HAMILTON 18 Size 21Jewel 940 POCKET WATCH Fully Serviced June PERFECT TIME

  

I HAVE PROVIDED MY OWN DESCRIPTION OF THE USED CONDITION OF THIS WATCH, WHICH TAKES COMPLETE PRECEDENCE OVER THE PRO-FORMA DESCRIPTION. PLEASE DISREGARD THE PRO-FORMA "PRE-OWNED" DESCRIPTION.

This railroad model 940 watch model is the model which earned The Hamilton. Watch Company the reputation as The Railroad Timekeeper of America. This was among the high precision instruments of its day, and is still effortlessly performing with precision performance 116 years later. This watch is fully overhauled and serviced, and will continue to perform for many years.

Railroad watches in the US are particularly interesting because the watch industry in the US leapt to its feet from very little preceding history, unlike Europe, and in the midst of a developing industrial production line environment produced railroad watches to meet the most rigorous, stringent, and demanding requirements established by the American railroads, where the previous absence of precise watches had resulted in serious disasters a number of times. It is thought that American mechanical watchmaking reached the pinnacle of its success with the development of the railroad watch. A good number of companies developed to meet this need, such as Elgin, Waltham, Illinois, but Hamilton rose to the top, so much so, that for a time general advertisements, unrelated to Hamilton, would refer to a train employee referring to his Hamilton! This is an excellent running watch, timing great in all positions, and only varying a second or so in 24 hours. Mechanically this watch is in excellent condition.

Cosmetically, the case has some wear, some brassing and small scratches on the back, and the dial has a few very small chips, which do not show up without close inspection. The crystal and hands are pristine.

The crystal appears to be new old stock, and the hands have been professionally refinished in black, and are a fully matching set. There is a little oxidation on some of the regulator parts on the top plate of the watch. There is very extensive damaskeening, very ornate in appearance, something not seen in less high end watches. The case is a base metal case plated with chromium, and having a train engraving on the rear cover, made by a well-respected watch case making company, The Star Watch Case Company.

Their cases are known for being sturdy and dependable. The case has been fully cleaned and the engraving is crisp. Some of the brushed finish is worn to the base metal (brass) on the back, but has been cosmetically treated to appear as cloud cover. With this style of case, the bezel must be must be unscrewed counterclockwise to remove it. Removing the bezel is necessary to set the watch. Once the bezel is removed a lever is accessable at the 2 o'clock position, which in order to set the watch must be pulled out and then the watch can be set by turned the crown either clockwise or counterclockwise to move the hands forward or backward to the desired time. After this is satisfactorily completed, the lever is pushed back into the resting position and the bezel is screwed back onto the case clockwise to reattach it. It is sometimes necessary to start the bezel by turning it counterclockwise until the bezel "clicks" (it generally makes a kind of clicking sound when it properly seats itself) onto the threads properly, and then it can be successfully screwed on clockwise to screw it into place on the case.

The rear case cover is also removed by unscrewing it counterclockwise, and reattaching it by screwing it clockwise. As with the front bezel, sometimes it is necessary to. Turn it counterclockwise until the cover "clicks" (it generally makes a kind of clicking sound when it properly seats itself) onto the threads properly, and then it can be successfully screwed on clockwise to screw it into place on the case.

The crystal is new in appearance, and appears to be new old stock (NOS). The crystal is of a medium heavy weight (thickness), with excellent clarity. Two micro chips are present on the edge of the crystal, which are completely unnoticable, and can be only seen by close inspection of the side of the crystal at the location where the minute chip is present.

These do not detract from the excellent new appearance of the crystal. Transparency and clarity are both excellent. The dial is in very good shape, but there several lines of spider web crazing, and a couple of dings here and there. Both are not noticable except under close inspection and do not detract from the presentation of the dial.

Structurally the dial is in excellent shape; the dial is smooth and flat throughout. There is are a few almost unnoticable chips on the edge of the dial.

These small defects can only be seen when the bezel is removed, and are basically completely unnoticable during normal use. Numbering consists of dark black arabic numerals. The minute chapter is marked by a set of dark hatch marks that circumscribe the outside of the dial at the minute positions, with a black dot and superpositioned red arabic numeral from five to sixty at the five minute locations.

The center of the dial is marked with a cursive style Hamilton Watch Co. The seconds dial is sunken at the bottom of the main dial at the six o'clock position. Hands are a matched pair of spade and whip hands, and are black in new shape.

