The Hamilton Watch Company is a brand of Swatch Group, a Swiss watch company based in Bienne, Switzerland. The Hamilton Watch Company has the genesis as a watch design and American manufacturing company, founded in 1892 and produced its first watch in 1893.
After its formation, Hamilton Watch Company went on to produce and market pocket watches and watches, ending American production in 1969. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, Hamilton Watch Company became a diversified conglomerate itself and later integrated into the Swatch group..
Today the brand is one of more than twenty watch brands belonging to the Swatch Group, the world's largest manufacturer and marketer.
Video Hamilton Watch Company
History: 1892-1969
Hamilton managed to oversee three companies making timepieces at the same facility in Lancaster, PA, including Lancaster Watch Company. Precursors for Hamilton Watch Co., Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based Keystone Standard Watch Co. , started by Abram Bitner in 1886 with the purchase of the Lancaster Watch Company. Keystone produces watches featuring patented "Dust Proof" designs that use small acrylic "windows" to cover the only openings in the movement plate. Keystone existed until 1891 when the company was sold to Hamilton Watch Company.
The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in 1892 after the Keystone Standard Watch Company was purchased from bankruptcy. During the same year, Aurora Watch Company of Illinois also joined Keystone. The name of the new company originally was "Colombia," but when the Waterbury Supervisory Company found the trademark name, the shareholders' meeting was called in November 1892 and the new name was chosen. The company is named after Andrew Hamilton, a Scottish-born lawyer who laid down and founded Lancaster, and is the original owner of the Lancaster site where the plant is located.
During the expansion of railroads in the US, Hamilton retained more than 56% of the market. Railroad buys all Hamilton production. When the market switched from pocket watch to watch after World War I, the company produced watches. During World War II, Hamilton retooled his business model to serve the military, dropping its consumer products.
Hamilton Watch Company is housed in a 13 acre (53,000 m 2 ) complex in Lancaster. Hamilton finally took over the Aurora Watch Company machine shortly after the merger.
The first wristwatch made by the name of Hamilton was a 17-jewelry watch measuring 18 in 1893. During Hamilton's first fifteen years, only two size movements were produced - size 18 and size 16 smaller.
The company's first-ever watch-pocket series, Broadway Limited, was marketed as "Watch of Railroad Accuracy," and Hamilton became popular by making accurate railway watches. Hamilton introduced his first wristwatch in 1917, designed to attract men into World War I and contains a 0-size 0-Gem 18 motion originally designed for independent female watches. In 1928, Hamilton purchased the Illinois Watch Company for more than $ 5 million from the heirs of John Whitfield Bunn and Jacob Bunn. Some of Hamilton's earliest easy-to-collect watches include The Oval, The Tonneau, The Rectangular, The Square Enamel, The Coronado, The Piping Rock, The Spur, The Glendale, The Pinehurst, The Langley, The Byrd, The Cambridge, Barrel " B ", and The Flintridge. Many models are present in two squares full of gold and gold and, though rarely, some watches like Grant are made of silver.
Maps Hamilton Watch Company
Marine Kronometer
During World War II, production of consumer watches was discontinued, with all manufactured watches shipped to troops. More than a million watches are shipped overseas. The company is very successful in producing large quantities of sea kronometer and watch deck to meet the needs of the United States Navy, and other Allied navy as well. The Hamilton Model 21 was built first and has a chain drive fuse, followed by Model 22. Model 22 has a traditional mainstream drive, available in a traditional double box and also within hours of the deck. Models 21 and 22 have two-day power reserves and their movements are marked by the US Navy Bureau. Model 22 is also used by the US Army and behind some of it is marked the US Army, but all 22 model movements are marked with US Navy Bureau. Model 23 is a 16 pocket watch box with black buttons; Although there is a pocket watch box, this is a stopwatch. Model 4992b in case of 16 sizes, with black dial. It was used as a pocket watch for the US military, showing the movement of the railroad class 21 gems.
1950 of the last decade as a clockmaking powerhouse in America
In 1951, Hamilton rejected a takeover offer by the watch company Benrus. The collapse of a failed takeover took place at Hamilton Watch Co vs. Benrus Watch Co. (206 F.2d 738, 740 (2d Cir. 1953)), a Federal process that is considered a landmark in the realm of Federal anti-law case trust.
