# Made In U.s.a.



## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Got all excited the other day. :tongue2:

Someone mailed me a small photograph of "_an old Hamilton electric watch_" and asked whether it was worth restoring. I recognised the model straight away despite the poor photo...it was a Hamilton Atlantis from about 1958, one of the first ever electric watches.

lt's a conventional round case one, so not a highly sought after model but only 2200 were made, so quite scarce. However this example looked a little special. Firstly it had "Made in U.S.A." under the "6" and above the more usual "Pat. Pending", secondly the hands, dial numerals, markers and batons were all black in colour :blink: . Hamilton did two versions of the Atlantis: one with a white dial and the other with a black dial but both had gold hands and dial markings.

Queried the owner about the black but he was sure it was original and I made a few enquiries about the "Made In U.S.A". Anyway, the watch arrived yesterday while Rich was here and its clear that someone has painted over the gold hands and dial markings  ...that is not the work of the Hamilton factory!







Shame.

Still an interesting watch though. The original "Made In U.S.A." indicates this particular watch was an export example. You rarely see any Hamilton electrics with this phrase --- I don't own any in my collection, but Rene Rondeau has come across 3 or 4.

Now if only some European idiot hadn't painted that dial.... :cry2:



















And a picture of my Atlantis...the one above should look like this:


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## Who. Me? (Jan 12, 2007)

Would it respond well to a cocktail stick dipped in acetone, or is that paint on for good?


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## Robert (Jul 26, 2006)

Silver Hawk said:


> its clear that someone has painted over the gold hands and dial markings  ...that is not the work of the Hamilton factory!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Whats the chance of saving it Paul? Is a new sconds hand available?


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## Guest (Aug 28, 2008)

:cowboy: :artist: :shocking: :wallbash:







:cry2: :cry2:


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## Stanford (Feb 10, 2007)

Lots of potential but a very steady hand and a lot of patience in order, I think :yes:


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## seiko6139 (Aug 25, 2003)

What a shame.

I don't know what solvent would be the most effective. You could scrape the markers and then polish them. The dots will be very tricky though.


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## jasonm (Nov 22, 2003)

Yeah, the dot paint has gone on the the dial by the look of it....


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## Toshi (Aug 31, 2007)

It is a shame :cry2: . If it were mine (and of course it isn't) I'd have a go at restoring it. I know it's unlikely to result in perfection, but not much to loose really IMO.

PS - when I say "I'd have a go"... of course what I actually mean is "I'd pay someone else to have a go" otherwise it really would be ruined :tongue2: :lol:


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## mattbeef (Jul 17, 2008)

Id have a go at restoring it as well, such a shame that some numpty has done that to the poor thing


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## Silver Hawk (Dec 2, 2003)

Thanks for feedback...luckily it's not my problem...I'm only servicing the watch for the owner. 

I'm fairly sure the dial would be wrecked if you attempted to remove the black paint. I did a test poke / scratch on a small area using a microscope and that black paint is not shifting...I'd never use chemicals on it, you'd only end up staining the main dial.

Oh well. :rltb:


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