This is a 16 size Hamilton Grade 950, one of the finest quality American watches ever made. This was Hamilton's "prestige" watch, and has 23 jewels in screw down gold jewel settings, a solid gold gear train, and detailed damascening. It is also adjusted to temperature and 5 positiions. It is stem wind and pendant set. This model was available in both a lever set version for the railroad trade and a pendant set version for those who wanted a premier watch but didn't need it to be railroad approved. 17,902 lever set models were made, but only 4,401 pendant set models, making the pendant set model significantly scarcer.

The serial number of my watch is 750642, which would date it to about 1906 according to Shugart's "Complete Price Guide to Watches." However, the first Grade 950 wasn't actually produced until 1909, so that date is obviously wrong. Hamilton often reserved serial numbers ahead of time for special watches and didn't actually produce the watch for years later, and that is the case with my watch. In fact, the hand-written factory records from Hamilton indicate that this particular watch was originally finished on October 23, 1912, sold on April 14, 1915 to the well-known Hayden W. Wheeler Company, then returned to Hamilton on May 4, 1915, and finally re-issued to A. Paul & Company on July 12, 1915.

One other interesting thing about this particular watch is that it is also a very early example, having been produced as part of the first run of 500 of this model.

Front Back Dial  Movement  Close-up 1 Close-up 2 Close-up 3

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