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Hamilton Platinum Art Deco Tank Style with Covered Lugs from 1940's

Name: Hamilton Platinum Art Deco Tank Style with Covered Lugs from 1940's
Brand: Hamilton
Price: 3400 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

FACTORY / HOUSE: Hamilton Watch Company STYLE / REFERENCE: Art Deco /Tank Style METAL / MATERIAL: Platinum CIRCA / YEAR: 1940's DIMENSIONS / SIZE: Length 40mm X Width 21mm MOVEMENT / CALIBER: Manual Winding / 19 Jewels / Caliber 982 DIAL / HANDS: Silvered Dial with Diamond and Arabic Numeral Markers / Silvered Hands ATTACHMENT / LENGTH: Leather, 19mm / Regular Length WARRANTY: 18 months on the movement LIFETIME SERVICE COMMITMENT This is a great looking watch by the legendary house of Hamilton. It is the finest example of this model we have ever seen, it looks new. We have just given this watch a factory quality service by our finest watchmaker as well and it still has a factory rating on it. It is a great looking dress watch but can be worn with jeans as well, and it is the perfect unisex size to share. Hamilton Watch Company History The wrong train, on the wrong track, at the wrong time at the end of the 19th century frequently resulted in disastrous train wrecks. In response to the critical need for accuracy on the nation’s railroads, laws were passed in 1891 establishing set standards of accuracy. All engineers and railroad workers were required to purchase and maintain their watches to keep accurate time based on set standards, about 30 seconds per week was the tolerance. This was the inspiration for The Hamilton Watch Company which was founded in 1892 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The company was started by a group of investors who were looking to create a high-quality, American-made watch. Hamilton quickly became a leading manufacturer of pocket watches, and by the early 1900s, the company was supplying watches to the US military. In 1917, Hamilton introduced its first wristwatch for service men entering the first World War. The wristwatch quickly became popular with both soldiers and civilians recognizing how practical they were. Hamilton continued to grow throughout the 1920s and 1930s, and by the 1940s, the company was one of the largest watchmakers in the world. Hamilton had exceptional engineers and designers and their watches were elegantly styled as well as dependable. As a watchmaker myself I consider Hamilton to be one of the worlds “best” watches. It was mass produced perfection. Even today, you can take 100 old Hamilton’s of the same model apart and shake them up in a bag and reassemble 100 watches that will work perfectly with almost no adjustment. This is an achievement. In the early 1930’s our family store in Los Angeles was a “Hamilton” Store. Even during the depression though Hamilton did not allow you to discount the price to sell a watch. Also, in the neighborhood was another Hamilton store and one day the owner sent in a “shill” to buy a Hamilton from us and someone gave them a slight discount. Well, that was all it took for Hamilton to “pull the line” from us. In those days the local jewelry supply houses sold you the watches and they were all told not to sell to us. We simply contacted Gruen, and they were very excited to have a new account in Los Angeles and we immediately became a Gruen Store. A few months later, the other jeweler in the neighborhood went out of business and Hamilton came back to us asking if we wanted “the line” again. No thanks was the response and we never carried Hamilton again. During World War II, Hamilton supplied watches to the US military again. In addition, with contracts for the Navy, they produced the world’s most accurate navigational chronometers. The company also developed several new technologies for use in military watches. After the war, Hamilton continued to innovate, and the company introduced several new watch designs for the future. Unfortunately, they made one very poor executive decision in the 1950’s. Having invented the first “electric” or battery watch they decided to launch it before all the “bugs'' were worked out. Too many of them failed and at the same time, Bulova launched their version of the electric, or battery watch called the Accutron. It did not fail and that was the demise of one of America's most successful and influential companies. Their watches, however, still live on and parts are available and the average Hamilton, with only average care, will last hundreds of years. Their commitment to excellence has never been surpassed by any watch company.

Creator:

Hamilton

Case Material:

Platinum

Movement:

Style:

Art Deco

Place of Origin:

United States

Period:

1940-1949

Date of Manufacture:

1940's

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. It is worth noting that this watch only had a 12-month warranty when it was new. However, we are so confident of our workmanship and team that we offer an 18-month warranty on all our watches, even those over 100 years old.

Seller Location:

Long Beach, CA

Reference Number:

Seller: 35431stDibs: LU422322640242

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Hamilton

In an era when the safety of America’s bustling railroads absolutely depended on accurate timepieces for its conductors, watchmaker Hamilton pioneered cutting-edge, impossibly precise watches in a complex that spanned one square city block of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, during the late 19th century.

As railroad tracks were laid across the United States and steam locomotives began traversing vast distances, the American railroad system ran into a problem. Back then, time was not standardized across the country. Therefore, in 1883, the railroad companies established the four time zones as we know them today. But, despite setting these zones, train conductors were not always synchronized, leading to deadly accidents on the railroads.

Enter watchmaker Hamilton, founded in 1892. Railway workers would be required to wear a pocket watch, as the timepieces were responsible for keeping conductors on schedule, and the watchmaking industry — and early American pocket-watch manufacturers such as Hamilton, Elgin National Watch Company and the Waltham Watch Company — benefitted. Hamilton’s pocket watches were extremely alluring to train conductors, who began buying them en masse. The East Coast company’s timepieces eventually earned the moniker “The Watch of Railroad Accuracy.”

Hamilton transitioned from pocket watches to wristwatches in 1914, as it supplied timepieces to American troops fighting in World War I. Wristwatches, naturally, were more convenient to wear and use in battle. The new style of watch was also appealing to aviators, and Hamilton aeronautical watches became all the rage among pilots, specifically those flying for the new U.S. Airmail service.

The general public’s interest in Hamilton watches grew rapidly in the 1920s. Legendary polar explorer Admiral Richard E. Byrd timed his historic flights over glaciers and chunks of sea ice with a Hamilton pocket watch in the late 1920s, and a Hamilton timepiece used by Byrd during these expeditions went on display in 2018 at the National Watch & Clock Museum.

Hamilton’s Piping Rock watch, an Art Deco–inspired design that featured elegant Roman numerals set in black for the hour markers, made its debut in 1928 and was gifted to the New York Yankees to celebrate their World Series win that year. The model was also featured in the film Shanghai Express alongside the brand’s Flintridge watch, further expanding Hamilton’s popularity. (Hamilton watches can also be seen in the films The Frogmen, Blue Hawaii, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Men in Black.)

In the second half of the 20th century, Hamilton became well known for several innovations: It developed the first-ever battery-operated electric watch, the Ventura, in 1957, as well as the first-ever digital wristwatch, the Hamilton Pulsar Time Computer, in 1970. Three years later, superspy and watch enthusiast James Bond donned a Pulsar in Live and Let Die.

Today, the company is part of the Swatch Group, and its headquarters and production facilities relocated from Pennsylvania to Switzerland in 2003.

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