Hamilton has had a long, rich history of producing both wrist and pocket watches. Established in America in 1892, they made their name producing pocket watches. In their early days, they produced pocket watches for the American railroad. They also supplied watches for the military during the Second World War. It's estimated to have over a million watches to be sent overseas. Hamilton was also a company that was at the cutting edge of innovation. In 1957 they produced the world's first electronic watch, the Hamilton Ventura.
The Production of the Hamilton Ventura
They hired a renowned industrial designer, Richard Arbib, to design this watch and asked him to design whatever he wanted!! He produced one of the most avant-grade designs in watch history that still turns heads today. The asymmetric design has become a design classic and an iconic watch in the history of Hamilton. The watch further stamped its iconic status by appearing on the wrist of Elvis Presley in the 1961 film 'Blue Hawaii'. Despite being such an iconic watch it was only in production for 7 years before being discontinued, however, that was not the end of the Hamilton Ventura!!!
In 1971 SSIH, the Omega & Tissot holding company bought the Hamilton brand. Production of Hamilton watches moved from America to Switzerland a few years earlier. SSIH later became The Swatch Group and knowing they had a hit on their hands looking at Hamilton's back catalogue, they revived the Ventura. In 2015 they released a brand new collection of the Hamilton Ventura design, this time instead of the electronic movement, which didn't last the test of time, they came with new Swiss quartz or automatic movements, however, that famed asymmetric case design was still the same.
Hamilton Ventura at Auction
In the Watches & Watch Collectable sale on 17th January we have one of these newer re-issued Hamilton Ventura watches. It features a stainless steel case, an eye-catching red second hand and the Swiss automatic movement is shown off by the skeleton dial and exhibition case back. With an estimate of £300-400, I'm sure it will be a popular lot and attract a lot of interest.
Newsletter Signup
Newsletter
