Hamilton made the first electric watch in production, the Van Horn, and this Titan (later called Titan 1 once the Titan II came out) closely resembles the pioneering Van Horn.
HOW DO WE DATE THIS WATCH?
The Hamilton Van Horn that was launched in January 1957, and was named after the director of R&D at Hamilton Dr, John van Horn. The design of the Van Horn and the Titan is very similar, but the Van Horn was 14k solid gold and the Titan 1 was 10k gold filled, and therefore cheaper. However this example has the improved calibre 505 movement that was launched in 1961, so this watch must be 1961 onwards.
CONDITION
The original Hamilton electric watches had a reputation for being a bit fragile, but this is somewhat cruel. The main issue was that the Hamilton service agents were not given sufficient training with this brand new technology to be able to make repairs or service the watch. The comparison would be taking your brand new Tesla electric car to your local garage and asking them to fix it. However the reputation did stick, and the fact that this example has the later, improved Calibre 505 really does go in its favour. This watch also has the PAT. PENDING wording on the dial under six, but we think this watch has had the dial restored so we can not be 100% certain if this was on the original dial, or added at the restoration. The movement is running nicely. The gold filled case is all good, including those lovely lugs, and the case back screws down nicely. The crown is not signed, which we believe is correct for this model.
This watch will be supplied with our branded presentation box and our Certificate of Authenticity.
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SIZE
Width with crown 35.5 mm
Width without crown 34.6 mm
Between lugs 18 mm
Lug to lug length 44.7 mm
Case Thickness 12.4 mm
All sizes are approximate.
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