The matching black second hand is present and fully functional. The movement is very clean having just been serviced.

The rear plate is fully damaskeened, and very attractive. The signature and all wording inlays on the rear plate are gilded, as well as the ornate design inlays on the balance cock. The micro regulator is a Goldthwait regulator and functions well. 21 ruby jewels are set in gold settings.

The movement style is full plate. In 1902, the 940 grade was being built with a single roller. This movement has a going barrel. A new mainspring has been installed. This watch will start by itself after the first few winds.

Should it ever not start by itself, a simple slight flick in the rotational plane of the movement will immediately start it. If it does not start, look for possible interference, especially of the hands. The hands on this watch have been adjusted so that this should not happen, but if they are touching in any way, even the second hand touching either of the other two hands will stop the watch from running and prevent it from starting.

The service this watch received is of the highest caliber in quality. The watch was completely disassembled, cleaned ultrasonically, all jewels were disassembled, cleaned, lubricated with the appropriate modern synthetic oils, all moving parts were cleaned and polished and lubricated appropriately, the mainspring was replaced, as was the balance wheel staff, and one of the balance wheel jewels. All the pinions in this watch have been cleaned, polished, and final inspected, and all are in excellent condition.

The integrity of the jewels set by shellac has been confirmed for all such jewels. And, all jewels have been reviewed to ensure that the integrity of each jewel is good. A note on synthetic oils: synthetic oils offer great advantage over natural oils, as natural oils degrade over time. Synthetic oils greatly extend the life of the watch before the next service is required.

The balance wheel was carefully poised, and trued so that it will run consistently in each of the 5 positions the watch was regulated for. Plates were cleaned and polished. The watch was then reassembled, and timed to run accurately within the range of positions. This watch is from my personal collection of pocket watches. I will try my best to respond within 24 hours. Please look at the pictures, as they form a significant part of the description. This watch has had a complete overhaul and full service, and should continue to run for many more years of good service, if it is handled properly. I try to provide complete and accurate descriptions in my listings and provide notes about the particular watch to the best of my ability. All my running watches have been tested as running for several days before listing them. This allows me to determine if they are able to keep time and how consistently they are running, which I do my best to describe in the listing.

This American Railroad Watch is a stem wound watch. The mainspring has been replaced and will take a full winding. Winding this watch may seem a little stiff, but this is normal for the strength of the mainspring in this watch. Older watches sometimes need a gentle rotational shake to start the balance wheel turning, after winding. This watch should start running right away (as a result of having been serviced), which is even better.

This watch will run consistently in all five positions in daily use having been serviced, and the net result of all the positions at the end of a 24 hour period will be accurate timekeeping, when it is properly adjusted for your elevation, as discussed above. Sales of watches are considered "as is" and "final, " unless I have failed to describe the watch accurately and it differs meaningfully from what was described. However, in any case, if you are having a problem, however, please contact me, and I will do my best to help you.

SOME DESTINATIONS MAY NOT BE INCLUDED. The item "HAMILTON 18 Size 21Jewel 940 POCKET WATCH Fully Serviced June PERFECT TIME" is in sale since Saturday, August 25, 2018. This item is in the category "Jewelry & Watches\Watches, Parts & Accessories\Pocket Watches\Antique".

The seller is "drademacher1" and is located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Denmark, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Czech republic, Finland, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Estonia, Australia, Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, Slovenia, Japan, China, Sweden, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore, Norway, Saudi arabia, Ukraine, United arab emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Croatia, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, El salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Antigua and barbuda, Aruba, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Saint kitts and nevis, Saint lucia, Montserrat, Turks and caicos islands, Barbados, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Brunei darussalam, Bolivia, Ecuador, Egypt, French guiana, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Cayman islands, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Luxembourg, Monaco, Macao, Martinique, Maldives, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Paraguay, Reunion.

• Number of Jewels: 21 Jewels
• Model: 940
• Country/Region of Manufacture: United States
• Style: Railroad Grade Pocket Watch
• Escapement Type: Single Roller with Goldthwait micro regulator
• Pocket Watch Size: 18
• Material: Chrome plated Base Metal with Railroad Engraving
• Movement: Stem wound and stem/lever set
• Year of Manufacture: 1900-1909
• Features: Single sunk Dial
• Closure: Star Watch Case Co. Emperor Grade
• Brand: Hamilton Model 940
• Serial Number: 210437