Hamilton only manufactured 7,500 of the movements. The 401 went into six models, which include the Andrews, Stanley, Livingstone, Byrd, Ericsson, and Wilkinson – early 1930’s.
The 401 movement came with 19 rubies and sapphire jewels, a double roller escapement, sapphire roller and pallet jewels, the Breguet hairspring, and a gold center wheel. It’s a size 12 Caliber movement. It’s a cousin or a retrofit of the Illinois 207
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| Illinois 207 |
On April 07, 2012 at 4:40 PM Pacific Daylight Time, this broken down, old watch movement sold for $180.50 on eBay. Why? Frankly, I don’t know what the other five bidders thought. I was one of the six bidders and I know what I thought: It would be a nice movement on which to work. If the wheels were broken, for example, I wouldn’t have attempted to make them or any other part. If it didn’t work, it would go into my collection of Hamilton stuff. I would have cleaned the parts, gotten rid of the rust and gunk, but that’s it.
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| Sold on eBay model 401 |
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| A well maintained version |
Still, you have to admit that $180+ for this movement was a pretty fair price for the seller, especially if you didn’t have one of the cases that it fit.
Regardless of the hype from eBay sellers about of piece of history, this really is a bit of a treasure. I would have loved to own it.
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