Refinishing my Hamilton QED II (992576)

[OldAndCold]

I dug out my old QED II from a box of junk my dad gave me a while back. He was given the watch from work as a door prize at a Christmas party back in the 70s.
I was so nervous when I popped out the back of the watch, hoping I would not have to deal with a failed alkaline battery with chalk everywhere... LUCK! It was just a pair of dead WS14 cells.

He can't recall where the original band was, but, he hated the stainless steel and quickly put a cheapo leather strap on it instead (which has since crumbled into pieces... nearly 40 yrs old).

I am going to put a new leather band on it, but, keeping an eye out for a stainless strap that might be appripriate (with the Hamilton logo).

But I have 3 questions:

1) What was the original selling price for these? Dad says it had a price tag on it for $69.95, but, we no longer have it as proof.

2) I didn't want to deal with crappy LR44 or no-name 357 cells, so, I sprung for a pair of EPX76 cells. Are these the best the Energizer sells? Is there another brand that would be better?
I thought I read else where that LR44 and other 1.5vdc cells will start to have time drift after a while. I know these units were designed for 1.55vdc.

3) Since the logo is now gone from the crystal, and its a bit scratched, are there replacement units that someone sells?
Or should I just try and polish/clean it? I've done this with other mineral crystals with different levels of success.

I start by using each 400/600/800/1000/1200 wet paper and then buffing with 1500/2000 grit paste.

When I can get the lens out, it works well, but, takes a couple hours to do correctly.

I'll post a pic when I can get the things cleaned up a bit.

[bruce wegmann]

By 1976, the competition in the LED arena was ferocious, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to me that these could have dropped to $70 by then (my first Pulsar, a 3100, was $275 in March of 1974). Hamilton was no longer using Time Computer modules by then, and that would have dramatically reduced their production cost.
On the batteries, there's been a lot of discussion, but I still maintain that Renata makes the best silver-oxide cells out there. Swiss-made, top-quality...what more can be said? 357 is the size to use (386s will work, but have less capacity, and being shorter, can make intermittent contact with the battery connector). DON'T use alkaline cells...the voltage starts out right, but begins dropping from day one (effect on timekeeping is negligible, but the display gets progressively dimmer). AgO maintains a virtually constant voltage until nearly the very end of life, so when the display dims, you know it's definitely time for new batteries. If you can't find Renata, I'd go Maxcell and Energizer, in that descending order.

[OldAndCold]

I did talk to one watch repair guy who said in the older watches, he just puts in the EPX76s as he has seen the least amount of issues with them.

I'd love to fine a catalog or reference that shows the actual retail price of my old Hamilton... might be a reason to put more effort ($$$) into getting it some-what restored with a period correct ss band.
I can't help but wonder if it wasn't $99.95 instead... $70 for a watch of this quality back then was kind of hard to come by. My first wrist watch was a Timex winder that I got wet at camp and it never worked correctly afterwards... felt terrible when I came home and showed it to my parents. I guess it wasn't that expensive as they didn't appear all that upset.

But, like my old man, I prefer a leather wrist band vs. meta any day.

Again, I can't tell folks on the forum how nice it was to just be able to replace the cells and have it worked "as new".

[fronzelneekburm]

I can't confirm the problems described with LR44. With my first pulsar i bought some silver oxide ones from a guy who even sent results from a voltmeter and that was quite expensive.

However, for later watches i used normal (LR44 and similar) batteries and i never had problems with them unless they got really old (like a few years). For a "post time computer" watch i prolly won't shell out too much for batteries unelss you can get silver oxide ones as a true bargain.

In 1976 a Hamilton QED should have been around 100-120 USD (Hamilton along with Pulsar was among the most expensive popular digital watches back then), but in 77 or 78 the prices dropped pretty quickly due to the many competitors (Also LCD).


Prolly a bit hard to see without a subscription (You can only see the preview pic) but the SALE prices are kinda visible here: The QED is 99.90 and the "SALE" on the right side offers a no-namer for 24.90... The end of the LED era was already visible here...


http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/13489904/