"Shand" Hamilton Pocket Watch with Provenience.

Very cool.... Hammys

Not nearly as collectible as the larger watches, but I really like the 10 size movements, and in particular the 921. The 917 and 945 are nice as well, but the 921's decoration is just top notch. Not being as collectible as the larger watches, many cases were melted on these for the gold, and I have repurposed some of the orphaned movements in the past:



Although I don't do these anymore they were reasonably popular when I was making them...



Here's some 945 photos I came across in my bucket...







Cheers, Al

Thanks. There were a few reasons, but the primary one was that they became unprofitable...or at least were not as profitable as other things I could spend my time on were. One reason for this was simply the work needed to get these watches running to my standards to put into a watch meant that a lot had to be invested in the movements in parts and time. In addition, the prices on these orphaned movements seemed to be going up all the time, so those 2 things combined made it not worth my while to do any longer. When the run of custom cases ran out, I didn't get any more made.

Many of the movements available were not suitable for use in a watch, so it was not uncommon for me to have to buy 5 of these to get 1 or 2 that were good enough to be used in a watch. For whatever reason, these American pocket watches tend to be hacked up by "watchmakers" over the years far more than Swiss watches of the same era.

I also did have a couple come back with broken balance staffs. Although I think they are quite fine for everyday use, the balances on these do not have shock protection, and with the large balance wheel if the watch was dropped, it would almost always result in a broken staff. When someone would ask about buying one of these, I would write them a long note explaining that the watch had to be handled with some care, but even after acknowledging that, I had some people come back to me upset that the staff broke when they dropped it. One guy claimed he didn't do anything to it, but when the watch came back to have the staff changed one lug was smashed in pretty well...

I don't like having unsatisfied customers (even if it's not my fault) so after a while it got a bit old...

BTW I have a bunch of parts for these 10 size watches if you ever need them. I bought out a parts supplier once and took all the 10 size Hamilton parts he had, so let me know if yours ever needs anything.

Cheers, Al