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Ulysse Nardin

USN instructions

 

I think that the USN had the best instruction and training program for ship's chronometers because they tend to rotate staff around allot and there is this sensitive instrument that needs to be carefully maintained.  Those instructions are very helpful.   Hamilton had a printed ten page manual for operation.  i think that is probably an excerpt from it that was adapted for yours.  What makes your Nardin so rare is that after Hamilton began production, VERY few chronometers made outside the US were purchased.  So the history of your instrument is highly valued among some collectors.  Mine has a history with the Japanese Navy since it was sold by an agent in Osaka.  It was sold by a Japanese dealer to an American collector in 1973.   It is also unusual in that it survived the war in very good condition.
I also have a seikosha ships clock with a fusee movement that didn't fare too well. The glass is cracked and the dial is tarnished.  But somehow the movement survived the blow without any damage.  The two seem to fit together well as the Seiko chronometer from WWII was directly copied from Nardin's like mine that were already in Japan.  My ship's clock is a copy of  a British ship's clock according to Ray Bates, "the british clockmaker".  But i tend to think that the seikosha was over designed in order to withstand the punishment that it took.  Naridins are more elegant engineering that no one else has been able to match though they have tried be they Japanese, or Russians, etc.

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