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The Hamilton 36-size is called a Chronometer Watch but is not a full chronometer as it has a conventional lever escapement, rather than a detent escapement found in full chronometers. Many Hamilton navigational timepieces were styled after European pieces, including the Hamilton 36-Size. Torpedo boat watches were made by other companies including Swiss manufacturer Zenith. A typical voyage would be hours or a few days, so extreme timekeeping accuracy was not as important, as even a moderately large error in the chronometer rate would lead to only a small positional error over a short voyage. They were small and fast, and were designed to be able to out-maneuver larger battle ships. They were originally sail-powered and later became steam-powered. Torpedo boats were first conceived around the American Civil War. This is sometimes called a Torpedo Boat Watch. The result was the Hamilton 36-size Chronometer Watch. Both the model 21 and 22 date to the early 1940’s.ĭuring World War I, the US Navy commissioned Hamilton to make a more purpose-built movement for navigational use. This picture shows a Hamilton 940 watch mounted in a gimbaled box dating to around 1917 at the left, a Hamilton model 22 Chronometer Watch in the center and a Hamilton model 21 Chronometer at right. A few of them were gimbal mounted for navigational usage. The 940 pocket watch was a high-quality 18-size movement used in railroad service. One of Hamilton’s earliest attempts at a navigational watch was a gimble-mounted model 940. Before this, they made navigational pieces that were adaptations of conventional watches that were more cost-effective than detent escapement chronometers, but still adequate for shorter voyages. Hamilton eventually made a full chronometer – the Model 21, designed in 1941 and used extensively in World War II. The cost was justified for ships that routinely crossed oceans, but was an unnecessary expense for vessels that made shorter trips. They were incredibly expensive and time consuming to make the combined output of English and Swiss manufacturers was only about 300 units per year. It’s much easier to regulate a watch for good time keeping in one orientation than to have to push and pull and balance things so the watch runs at the same speed in different orientations, since every change in position means the pivots and other components fit slightly differently.įull-blown naval chronometers with detent escapements were standard equipment on ocean-going ships from their invention in the late 18th Century through World War II. This ensures the chronometer always runs in the same dial up position. One of the most recognizable features of a naval chronometer is the gimbal mount for the movement.
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Careful navigational work plus an accurate chronometer will reckon your position to within less than a mile on a 90-day voyage. High accuracy is important on long voyages because errors compound.
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Harrison achieved the rate stability of within just a fraction of a second of gain or loss per day.
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The main advances of the naval chronometer were a bimetallic compensated balance and a detent escapement. The practical solution to the Longitude Problem did not appear until the mid-1700s, with the work funded by the imperialists and solved by a clockmaker named John Harrison. They understood that if you could know accurately what time it was at some reference location and compare that to local time (it’s easy to figure out when local noon is by watching for the sun’s highest point), you could translate that to an east/west position. The solution to the Longitude problem was hypothesized by Greek mathematicians more than 2000 years ago. Longitude – your east/west position, can’t be determined by celestial bodies because the earth rotates. Latitude – your north/south position – can be determined by celestial navigation – referencing the sun or stars. Navigation, especially at sea, has relied upon accurate timekeeping to solve the Longitude Problem. Their initial products were pocket watches for personal use.
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Hamilton watch company was founded in 1892 with the consolidation of several watch companies, including Aurora Watch Co, Lancaster Watch Co, and Keystone Watch Co.