Hamilton Watch Company was founded in 1892 when it took over 2 other watch companies : Keystone Standard situated in the same factory and Aurora from Illinois from which all the equipment was moved to the Lancaster plant.

Henry Caine from Aurora became the organiser for the first railroad watch which for many watch companies was the first product they started producing because obviously trains have to run on time.Conductors’ watches running fast or slow by merely a minute could spell collisions and death for a train’s trusting passengers. Hamilton dedicated itself to providing the best pocket watches that the American railroads had ever seen

Henry Cain had designed the 18-size (44.86mm-diameter) movement, equipped with 17 jewels, a 42-hour power reserve, and a full-plate design. It was adjusted for accuracy in five positions and featured a lever-set system. This required the user to disengage a lever (usually under the crystal) to set the hands via the crown. As opposed to “pendant-set” (push-pull crown) types, lever-set watches were somewhat inconvenient, but they were much more difficult to accidentally un-set. Lever-set watches became a railroad standard between 1906 and 1908, but Hamilton’s standards were more than a decade ahead of the curve.

Hamilton produced the Grade No. 936 from 1893 to 1915, upgrading its escapement around 1906. Hamilton’s most popular 18-size movement, however, was the 21-jewel Grade No. 940, produced from 1898 to 1928. In that time, over 200,000 movements were produced.

During the World War I Hamilton had supplied many soldiers with their first wrist watches.

As the popularity of wristwatches continued to grow, Hamilton produced high-end ones like the pieces seen here. The 987 movement found in these wristwatches began its production run in 1924. Over the next 24 years, caliber 987 and its gradually evolving variants would power hundreds of thousands of Hamilton wristwatches, designed for both civilian and military use.These watches were produced in great numbers 100.000's of them.

From 1918 Airmail Post bewtween Washington and New York had many pilots flying with their Hamilton watch.It was the start of an over-century-long relationship between the Hamilton Watch Company and the aeronautics industry. Hamilton’s ties to aviation carry on to this day, and the brand’s pilot’s watches are a pillar of its modern collection. In 1926, a Hamilton watch accompanied Admiral Richard E. Byrd on his 15-hour-and-57-minute flight to the North Pole.

As commercial air travel became more popular in the early 1930s, Hamilton became the official timepiece provider for four of the United States’ major airlines — Eastern, TWA, Northwest, and United. Hamilton watches also made their silver-screen debut in the 1932 filmShanghai Express. The Piping Rock and the Flintridge models were worn by leading actors Marlene Dietrich and Clive Brook.

In 1927, Hamilton watches also accompanied pilots on the first flight from California to Hawaii. In 1928, the brand released the Piping Rock, which would become one its most popular wristwatch designs. Its 14K solid yellow or white gold case had flexible lugs and a black enamel bezel with solid gold Roman numerals. When the New York Yankees won the World Series of baseball that year, Hamilton presented Piping Rock watches to all of the team members. Hamilton rounded out the 1920s with the purchase of the Illinois Watch Company for over $5,000,000.

The Hamilton watches of the 1930s were very much inspired by the Art Deco movement. Applied Arabic numeral hour markers were a very common design trait at the time, and many watches featured rectangular or geometric cases. Of course, all were powered by Hamilton’s own calibers. Hamilton watches of the time were available in either platinum, solid gold, or gold-filled cases. As the Great Depression wore on, many people began to see solid gold watches as unnecessary luxuries. As such, less expensive gold-filled models were popular with consumers.

Hamilton Ventura was the first electrical watch in the world designed by Richard Arbib in 1957 in an asymmetrical case style and worn by Elvis Presly in the movie Blue Hawaii.It was the beginning of a cooperation between Hamilton watches and Hollywood which last till today. In more then 500 movies and television shows the various models were worn bij actors and actresses.The latest model being the Ventura XXL bright made for Dune 2.

Hamilton used the word selfwinding instead of automatic and after 1969 when the Lancaster plant closed all Hamilton's watches were equiped with swiss Schild or ETA movements.

This particular example was also a high-beat 19.800 caliber 631 movement.It comes from my private collection and could not find many other examples for reference on E-bay and other auction sites. It probably is a rare european export model.Also Hamilton ceased to excist as an american watch company when it closed it's factory in Lancaster. This watch was thus at the end of the US Hamilton story.