Currently Gloating Over... My Hamilton 978 From 1915

[WillFly]

Not quite railroad grade, but pretty good, with a beautiful dial and a gorgeous movement. Runs a few seconds a day fast, which isn't bad for its age - 99!

 

 

[autowind]

That`s another cracker,  another work of mechanical art,  it`s a shame that not many people see the movement.  I hope you are going to leave a few for other collectors?

 

Watching a Youtube video of the "Illinois watch company"  I may have found the answer as to how they did the dials.  It looks like the bare dial is sprinkled with a powder which when heated turns to a porcelain coating. The next stage a women passed the dial under a roller which printed the numerals etc. on the dial,  silk screen printing?   So anyhow they were not hand painted.

[WillFly]

You're quite right - the dials were, on the whole, far too fine for hand painting. Later dials for Hamiltons were, I believe, inferior enamel - whereas the earlier dials were porcelain. I think the one above is probably porcelain.

 

It's tempting to get display backs for these watches - but then you destroy the originality of the whole piece...

Edited April 15, 2014 by WillFly

[Geo]

You certainly have some beautiful pocket watches, thanks for sharing them with us.

PS, That's great that you managed to extract the broken pin from the Oris without hauling it apart, well done sir.