# Hamilton electric watches



## Chantry1 (Apr 22, 2020)

Is the Hamilton electronic superior technically to the Hamilton electric?


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

The Hamilton electric was the pioneer battery powered watch, the electronic was much later and I believe that some used off the shelf movements. The Electric is the more desirable watch


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## John_D (Jul 21, 2018)

scottswatches said:


> The Hamilton electric was the pioneer battery powered watch, the electronic was much later and I believe that some used off the shelf movements. The Electric is the more desirable watch


 But the movement is even less reliable than the early Timex electrics......The cal.500 movement was to say the least electrically 'basic' and 'fragile', the later 505 cal. less so, though not much........Some information on their care HERE...

All of that said doesn't stop me lusting after a 1950's Hamilton Ventura.....just a 'tad' out of my price range though 

To answer the original question, anything labelled 'electronic' by definition, will be technically superior to 'electric' though in some of these early movements 'electronic' just meant that a diode had been inserted in the +ve electric feed to the contact wire, but as this has the desired effect of being a spark suppressor, thus increasing the life of the contacts, even that does make it technically superior to 'electric'....


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

Not necessarily all of the reliability issues affecting the 500 were engineering ones. The Hamilton stores, and service outlets, were poorly trained for this whole new world, so couldn't even change batteries easily - they had never done this before remember. This lack of training lead to the reputation that these couldn't be fixed.

The Rene Rondeau website you link to is the world's leading authority on these movements, so is an ideal place for excellent research.


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## John_D (Jul 21, 2018)

scottswatches said:


> Not necessarily all of the reliability issues affecting the 500 were engineering ones. The Hamilton stores, and service outlets, were poorly trained for this whole new world, so couldn't even change batteries easily - they had never done this before remember. This lack of training lead to the reputation that these couldn't be fixed.
> 
> The Rene Rondeau website you link to is the world's leading authority on these movements, so is an ideal place for excellent research.


 Very likely Scott, but with all of these really early electric movements, which rely on a wire to make contact with the balance on each beat, they are going to have a much shorter life (I think that two years of continuous running was about the norm for a new movement), than something like the electronic movements such as the ESA 9154 or the Junghans 600 series which do not have any contacts to erode/wear away...Generally 'being fixed' isn't the problem, reliable running for any length of time afterwards, due to the inherent reliability problems pointed to above, are the issue.... So again to answer the original question YES any electronic movements are technically superior to electric ones.........


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## Chantry1 (Apr 22, 2020)

Thank you very much everyone for your comments.


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