In 1955, Hamilton provided a "celestial time zone clock, enabling flight-type navigation" for the Astra-Gnome concept of what would look like a car in 2000.
In 1957, Hamilton introduced the world's first electric watches, the Hamilton Electric 500. It was available in a variety of non-traditional asymmetrical case styles including Ventura designed by Richard Arbib. The watch is worn by Elvis Presley, who also features the movie Blue Hawaiian.
In 1962, Hamilton entered a joint venture (60% owned by Hamilton) with Japanese watchmaker Ricoh to produce electric watches intended primarily for the Japanese market. The electronic components are manufactured at the Lancaster Hamilton plant while the production of final mechanical and assembly works is done in Japan. Although the production rate of Hamilton-Ricoh watches is high (over 1000 per month), demand is low and consequently, the Hamilton-Ricoh partnership can not compete with Seiko's large market presence. The partnership was dissolved in 1965, with the rest of the Hamilton-Ricoh electronic movement (marked "Ricoh 555E") converted into "Vantage" and sold in the US.
Switzerland/US. operation: 1969-74
In 1966, Hamilton acquired the Buren Watch Company from BÃÆ'¼ren an der Aare, Switzerland, including all the factories and technologies that Buren had developed until then. From 1966 to 1969, Hamilton Lancaster and Buren Switzerland operated as a common concern, with Hamilton using a number of Swiss movements for their "American" watches and Buren utilizing a number of components produced by Hamilton Lancaster. It was during this time that Hamilton began to selectively combine the highly innovative Buren Micro-rotor (micro rotor/rotor-micro) movement into a small number of certain top-level watches, in addition to their regular hand watches and traditional automatic watches.
Buren (now Hamilton/Buren) Micro-rotor is the first patented automatic watch movement to remove external oscillating external loads attached to most automatic winding watches. Instead, it uses much smaller weights that are fully integrated into the motion chassis. This design allows for a more streamlined auto clock that still retains the second hand of the sweeping center. The concept of Micro-rotor is also contained by Universal GenÃÆ'¨ve for use in their Polerouter watch series during the same time. The official title of "the first micro-rotor movement" is still debated among some horology lovers, although Buren patented their design in 1954 while Universal Geneve applied for their patent in May 1955.
In 1969, Hamilton Watch Company completely ended its American manufacturing operations by closing its plant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, shifting manufacturing operations to the Buren factory in Switzerland.
From 1969 to 1972, all of Hamilton's new watches were produced in Switzerland by Buren Hamilton subsidiary. In 1971, the Buren brand was restored to Swiss ownership and in 1972, the Buren-Hamilton partnership was dissolved and the factory was liquidated, due to a decrease in interest and sales of Hamilton-Buren products.
On May 16, 1974, the Hamilton brand was sold to SSIH (hereafter The Swatch Group).
Transitional wristwatch: 1970s-present
In 1971, Omega & amp; Tissot Holding Company Socià © à © tÃÆ' © Suisse pour l'Industrie HorlogÃÆ'¨re (SSIH) bought the Hamilton brand and used the Hamilton name for a number of branding efforts, including a number of quartz watches in the 1980s.
The Hamilton Watch Division became a subsidiary of HMW. Hamilton Watch Company changed their name to HMW when they sold their Watch division to SSIH.
A team led by John Bergey of Hamilton Watch in Lancaster, Pennsylvania developed Pulsar, the world's first digital clock.
Through the merger of SSIH and ASUAG Group in 1984, Hamilton became a subsidiary of The Swatch Group.
References
External links
- Official site
- History, Serial Number, and Production Date for Hamilton Watches
- Electronic version (pdf) from Watch Factories of America Past and Present: The complete history of clock making in America, from 1809 to 1888 . By Henry G. Abbott Illustrated with 50 carvings. Chicago: Geo. K. Hazlitt & amp; Co., Publisher 1888.
See also
- Benrus
- Elgin Watch Company
- Illinois Watch Company
- Gruen Watch Co.
- Waltham Watch Company
- Wittnauer
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments