Gold Hamilton

[LEDluvr]

Hi guys,
I have a question about gold plating......

I recently bought a gold Hamilton LED watch and noticed that the case is a slightly different color than the other gold Hamilton I have - both the same model.
They look like this one but with only one command button (I can upload pics if it helps). http://www.ledwatches.net/photo-pages/hamilton1.htm


Hamilton #1
The lighter 'yellowish" Hamilton says; "14k Gold Electroplated Bezel" on the case back and "1/4 10kt. RGP" on the band clasp. The band is slightly darker gold than the case, not really a good match.

Hamilton #2
The slightly darker, more 'golden' Hamilton says; "10k Gold Rolled Plate Bezel" on the case back and "10k GF Top Caps" on the band clasp and this band
matches the case very well. This band is slightly darker than the band for Hamilton #1.

Both are Champion bands BTW.

What is the difference between the gold plating of Hamilton # 1 vs. #2 ? Electroplating vs. Rolled Gold Plate - 1/4 10kt RGP vs. 10k GF (Gold Fill I presume)Top Caps. Is # 2 the 'higher end' product?

BTW - neither of these are working but one of them gives me a crisp, bright "O", I'm hoping a q.c. swap is all it needs.

[retroleds]

LEdluvr:
Your watches are both "QED I" - later non-magnet sets were QED II. The first example: the karats differ. Karat is an indicator or how much gold is in the alloy. 24 kt is pure gold, 12 kt. is 50% gold. But the karat says nothing about what the other portion is made up of. Which is how you can have 18k yellow, white or rose gold - depends on what the other 6 kt. are made up of. RGP is thicker than most plating, so that is the better item. I think you meant it says 1/40 10 kt. Which means if you took the band and ripped off those 10kt gold caps, they would weigh about 1/40 of what the total band weighs. A very nebulous system. Yeah, some of those finish "matches" leave a lot to be desired. Some of the base metal
(jeweler's brass) cases match up to 10-12 kt gold better than odd gold mixes from other companies. Like the Bulova drivers...none of those are gold plated but they match the g.f. bands pretty nicely. For a really sucky matchup, just look at most Longines Gemini's.

[LEDluvr]

Thanks for the Ed-jumication.

Here is a pic of the two, but you really can't see the difference in the pic. The left one is the electroplated piece.



The module in one of them looks pretty cool, never seen one with so much 'sealant' on it before. Then again, I've only seen a few in real life.

[bruce wegmann]

The Hamiltons came in two flavors, the QED [Quartz Electronic Digital...one button], and the QTC [Quartz Time Computer...two button]. That threw me a bit when I first started collecting the Hamilton models. BTW, a Hamilton QED with an extremely rare crystal type just went on eBay for $34...check it out...only the second one of these I've ever seen [yes, have the other one].

[retroleds]

Well, I decided to go looking thru the manuals and instructions. Your watches, whether 1 button or two would be properly a QED. The QED II was the second generation models(non-magnet set), with the Frontier made module.

[LEDluvr]

Thank you both for the info.

Bruce, I missed that auction you mentioned, can you cut and paste a link for me (and others) so that we can check it out?

Actually, I had been wondering about the crystal. Are the QED/QTC crystals made of the same material as the Pulsar watches?
One of my Hamiltons has some fleabites on the edges, no lettering, but otherwise intact. The electroplated Hamilton's crystal is in much better shape, but I noticed the lettering is wearing off at the edges.

It seems the quality of the lettering isn't equal to the Pulsars. But I only have 2 Hamiltons out of God-knows-how-many so I really don't have much to go by.

[bruce wegmann]

Here it is: 350256074352 This item also had a P3 caseback, but that isn't particularly relevant...the crystal was the good part... And Ed, I have a Hamilton box here that clearly says "Quartz Time Computer" on the inside...seems like Hamilton couldn't make its' mind up as to what to call their LEDs...

[retroleds]

Bruce, I agree with you on the Quartz Time Computer/ QEDI. But I've now looked at several QEDII manuals and boxes...definitely the later, Frontier powered, non-magnet set models. Funny, I just fixed someone's QEDI a few minutes ago(for those wondering, I'm shooting for 6-7 repairs a day now that I am back in the saddle.)

[LEDluvr]

I see what you two mean by QTC and QED.
You can see they used both titles in their box lids:

QTC:
http://www.ledwatches.net/photo-pages/hamilton2.htm

QED:
http://www.ledwatches.net/photo-pages/hamilton13.htm

Out of curiosity- what module was used in the watches in the second link? Frontier or Hughes?

[bruce wegmann]

I have one of these...Frontier, definitely [in the one I have, anyway].

[retroleds]

Frontier in all the non-magnet ones(same on the Omega Constellation).

[bucko170]

a Hamilton QED with an extremely rare crystal type just went on eBay for $34

What makes the crystal so rare?

[retroleds]

Bruce is referencing the logo being centered at the bottom of the screen, instead of the name being at lower right, "H" being at upper left. It may be rare, but it doesn't seem to be desirable - whenever I have had one to sell like that, people ask me if I have different glass for it. Understandably, it just doesn't look right compared to most others. Visually competes with the display.

[bucko170]

Bruce is referencing the logo being centered at the bottom of the screen, instead of the name being at lower right, "H" being at upper left.

I didn't even notice the difference.........it's obvious now you have pointed it out

Is there any particular reason for the difference in the logo layout?

[retroleds]

Better question, Bucko - do YOU like the logo there?

[bucko170]

Better question, Bucko - do YOU like the logo there?

It doesn't offend me being there but I have to agree with you the more common layout looks better.

[bruce wegmann]

My guess is that Hamilton reached the same conclusion, very early on, so there are very few of these out there... BTW, my one-button stainless version [the rarest of the four], has no markings on the glass at all, another variation that does not work very well, esthetically.

[clockace]

i have just acquired one of those that looks like the hamilton13html photo in gold fill. the logo and hamilton is on the same level at the lower edge of the glass. watch works fine. time date and dow. the bracelet is shot big time. whoever had this wore it hard. does anyone have this type of bracelet in gold fill in decent condition? peter

[LEDluvr]

My guess is that Hamilton reached the same conclusion, very early on, so there are very few of these out there... BTW, my one-button stainless version [the rarest of the four], has no markings on the glass at all, another variation that does not work very well, esthetically.

I have to agree Bruce, I think the stainless steel one looks the best and i like the logo on there - just not in the middle. There seems to be so many more gold ones out there. Where as the smaller, Frontier module Hamiltons all seem to be in SS.

As you can see in the pic I posted earlier in this thread, one of the crystals has the logo and the other does not. I thought that meant that the logo had rubbed off or been polished off the other one.
I guess not? Are the QED 1 crystals made of the same material as the Pulsar's crystals? They aren't plastic, I know that much.

[retroleds]

As you can see in the pic I posted earlier in this thread, one of the crystals has the logo and the other does not. I thought that meant that the logo had rubbed off or been polished off the other one.
I guess not? Are the QED 1 crystals made of the same material as the Pulsar's crystals? They aren't plastic, I know that much.

The Hamilton crystals are mineral glass, just like the non-Sapphire Pulsar crystals. Even though it looks the same under a microscope, the Hamilton logos don't seem, IMO, to be as heavy or raised as a Pulsar logo. Since it is basically high-temperature glass paint baked on glass, polishing off a logo will usually leave a stress artifact/shadow deep into the glass, on a Pulsar crystal *. The Hamilton glass seems to be left without that effect after being polished off. Same with a Bulova driver's watch or an Omega. The Pulsar logos have a slightly shinier "wet" look to them(my opinion) - that may be due to a marginally different type of glass paint being used on those logos. Some engineer out there knew, but will they ever tell us? Are they still around?

*One of the things noted on some of the glass sold in the infamous Pulsar bogus glass fiasco, was that logo shadow appearing on the opposite corner from where the bogus logos were applied. Apparently some of them were resurfaced glass and at that point, the odds were 50/50 that some would get turned contrary to their original orientation, short of someone carefully checking them.

[LEDluvr]

Very interesting......
thanks for in info.

[LEDluvr]

This Hamilton's module has me scratching my head...
It looked clean (see pic in above post), I put in new batteries and all I got was a bright red "O". It lit up in each field as I removed and retried the batteries. So I swapped the q.c.s and it worked! I let it run for about 15 minutes and it was keeping time but wouldn't set with the original magnet. After a while the display got more and more dim until it stopped running.
When I tried new batteries I still got nothing. The darn thing went from running to dead in less than 1/2 hour.
Does anyone have any ideas what could be going wrong??