Vintage Watches

Hamilton America’s Finest Watch first watch made was an 18-size 17-jewel pocket watch in 1893. During the next six years, Hamilton had developed a reputation for creating pocket watches of the highest caliber of quality. Within Hamilton's first fifteen years, only two size movements were produced the 18-size and the 16-size. The Broadway Limited, Hamilton first series of pocket watches, was known as the Watch of Railroad Accuracy, and Hamilton became popular by making accurate railroad watches.

The total sales of Hamilton Pocket Watches was fifteen hundred in 1890, but in 1920, the same company sold more than five million time pieces. The increased sales by the company were attributed to the good quality provided by Hamilton. During the time of great depression the sales went down to 2 million but again in 1940’s the company surpassed a sale of 9 million.

In the 1920’s the company hired 750 watchmakers. The 750 watchmakers worked at the Hamilton plant to produce 350 watches everyday. The per-day manufacturing of Hamilton was very low as compared to the per day manufacture of Elgin or Waltham, the rivals at that time. However, Hamilton pocket watches were of better quality and they had a better standard. There were only a few manufacturers, who produced their watches with their own equipment; Hamilton was one of them. No other equipment was allowed because quality was the standard. [..Read More..]

Browse the widest range of vintage Hamilton pocket watches at the lowest prices.

For each Hamilton Pocket watch produced, there were several labor intensive hours spent. A watch was produced in 7-9 months and sometimes it took almost 12 month to produce certain watches. The time was required because each watch went through a 2-month testing period and each part was tested separately and then assembled again. In the beginning the consumer were focused on the number of the jewels on the watch and the grades, but after some years, the focus changed to style, different dials and beauty.

Hamilton also decided to change the focus toward the beauty of the watch. This change brought with it, more labor-intensive hours. Each watch consisted of almost 150 parts. The total time to produce these 150 parts was around 1000 hours. The completion time was pushed from 7-9 month to 8-11 month.

45% of the cost to produce a watch was spent on the labor, 35% went on overhead and 15% was spent on materials. The production quality was not sacrificed, despite the fact that Hamilton had the lowest production as compared to its rivals. This quality-oriented approach has earned Hamilton pocket watch respect in the collectors’ world.

Hamilton still produces watches and there are several new models available. However, pocket watches are much out of style today, but collectors still like to buy Hamilton Pocket watches. These watches are now considered vintage and people usually pay high dollar to buy Hamilton Pocket Watches. The most sought after watches are the ones made before 1940.

The watch dial 152 is the most popular dial among the collectors. While the most expensive watch movement is watch 468, which can cost from $700-$1000. The watch 468 was manufactured in 1900. As Hamilton Pocket Watches are vintage items, they are usually sold on much higher prices.