Is Hamilton the Most Collectible Watch Brand? - Vintage-Hamilton-Wristwatches

The Hamilton Watch Company

I once made an inherent and possibly questionable assumption that more people collect Hamilton watches than any other in the world. Starting with the company’s early railroad movement and up to the Ventura, few can question Hamilton’s reputation for innovation and reliability. Regardless of my feelings, I had to question my conclusions.

An argument among physicists exists around the observer effect on an experiment. Some say an observer affects an outcome and others say not. Maybe they should try to understand selective perception and the fan phenomenon.

We know that fans of products, sports teams and so forth, have partiality rather than impartiality. I root for the Cowboys and some root against them. My bias changed when it comes to the Dallas Mavericks. The minute Mark Cuban said he supported Hillary Clinton, I dropped my favorite team and favorite sport. Things can change.

Much evidence exists that Hamilton did make the most collectible watches in the world. One test demonstrated the popularity. Look around for pocket watch parts for different brands. One can still find an abundance of Hamilton parts. Then, look for other company’s pocket watch parts. They’re scarce. ^Cite

What about wristwatches? Finding parts for Hamilton’s smaller movements becomes involved. The pocket watch division owned the business at about 52% market share. That market share meant Hamilton ran at 100% production capacity. It also left 48% of the market for more than a dozen competitors.

Global Interest in Hamilton Vintage Watches by Google Search

The Hamilton wristwatch division became known as the market leader.

Hamilton, although a bit late to the game, is considered by many collectors and students of American watch manufacturing to be the prototypical American watch company. They came along at a time (the early 1890s) when machining techniques were already quite advanced and they quickly gained a reputation for a quality, standardized product. In the end they probably came closer than the rest to producing the American grail, which was a very high-grade, machine-made watch with close to completely interchangeable parts. ^Cite.

When Tim Delaney discussed his brilliant campaign for Patek Phillipe: “You’re just a caretaker of this watch,” perhaps that slogan could have applied to Hamilton watches too. ^Cite

As a result of the Swiss Watch Crisis of 1975-1985, Hamilton faced failure and oblivion. Two strategies saved the company and returned it to prominence. Those strategies? A return to classic wristwatches. ^Cite

Classic Watches

As Howard A. Rodman wrote in Connoisseur Magazine, July 1989:

The current obsession with wrist-watches — call it chronopom — gives new life to our oldest fixation. A basic black Swatch will tell you the time; a gold Rolex will look good against the pastel cotton tablecloth of your favorite power restaurant; but an Accutron Space View, a Hamilton Ventura . . . now, those are watches worth spending time with…

In buying a vintage watch, you eschew the contemporary for the (nearly always mythic) “past.”

Unfortunately, Hamilton’s efforts at vintage watches focused on pocket watches. The company tried to sell limited editions of their famous 992 model of a railroad watch. It didn’t qualify as an authentic railroad watch, and collectors didn’t get it.It looked like a 992, but Hamilton did not use the authentic materials to make the watch. They could buy 992B movements that did qualify as authentic in the preowned market.

Next Hamilton tried the Lord Hamilton pocket and a pendant watch called the Lady Hamilton. They failed miserably. This pocket watch came with a Unitas 6497 movement and ugly embossing. It didn’t create demand.

Hamilton suffered from years of selling watches in the showrooms and mail order houses. These outlets ruined the company’s reputation. The showroom companies wanted Hamilton to make cheaper watches to compete with Japanese models. Internal company advocates objected.

The Awards and Incentive groups remained the only successful division at Hamilton. This group fought vigorously against cheapening the product. They doubted a 50 year veteran of any company would want a cheap Japanese watch with a Hamilton logo.

The Khaki

A visitor at the Lancaster plant saw the military assembly line and commented on army watches becoming chic with young New Yorkers. At the time, designers referred to them as “guerilla fashion.” Hamilton started the Khaki line of wristwatches with a standard military issue.

The visitor’s observation prompted Hamilton’s advertising agency to develop a marketing plan. One of the company’s vice presidents offered the idea to Bloomingdale’s and the department store buyers chose the “Khaki” for the Bloomingdale’s 1980 Christmas catalog.

Hamilton produced approximately one million wristwatches during World War II. That gave Khaki a head start in the number of watches people collected. The Hamilton A-11 style military model and the civilian Endicott have the same design. The Endicott has a gold filled case, and the A-11 has a brushed base metal case. Aside from guerilla fashion, the WWII Hamilton style A-11 had a large collector following.

Swatch does not publish Khaki production figures. We can get an idea of the volume made. Khaki production began in 1980 and continues today. Aside from the A-11 model, Hamilton also made watches for the military from 1946 to 1989. Let’s just say the pool of collectible military watches exceeds those of any single competitor’s pool of timepieces.

American Classic

At the beginning of “Reagan” era, the head of Hamilton’s design department, Pierre Essig initiated a pilot project known as the Boulton. Publicity about Ronald Reagan wearing a morning tuxedo to breakfast made headlines around the world and Nancy Reagan has a significant impact on fashion. Essig saw the trend.

The Black Tie Guide Wrote:

The conservative wave that had begun its approach in the late 1970s hit America’s shores with full force in the 1980s. Marriage and formal weddings were once again fashionable, etiquette books had become bestsellers and Victorian traditions were being rediscovered by many. At the same time, baby boomers were now young upwardly mobile professionals with a sense of entitlement to the better things in life. By having children at a later age, and taking on significant debt, they were able to lavish themselves with luxury goods and live the refined lifestyle they craved. There could not have been a better confluence of events for the return of formal elegance. ^Cite

Hamilton had a significant portfolio of classic watches and turned to their best selling watch, the Boulton, to begin a pilot program. The made it with a solid brass dial, accented with gold-plated Arabic numerals, solid brass, hands, a ten karat gold-filled case (curved to fit the wrist) a pigskin strap and gold-filled buckle.

The company offered it by mail order and through Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdale’s. The Boulton sold out immediately.

In 1977, Hans Scholl moved to Lancaster Pennsylvania.^Cite and joined Hamilton from Omega. With a group of a group of senior personnel, Scholl found and chose designs from catalogs and private collections. The group initially developed Cabot, Emerson, Piping Rock, Wilshire, and Ventura. They reproduced the designs with high-quality ETA quartz movements.

Once advertised, Hamilton could not meet demand. Evidence of demand for classic design from the company’s past should indicate appeal. Collectors have an appetite for those 40-year-old watches Han Scholls design team.

Today, Hamilton has over 3,000 dealers excluding Hamilton’s own on-line store.

Formerly started in 1892 in a bankrupt factory in Lancaster, PA, Hamilton has survived.Their classically designed watches sell globally. Their original models vintage models have become difficult to find. You can still find affordable Hamilton watches in numerous outlets, unlike old and expensive Swiss watches like Rolex.

Conclusion

Is Hamilton the most collectible watch brand? I don’t know. The numbers say that more people collect Hamilton watches than any other brand.

Hamilton Watch Collection on eBay – 6000 items