Hamilton Watch Company - Pennsylvania 1938

Beautifully engraved scarce certificate from the Hamilton Watch Company issued in 1938. This historic document was printed by the E. A. Wright Bank Note Company and has an ornate border around it with a vignette of 2 allegorical women sitting and looking towards the ground, one of which is holding a scrool. This item has the printed signatures of the Company's President and Treasurer and is over 67 years old.


Certificate Vignette



In 1874, the Adams & Perry Watch Manufacturing Company was formed, and the first watch was produced in 1876. By 1877 the company had turned into the Lancaster Watch Company. In 1886 the company was bought out by a gentleman named Abram Bitner who renamed it the "Keystone Standard Watch Company." The business was then sold to the Hamilton Watch Company in 1891, and Hamilton officially sold its first watch in 1893.

Hamilton produced many fine pocket watches of all sizes and grades, and some of their models were considered the main "workhorses" of the railroad. In 1941 they won the contract from the U.S. government to produce marine chronometers, and these are highly prized today as some of the finest timepieces ever made. Hamilton eventually became part of a Swiss watch conglomerate, and the last American-made Hamilton was produced in about 1969.