Hamilton Watch Company

The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in 1892 with the purchase of the bankrupt Keystone Standard Watch Company in Lancasterr, Pennsylvania. Expanding into Switzerland Hamilton purchased the Buren Watch Company in 1966, soon after Hamilton began using the Buren Microtor in their higher end watches. In 1969 all Hamilton watches were manufactured by Buren in Switzerland after the last US factory was closed. This lasted only 3 years as the Buren subsidiary was sold back to Swiss ownership in 1971 and the partnership between Buren and Hamilton was dissolved in 1972 ending an era in vintage Hamilton watches. Hamilton was also sold to SIHH this same year. The Swatch Group Ltd. Eventually purchased Hamilton and retains ownership to this day.

The Buren Microtor
This innovative movement eliminated the large external oscillating weight found in many other automatic winding watches. This design allowed for the construction of a slimmer automatic watch and still provide for a center sweep second hand. There is some disagreement as to who created this type of movement though technically Buren patented their design in 1954 where Universal Geneve applied for a patent in mid 1955.

Hamilton Watch Facts
The first watch released by Hamilton was the 18-size 17-Jewel pocket watch.

Some commonly collected early vintage Hamilton watches include: the Oval, the Square Enamel, the Coronado, the Spur, the Glendale, the Langley, and the Byrd.

During the Second World War Hamilton produced over 1 million watches however, none were consumer watches as all were sent to military personal.

Hamilton’s first electric watch, Hamilton Electric 500, was released in 1957.

See a complete list of Vintage Hamilton Watches for sale.