Hamilton Wristwatches

Hamilton US 66 Power Reserve Wristwatch

One of the World’s Largest Watchmakers – Hamilton

Hamilton Watch Co., established in 1892 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, had developed into one of the biggest watch manufacturers in the world shortly after its founding. Around the turn of the century, every second railway employee in the United States wore a watch by Hamilton in his vest pocket so that he could not only register the trains’ punctuality, but also oversee and coordinate them.

Hamilton Wristwatches – A Continuous Stream of Innovation

Hamilton secured its good reputation with a continuous stream of new customers, including expedition travelers, ocean-crossers, mail carrier pilots, and other daring adventurers. And, of course, the military. There were even times when Hamilton had to halt production of civilian timepieces, as the demand from the military was so great. Hamilton’s Lancaster factory produced an estimated one million watches during World War II. The triangular Ventura remains unforgettable; in 1957 it was one of the first wristwatches outfitted with an electronic movement that not only banked on progressive technology, but also progressive design. Hamilton contracted designer Richard Arbib, who was at that point known for futuristic airplanes, and even vacuum cleaners, refrigerators, and other kitchen appliances. According to reliable sources, Hamilton paid him the proud sum of $1,500 for thirty-six watch designs per month from 1955 onward. Most of these designs landed in the archives, but the Ventura model achieved a breakthrough and has gone down in history as a legendary watch design.

The Hamilton Ventura

The original Ventura was outfitted with Hamilton Caliber 500, the first serial wristwatch movement to feature a contact-controlled oscillating coil balance, winning the race for the first electronic wristwatch against German competitor Epperlein, with whom Hamilton had done joint research for a time. The Hamilton Ventura was presented with great pomp on January 3, 1957, stealing the show from the simultaneously introduced, but conservatively designed, Van Horn model. No wonder for what was considered modem technology back then also demanded a modem appearance. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of this spectacular watch in 2007, the brand, which now belongs to Switzerland’s Swatch Group, issued two special edition models paying homage to the legend, which sold out in the blink of an eye. This year the American-founded brand is introducing a number of interesting new models— sporty models bet will not only allow other cultures to get to know this particular spirit of America, out which are also outfitted with an excellent price- performance ratio.

The US 66 Power Reserve sees Hamilton celebrating the anniversary of the legendary highway Route 66, which was completed seventy years ago. The limited edition model was designed to remind its wearer of the varied form of the road with both its oval shape and straight and round lines. The X-Copter, on the other hand, is aimed at helicopter pilots, who can utilize its many additional functions during flight, such as the calculator for maximum takeoff weight. The Below Zero model goes in a completely different direction, far below sea level. Auto 2826, this line of three new diver’s watches’ leading model, was made to withstand water pressure of even 1,000 meters. The Valjoux-controlled chronograph Code Breaker breaks out of the normal ideal of a sports watch with case dimensions measuring 48.5 x 46 x 18 mm. Thanks to the light case material titanium, this Hamilton won’t become a wrist breaker, though.

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Chronoswiss Timemaster Flyback Chronograph

The Chronoswiss Timemaster

Chronoswiss Timemaster Flyback Chronograph runs on an automatic movement that has an advance version of ETA 7750 caliber (Chronoswiss Caliber 763). It has flyback chronograph functionality with two subdials: small seconds located at 3 and the minute counter at 9.

The center of the main dial is the flyback second counter. It is indicated by the printed minute track with a ¼ seconds division. The main dial comes in either matte black or Super-LumniNova C3. For the matte black dial, it has Super-LumniNova C3 luminescent baton markers and luminescent triangular markers positioned at luminescent Arabic numerals 12 and 6. The dial using Super-LumniNova C3 uses instead black to replace the luminescent markers and numerals.

It uses stainless steel case with a diameter of 40mm and thickness of 16mm. The bezel is knurled and allows bi-directional turning with a luminous marker. It has curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective application.

Unique to this watch is the turnip-shaped crown and pushers. There are two types available where the crown is positioned at either left or right to allow for different-handed men. The caseback is transparent with sapphire crystal.

