From time to time, we open Worn & Wound up to fellow enthusiasts, collectors, and niche specialists who want to write about a watch or subject we have yet to cover. Today, we’re featuring a guest post from Jarret Harkness, who’s going to tell us all about Hamilton’s important, and often underappreciated, foray into electric watches. And Jarret’s the right person to do just that. He began collecting and restoring Hamilton “Electric” watches in the 2000s, eventually training under the famed Rene Rondeau. Beginning in 2011, Jarett moved from working as a pharmacist to restoring Hamilton Electrics full time. When Rondeau retired in 2015, Jarett purchased the business and inventory, and today he operates his website, unwindintime.com, offering restoration of Hamilton Electrics for clients and sales of restored Hamilton Electrics, as well as other vintage watches.
Hamilton Watch Company created a true icon with the 1957 introduction of the Hamilton Electric watch. It was the first significant innovation in mechanical design since the 16th century. Before 1957, all watches supplied power via a mainspring through either hand winding or kinetic energy (wrist motion with an automatic watch). The Hamilton Electric looked toward a different source, which resulted in a mechanical movement being powered by ?an energy cell no larger than a shirt button,? as Hamilton once described it. Although the Hamilton Electric is powered by a battery, the o...