The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1892. It produced its first watch, designed by HJ Cain, in 1893. (Now that’s a highly desirable vintage pocket watch for anyone to add to their pocket watch collection old). Also that year, the Hamilton Watch Company introduced “The Broadway Limited”, a railway pocket watch known for its reliability and used extensively by railways. It was so good that a version was adopted for the American Expeditionary Forces around the world. A version of the wristwatch introduced around World War I, where it was worn as the watch of choice for many adventures, including being the first watch to climb Mount Everest, worn by Admiral Byrd on his expeditions to the North and South Pole and by many other famous adventurers of the early 20th century.
In 1928, the Yankees won the World Series and Hamilton Watch celebrated by introducing the Yankee Wrist Watch along with another famous watch from that period, the Piping Rock, both quality, state-of-the-art timepieces. Building on this reputation, they captured the hearts of airlines in the 1930s and became the official watch of TWA, Eastern, United and Northwestern airlines.
In 1940, Hamilton Watch closed its doors to consumer sales and concentrated exclusively on developing watches for the military. During the World War II era, close to one million Hamilton military watches were produced.
In 1957, Hamilton Watch created one of the most dramatic changes in watch design when it introduced the Hamilton Electric, the first electric watch. This marked the beginning of the end for self-winding watches (although there are still a small number of high-end watches that still require winding). And in 1959, they developed the Venture, a sleek watch modeled after the inspiration of 1950’s Cadillac tailfins. This watch quickly became the go-to watch for the cool crowd of the ’50s, even being chosen by Elvis Presley. like the watch he wore in his movie Blue Hawaii.
Continuing their tradition of innovation, the Pulsar launches in 1972. This is the first digital watch of its kind and was designed and manufactured at their Pennsylvania headquarters. Since then, Hamilton Watch designs have remained cutting edge and highly desirable to own and collect.