Since 1983, I have purchased about 500 collectible Hamilton wristwatches. I have a fondness for late Americana Art Deco styles, so I purchased many watches catalogued by Hamilton between 1921 and 1939. The company made most of those with 17 and 19 jewel movements.
I come from an old European jewelry family and despite my choice to stay out of a multi-generational family business, watches always intrigued me.
In 1983, I had started a small service bureau and bought my first Hamilton. I asked my father about the choice and he liked the one I selected. He even had it restored.
In 2003, I discovered eBay and found numerous vintage Hamilton wristwatches offered at auction. Actually, buyers purchased 90% of all items sold on eBay at that time by auction. My father passed away the next year and sadly, I did not have anyone to share my passion with or who could restore the items I bought.
I went to the same watchmaker my father used, but he doubled his prices. My dad’s dial refinisher decided to specialize in Rolex and stopped working on other brands. I did find a few goldsmiths to work on cases, but they either wanted too much for their services or did a sorry job.
I tried doing the work myself, and discovered a steep learning curve. It took five years of frustration before I decided to take a break from writing and attend jewelry and watch school in Paris, Texas
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I gained a lot of knowledge about watch movements and tools which allowed me to begin restoring watches again. I met an excellent goldsmith and several others restoring vintage watches, but few who knew much about Hamilton and few could help me source parts and materials.
One afternoon while visiting Luis Garza’s repair shop, I met Ted Tongson who had moved back to Paris from Austin. I notice that Luis had decided to move his watch repair work to Ted and pretty soon I learned why. Ted specializes in Rolex but he can fix just about any watch you hand him including quartz movements 25 years out of production. I learned something I didn’t expect from a guild watchmaker, Ted loves Hamilton watches as much as me.
In July, 2017, I had to have surgery on a slipped vertebrae and needed someone to take over the restoration of a client’s Bentley. Ted made himself available and after seeing his work, I decided to let him take over all my projects. I had never seen anyone restore a movement with the care of a fine jeweler. I had never seen a 70 year old movement maintain accuracy within two seconds over a 48 hour wind-up.
What made him such a great watchmaker? Aside from the gleam in his eye when you hand him a watch, I learned that he just loves watches – all kinds of watches. He also spent 15 years as a goldsmith and a bench technician. He considers a watch jewelry; and jewelry requires special care. When he uses the world precious metal, that applies to anything that adorns one’s body.
First, Mr. Tongson worked as a jeweler for fifteen years before he went back to the Texas Institute of Jewelry and Horology and received his associates degree in watchmaking – twenty years ago. I have observed him close-up and he excels in every phase of restoration.
While he can restore watches others have frowned on and rejected, he prefers to source estate timepieces – often never worn. Then, he spends an unusual amount of time combing through an acquisition to make sure it meets the highest quality standard. He has told me he wants whatever Hamilton watch he acquires to function like the day it left a jeweler’s showcase. Though he admits that’s an awesome task.
I find another aspect of his work unusual. Because of restrictions placed on Rolex watches (no service from the factory when a watch reaches a ten-year mark, that is, when it becomes ten years old) certified Rolex shops use Ted to repair Rolex watches that the factory service centers reject and by extension -the jewelers authorization agreement – prohibits them from servicing. This Rolex practice makes me wonder when people will stop buying Rolex watches.
When it comes to vintage watches, Ted prefers to work on Hamilton models. Why? He doesn’t like to work on junk. He doesn’t have time to “mess with” watches that will never work as well as those made in Lancaster, PA.
I want to film him in his shop and someday, he might just let me.
Collectors with 1983 Limited Edition reissues of the 1937-38 Wilshire find him. Word must have circulated. He can restore the Omega & Tissot ETA 581.001 movements. I haven’t seen anyone else even try. I never did. I searched the globe for NOS 581 movements and found a few. Ted simply has a knack for repairing complex quartz watches made in Switzerland.
If you haven’t read about Ted, he’s a master watchmaker and unique in the world. Scroll down and you’ll see an article in which we discussed Hamilton 980 and 982 movements. I have discussed watches with many people but I have never heard or seen anyone drill down into the inner workings of a movement like that.
I asked him to sell some of his Hamilton watches because he only does “mint”. You won’t find worn out, old watches with a refinished dial and new hands in his collection. He buys estate watches with good cases and movements not the stuff passed around from eBay seller to eBay seller.
Note: Ted Tongson has joined forces with me here at Vintage-Hamilton-Wristwatches.
Tom Adelstein