorded? (ie known to exist) and how many marked Special versions? I'm also curious as how this compares to your totals of 992's.

Thanks in advance for your input, James Dean

[Kent]

Jim:

Thanks for calling this watch to our attention. I hadn't noticed it, but I suspect that Ed did. We appreciate your "heads-up" all the same, because it is unusual and its now surely in our data base.

A Hamilton tu-tone damaskeened movement that is not marked "Special" is not an un-marked "Special." It's just a tu-tone movement. Occasionally some tu-tone damaskeened movements have dials that are marked "For Special RR Service" or something similar, but dials are transportable. Its only when there are a number of identical examples whose serial numbers are in a tight group can it be said that a tu-tone damaskeened movement, having a stock Hamilton dial, whose serial number is within the group, is supposed to have that "Special" dial.

If the grade number isn't on the movement and the grade is identified from the serial number, 993 in this instance, it can be called an "un-marked 993."

Our data base is cannot be considered to contain all the examples "known to exist." The percentages of surviving examples that it does contain is highly variable depending upon specific grades/variations. For example, many collectors joined in the effort to identify Columbus 500,000 series movements when Greg, John, Ed and I were working on that particular column. So, the list that was published in the Bulletin represents a fairly high percentage of the surviving movements. Even so, I'd be surprised if it was 10% or higher.

Having said all that, we have about 60 993's in our data base (including the one just sold), four of which have tu-tone damaskeening. Three of these are marked "Special." Although the serial number of one isn't known, its description makes it seem to be a different movement from the other two. Their serial numbers are 743304 and 743307.

For comparison, there are about 900 992's in the data base (exclusive of 992E's). 10 of them have "Engr Corp." dials. A little over 60 992's are tu-tone damaskeened. 5 of them are marked "Extra," about 35 have dials marked "Hamilton Adjusted For Railroad Service 21 Jewels" and about 20 movements are marked "Special" and have dials marked "Hamilton Adjusted For Railroad Service 21 Jewels, 8 Adjustments."

Kent

That guy down in Georgia :smile:

[Kent]

Go further down in the Listing (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?MfcISAPICommand=ViewItem&item=2672970569), there's a set of five pictures of the Hamilton 993 at the bottom.

Kent

That guy down in Georgia :smile: