Horological Meandering

nilomis
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Hamilton Fontainebleau Chronomatic Caliber 11 - A rare watch, here at Watchprosite

Team,

I decided to dip into the “rusty” (a.k.a. “vintage”) watches pond, when I saw this watch on the “block”.

I don’t normally do vintage because of the amount of frustration that may result when a nice piece stays forever on my watchmaker waiting for a part or, worst, when the watch shows irreparable damage made by less skilled watchmakers.

Anyway, I did some research (Watchprosite don’t have a single post about this watch!) and I already secured some parts for this model (the plastic crystal is unique for this model), that watch seller is a dear friend and I decided to take the plunge.

Let me share a few words about Hamilton Watch Co. (mainly from Wikipedia combined with other sources).

The Hamilton Watch Company is a brand of the Swatch Group, a Swiss watch company based in Bienne, Switzerland. The Hamilton Watch Company was formerly a storied American watch design and manufacturing company, which incorporated in 1892 and produced its first watch in 1893.

After its formation, the Hamilton Watch Company went on to manufacture and market pocket watches and wristwatches, ending American manufacture in 1969. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the Hamilton Watch Company became a  diversified conglomerate itself and was subsequently purchased by a larger holding group, the third company integrated into what ultimately evolved into the Swatch group.

Today simply called Hamilton, the brand is one of more than twenty watch brands belonging to the Swatch Group, the world's largest watch manufacturer and marketer.

Making a long story short, in 1966, Hamilton took over Büren Watch Co. in Biel.
Büren was a proper manufacture, creating its own movements – and it’s a specialist of automatic watches.

For instance, Hanz Kocher from Büren invented the automatic watch with micro-rotor in 1957, allowing for the first ultra-thin automatic watches. Some patent licenses were even accorded to prestigious brand like Universal and Piaget.

Now we have the important point: At the moment of the take-over, Büren was working with Dubois Depraz on a special and secret project: the automatic chronograph Chronomatic!

That’s how Hamilton can also claim to be part of the first automatic chronograph ever made (Let’s forget the endless dispute with Zenith for now).
Because of all fuzz, we tend to forget that in March 1969, was Robert Kocher, vice-president of Hamilton International on the side to Willy Breitling and Jack Heuer during the launch of this famous movement.

Hamilton made three Chronomatic watches: two with a normal round case and another with an exotic case: the Fontainebleau.

The Fontainebleau Chrono-matic uses a “squared-cambered” case with a size that approaches today’s modern trend of big watches.

This size was a plus to me, because smaller watches are always “confiscated” by my wife.

The movement, the famous Caliber 11, is not something that attracts me because I see this movement more as a “kludge” than a proper designed one.

Let’s see some pictures of my newest member:

The case shape is what called my attention. Exotic / Funk. Pure 70's.



The case back is also exotic.



A side view, cool



Ano



A traditional B&W picture



Now the details.

The Caliber 11, it may be a watchmaker 

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