These were used to synchronize countless military attacks, troop and train movements, bombing raids, even training. These included “hack” watches, named for a mechanism in the movement, connected to the crown, which set time to the exact second. allies including the Canadians, the English, and the Russians. Hamilton alone produced hundreds of thousands during the war-for the Army, Navy, Air Force, other military sections, and for U.S. watchmakers did make wristwatches for the military. In fact, they were forbidden by federal order from using critical materials or facilities to make new “civilian watches,” except railroad watches and special timekeeping instruments.īut U.S. Hamilton, for example, produced top-secret mechanical time fuzes for exact timing of anti-aircraft fire, jewel bearings, hairsprings, aircraft clocks, elapsed time clocks, altimeters, tachometers, map measurers-even tools, dies, and precision machinery for other watch, instrument, and jewel makers.ĭemand for war-related time products ended almost all consumer watch business for Hamilton and other American watchmakers for the duration of the war. Watchmakers made a variety of wartime timekeeping devices. “Timekeeping and measuring devices were of critical importance” to military planning and missions and the war effort generally, says René Rondeau, a leading authority on Hamilton watches. watchmakers like Hamilton, Bulova, Waltham, and Elgin-had converted to war service. Within a year, virtually all American industries-including U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, followed by America’s declaration of war on Dec. 7, 1941, and the Japanese surprise attack on the U.S. It had its own designers, engineers, physicists, and metallurgists and was a leader in horological research in watch oils, hairsprings, jewel bearings, and escapement design. In the 1930s, its wristwatches’ accuracy led several new airlines to adopt Hamilton as their official timepiece.īy 1940, Hamilton was one of America’s best-selling watch brands. That reputation took Hamilton into World War I as the official watch of the American Expeditionary Forces. Hamilton’s watches, first produced in March 1894, became so highly regarded for their precision they were nicknamed the “Watch of Railroad Accuracy.” Those meeting those exacting requirements were known as “railroad watches,” and a leader in making them was Hamilton, incorporated in late 1892 in Lancaster, Pa. Afterward, an industry commission devised standards of precise timekeeping for pocket watches (there were no wristwatches yet) used by railroad personnel. In 1891, an engineer’s inaccurate pocket watch led to a terrible train crash near Cleveland, Ohio. That aspect of Hamilton’s World War II story actually began 50 years earlier. Hamilton’s wartime contributions took many forms, but most obvious to the nation’s sons and daughters in uniform were its watches, long known for their accuracy. (today owned by The Swatch Group) helped win World War II. It is the story of how Hamilton Watch Co. It is the tale of a watch company in Pennsylvania’s Amish farm country, whose accurate timekeepers were essential to the Allied Forces’ victories. As the United States marks the 60th anniversary of its entry into World War II, there is a story from that conflict worth retelling.
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