The types of case available are in stainless steel, yellow gold and mixtures of stainless steel and yellow gold. Its diameter is about 38mm with thickness of 10.5mm. The curved sapphire crystal has anti-reflective applied on it.

Its screwed down bezel is knurled and also uses its popular onion-shaped crown. Its caseback is transparent displaying the movement within through a sapphire crystal. Water resistance is at 30m.

It has water-resistant strap made of synthetic material, crocodile leather, ostrich or shark leather. The clasp is also made of stainless steel.

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Underwood Watchwinders

Underwood – The Ultimate Watch Winder

Collectors of fine luxury wristwatches often display their collections in cases that show off the elegant beauty of their masterfully crafted timepieces. Most high end collectible wristwatches made within the past 20 years feature self winding mechanisms that never need winding. However classic collector time pieces that are handcrafted using springs and gears housed inside the wristwatch require the daily winding of the watches mainspring to keep accurate time. Because a collector may only occasionally wear a manual mechanically winding wristwatch they may pace the precious item into an especially made box that contains an automated self winding mechanism that holds a watch in position with mechanical fingers that turn the crown of the wristwatch in the same action as human being would.

Underwood Watchwinders – A Special Display Box

Underwood watchwinders are the name given to the special display boxes that feature this automate winding mechanism for manually wound wristwatches. The company has been producing Underwood watchwinders for collectors with a single wristwatch that has a manual winding mainspring to display boxes that feature up to six compartments for holding and winding watches.

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A Watch Collector’s Commitment – Underwood Watchwinders

As Collectors increase the number of fine watches that they own they move from fine luxury Swiss watches to more unique and rare watchmakers that produced wristwatches and pocket watches for generations that have passed. The quality and craftsmanship of the rare watchmakers is unsurpassed in the remarkable detail and distinctive quality that watch collectors the world over have come to appreciate and enjoy. Showing a collection of fine and rare watches stored in cases by Underwood watchwinders expresses a collector’s commitment to maintaining the mechanical movement of fine timepieces.

Hautlence Luxury Wristwatches

A Common Passion – Hautlence

Renaud de Retz and Guillaume Tetu were simply two young men employed in the Swiss watch industry until about four years ago when they discovered they had a common passion. Experienced enough to understand where to find the know how they had jointly envisioned to create their awn unique brand of haute horlogerie they began work on their premier watch, resulting in something truly new in an industry where the wheel rarely gets reinvented. De Retz, who is in charge of marketing and communications, maintains that the company has a far-sighted and avant- garde approach to its timepieces. The original model, simply called HL, is currently available in seven different versions. Additionally, the consumer can also choose from nine sporty evolutions, His, which feature cases crafted in titanium and precious metals and come on rubber straps. Elucidating this view, de Retz explains, 7he fact that we are not watchmakers allows us to have a completely new approach. With Hautlence, we started from scratch and said to ourselves, ‘Let’s do what we want to see in a watch and what kind of watch we would like to egotistically have.’ This product, from our point of view, is ‘avant-garde’ because this is a new way of telling time and of showing beautiful mechanics.

Product Development Key at Hautlence

The original HL movement was a brand-new construction featuring an element that has not yet been used in watchmaking and which Tetu, who is in charge of product development, calls the connecting rod. Literally speaking, the hand- wound movement is regulator-style, but the hour disk, located on the left, is propelled by the connecting rod (visible horizontally along the bottom of the dial) between the hour disk and the retrograde minutes. When the minute hand reaches the end of its arc, its movement sets the connecting rod into motion and propels the disk forward one space.

A New Shape for Hautlence – HLq

This concept has now been thoroughly reworked to fit into a more classic round movement shape. While this might sound like a simple evolution, it is anything but: a 43.8 mm round case necessitated a total redesign of the movement to accommodate the new shape, now known as HLq. HLq is available in five versions combining titanium, rose gold, and white gold and is a stunning addition to the Hautlence line.

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