| The Hamilton watch company is an iconic American brand, famous for supplying watches to the US army. Today it is established as one of the leading watch brands in the world with a proven reputation for creating elegant and reliable watches.
The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1892. Its first series of pocket watches, Broadway Limited, became known as the “Watch of Railroad Accuracy”. The unrivalled precision and reliability of the Hamilton railroad watches put a stop to an epidemic of serious accidents. In 1917 another innovation was launched with the world’s first wristwatch.
During the second decade of the 20th century Hamilton gained the prestigious rank of supplier to the US Armed Forces. The first of the wrist-watches provided was used by General “Black Jack” Pershing and his troops who were fighting in the European trenches.
During World War II, Hamilton stopped production of watches for consumers to concentrate on the huge task of providing the US forces with a total of one million timepieces. The Hamilton marine chrono-meter was the first to be produced by modern manufacturing methods and around 10,000 Hamilton marine chronometers experienced World War II action first hand. This achievement was a milestone in industrial history and represents the only time a true precision timekeeper was produced on a mass production scale. In 1957 Hamilton noched up another first with the world’s first electric watch, the Hamilton 500
The Hamilton Brand is currently owned by the Swatch Group, a Swiss watch company. Hamilton watches have appeared in over 300 Hollywood films such as Men in Black, the Talented Mr Ripley and You’ve Got Mail. |
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