Hamilton Watch Company

The Hamilton Watch Company is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches based in Bienne, Switzerland. Founded in 1892 as an American firm, the Hamilton Watch Company ended American manufacture in 1969, shifting manufacturing operations to the Buren factory in Switzerland. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the Hamilton Watch Company eventually became integrated into the Swatch Group, the world's largest watch manufacturing and marketing conglomerate.

Early history

Hamilton succeeded three watch firms manufacturing timepieces in the same facilities in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, US, including the Adams & Perry Watch Manufacturing Company, Lancaster Watch Company Ltd., Lancaster Watch Company and the Keystone Watch Company. The precursor to the Hamilton Watch Co., the Lancaster, Pennsylvania based Keystone Standard Watch Co., was started by Abram Bitner in 1886 with the purchase of Lancaster Watch Company's factory. Lancaster, then Keystone manufactured watches featuring a patented "Dust Proof" design[1] that used a small mica window to cover the only opening in the plate of the movement. This patent represents Hamilton’s transition from simple dust covers to integrated sealed case engineering and is often cited as a foundational U.S. industrial solution to dust & moisture ingress before modern gasket standards. Keystone existed until 1891 when the company was sold to Hamilton Watch Company.

The Hamilton Watch Company was established in 1892 after Keystone Standard Watch Company was purchased from bankruptcy. Aurora Watch Company of

Marine chronometers

During World War II, production of consumer watches was stopped, with all watches manufactured being shipped to troops. More than one million watches were sent overseas.

Up to then, the production of marine chronometer timepieces used by mariners for determining longitude and fix their position by celestial navigation at sea, was a highly skilled mainly craft-based and hence expensive horology niche, and marine chronometers used by United States ships were imported or used foreign key components. The U.S. Naval Observatory had asked American watch manufacturers in 1939 to participate in domestically mass-producing chronometers. Hamilton was provided with two Swiss Ulysse Nardin marine chronometers to examine. Hamilton successfully perfected the mass production process and parts interchangeability maintenance method for these specialized timekeepers. The US Navy accepted its product in 1942. The industrial production methods enabled the company to produce marine chronometers and deck watches in large numbers to fill the navigational needs of the US Navy, merchant marine, and other Allied navies as well. The Model 21 Hamilton Marine Chronometer for large vessels was built first and had a chain-drive fusee, the second hand advanced in 1⁄2-second increments over a 60-second-marked sub-dial, and was kept in a traditional gimbaled double box for the express purpose of keeping the clock in a "dial up" position to minimize ship-movement-induced timing errors. In most respects, the Model 21 marine chronometer technically resembled the Ulysse Nardin design, except for a new balance design and the use of a pre-formed Elinvar alloy balance spring, to obviate the cumbersome spring adjustments previously necessary. Hamilton produced 8,900 Model 21 marine chronometers for the US Navy, 1,500 for merchant shipping, and 500 for the US Army during the war.[6] The Model 22 Chronometer Watch followed it for smaller vessels. The Model 22 looked like a large pocket watch and had a traditional mainspring, available in a traditional gimbaled double box and also in a deck watch for larger ships for transferring time from the box marine chronometer(s) for position fixes.[7] The Models 21 and 22 had a two-day power reserve and the movements of both were marked "U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships". The Model 22 was also used by the U.S. Army, and on the back of some, it is marked "U.S. Army", but all the Model 22 movements are marked "U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships". The Model 23 was a 16-size chronograph pocket watch. The Model 4992b was in a 16-size case with a black dial. It was used as the pocket watch for the U.S. military, featuring a less accurate 21-jewel railroad grade movement.

By 1970, 13,086 Hamilton Model 21 Marine Chronometers had been produced. In 1985, the British Ministry of Defence invited bids by tender to dispose of their mechanical Hamilton Model 21 Marine Chronometers. The U.S. Navy kept their Hamilton Model 21 Marine Chronometers in service as backups to the Loran-C hyperbolic radio navigation system until 1988 when the GPS global navigation satellite system was approved as reliable.[8]

Swiss/U.S. operations: 1969–1974

In 1966, Hamilton acquired the Buren Watch Company of Büren an der Aare, Switzerland, including all factories and technologies Buren had developed up to that point. From 1966 to 1969, Hamilton Lancaster and Buren Switzerland were operated as a joint concern, with Hamilton using several Swiss movements for their "American" watches and Buren utilizing several components manufactured by Hamilton Lancaster. It was during this time that Hamilton started to selectively incorporate the highly innovative Buren Micro-rotor (a.k.a. Micro Rotor/Micro-rotor) movement into small numbers of certain upper tier watches, in addition to their ordinary hand-wound and traditional automatic watches.

The Buren (now Hamilton/Buren) Micro-rotor was the first patented automatic wristwatch movement to eliminate the sizable external oscillating weight inherent to most automatic winding watches. Instead, it utilized a much smaller weight that was entirely integrated into the chassis of the movement. This design allowed for a substantially slimmer automatic watch that still retained a center sweep second hand. The Micro-rotor concept was also conceived by Universal Genève for use in their Polerouter series of timepieces during this same time. The official title of "first Micro-rotor movement" is still in dispute among some horology aficionados, even though Buren patented their design in 1954,[17] and Universal Geneve applied for their patent in May 1955.[18]

In 1969, the Hamilton Watch Company completely ended American manufacturing operations with the closure of its factory in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, shifting manufacturing operations to the Buren factory in Switzerland.

From 1969 to 1972, all new Hamilton watches were produced in Switzerland by Hamilton's Buren subsidiary. In 1971, the Buren brand was returned to Swiss ownership. By 1972, the Buren-Hamilton partnership was dissolved, and the factory liquidated, due to decreased interest and sales of the Hamilton-Buren product.[19]

On May 16, 1974, the Hamilton brand was sold to SSIH (subsequently The Swatch Group).[20]

type	Subsidiary
founded	1892, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S.
location city	Bienne
location country	Switzerland
area served	Worldwide
industry	Watchmaking
num locations	~3000
parent	The Swatch Group
homepage	hamiltonwatch.com

Hamilton Watch Company

Early history

Marine chronometers

1950s: last decade as a watch manufacturing powerhouse in America

Swiss/U.S. operations: 1969–1974

Transitional watches: 1970s–present

Popular culture

Behind the Camera Awards

See also

External links

References