History of Hamilton Watches
The Hamilton
Watch Company was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1892. It produced
its first watch, designed by H.J. Cain, in 1893. (Now that is a very desirable
vintage pocket watch for anyone to add to their antique pocket watches collection.)
Also that year, Hamilton Watch Company introduced %26quot;The Broadway Limited%26quot;,
a railroad pocket watch known for its reliabiltiy and used extensively by the
railroads. It was so good, a version was adoped for the American Expeditionary
Forces worldwide. A wristwatch version inteoduced around WWI where it was used
as the timepiece of choice for many adventures - including being the first watch
to scale Mount Everest, used by Admiral Byrd on his North and South Pole expeditions
and by many other famous early 20th century adventurers.
In 1928, the Yankees won the World Series and Hamilton Watch celebrated by
introducing the Yankee Wrist Watch along with another famous watch of that time
period, the Piping Rock - both quality, cutting edge timepieces of the day.
Growing on this reputation, they captured the hearts of the airlines in the
1930s and became the official timepiece of TWA, Eastern, United and Northwestern
airlines.
In 1940, Hamilton Watch closed their doors to consumer sales and concentrated
exclusively on developing watches for the military. During the
WWII era, close to one million Hamilton Military Watches were produced.
In 1957, Hamilton Watch creates one of the most dramatic changes ever to watch
design when it introduced the Hamilton Electric - the first electric watch.
This marked the beginning of the end for windup watches (although there are
still a small number of high end watches that still require winding.) And in
1959, they deveped the Venture, a sleek watch designed via the inspiration of
the Cadillac tailfins of the 1950s. This watch rapidly becomes the in watch
for the cool people of the 50s - even being chosen by Elvis Presley as the watch
he wore in his movie Blue Hawaii.
Continuing their tradition of innovation, the Pulsar is rolled out in 1972.
This is the first of its kind digital watch and was designed and manufactered
in its Pennsylvania headquarters. Since that time, Hamilton Watch designs have
continued to be cutting edge and very desirable to own and collect.
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