For some watch collectors, altered or counterfeit watches have long been a problem. Rolex collectors in particular must be educated and cautious to avoid the disappointment and financial setback of buying a watch that is not authentic. Fortunately, collectors of Hamilton wristwatches have been relatively immune to this problem. Recently, however, a veritable flood of counterfeit Hamilton "Pacermatics" has entered the market.

The Pacer is by far the most popular watch that Hamilton made in their series of electric watches. Hamilton was the first company in the world to market a battery-powered watch, starting in 1957. To emphasize the unique new technology inside the watch, Hamilton hired a noted industrial designer, Richard Arbib, to create a dramatic, eye-catching new case for the electric watch: the Ventura. It was created only to attract attention and no one at Hamilton really believed it would sell. You can imagine their surprise when it turned out to be the most popular gold watch Hamilton ever offered! Thereafter, Hamilton made an array of unusual and asymmetric watches in the electric series. (The complete history of the Hamilton electric watch can be found in my book The Watch of the Future.)

The Pacer was the little brother to the "Ventura," with very similar case styling in a less-expensive gold-filled case. (See the August 1994 issue of the Bulletin for more details on the Hamilton Pacer.) The Pacer was a wildly successful watch for Hamilton and enjoyed one of the longest production runs in Hamilton’s history—from 1958 to 1969, with an estimated 39,500 sold. Today it remains the most popular electric watch among modern collectors.

In 1961, Hamilton offered a variation of the Pacer with a conventional self-winding mechanical movement. Dubbed the "Pacer A" or "Pacermatic," it was fitted with a Swiss automatic mechanical movement in place of the then-current Hamilton 500 electric. (Figure 1.)

Hamilton produced only a few asymmetric watches with mechanical movements and most, including the Pacermatic, were sales flops. Although we tend to think of the 1950s in terms of icons like automotive tail fins, Elvis Presley, and garish furniture, in reality the era was extremely conservative and conformist. The typical middle-class woman wore dull-colored dresses and gloves, and the typical middle-class man wore a hat, button-down suit and tie—often even in the comfort of his own home. The sort of customer who was adventuresome enough to buy the wildly asymmetric watches offered by Hamilton was usually also attracted to the revolutionary new electric movement inside the watch. Such buyers were not excited by "old-fashioned" mechanical movements, while the conservative buyer who stuck with mechanical watches would never dream of wearing a watch with such extreme styling as the Pacer.

As a result, the Pacermatic was a poor seller and was dropped from the Hamilton sales line after only one year. Because so few were sold, today it is a rare watch that is very difficult to find and consequently expensive.

While these mechanical asymmetric watches may not have been popular in the 1950s and 1960s, today they are eagerly sought after by collectors. Many collectors covet the Pacermatic because of its easily maintained mechanical movement. The Hamilton electric was a pioneering invention, but unfortunately the technology was crude and few watchmakers ever mastered the art of repairing the movements. This led to a negative reputation, very often exaggerated, but it is nonetheless true that the complexity of the original movements is considered a handicap by some.

The problem for collectors, of course, is that there are nowhere near enough Pacermatics to satisfy collector demand. This has led to a perhaps inevitable solution: create new Pacermatics by replacing original electric movements with automatic mechanical movements.

( Continued in next column )

No doubt many such watches were made in good faith, simply because the watchmaker or dealer was not able to repair the original movement. In the mid-1990s, a significant number of these converted watches entered the market, apparently assembled by one or more industrious individuals who found it an expedient way to resuscitate watches they were unable to repair.

Further confusing the issue was quite a bit of misinformation that spread, particularly through the Internet, alleging that these modern converted watches were made at the Hamilton factory in the 1960s. This was purportedly done to satisfy customers unhappy with their electric movements. The claim is blatantly untrue. Hamilton never did any such electric-to-mechanical conversions. For a brief period in the mid-1980s, the modern Swiss owners of the Hamilton company did convert electric watches to quartz movements on request, however no mechanical conversions were ever done at the factory in any era. It stands to reason that if this allegation were true, there would be a healthy supply of automatic Venturas, Spectras, Van Horns, and others to be found, and not only Pacers!

Naturally collectors have the right to do anything they wish with their own watches, and if they want to replace the original movement with a quartz or mechanical one there is no reason they can’t. There is no problem if such converted watches are sold at the same price level as conventional watches. Unfortunately, as these mechanical Pacer conversions enter the resale market they are often being passed off as legitimate Pacermatics, priced at the lofty levels the genuine item commands.

Most collectors have no idea that such counterfeit watches even exist, let alone how to detect them. Consequently, many people have been paying premium prices for altered Pacers that, to a purist, are worth much less than untampered watches. This problem has grown exponentially with the expanding Internet market. Many such watches are showing up on Internet auctions and are often being sold at high prices to novices who aren’t knowledgeable about what they’re buying.

Changing a Pacer from an electric movement to an automatic movement is not difficult. Fortunately for collectors, few of the converted watches are assembled to match the real article, making these inaccurate conversions fairly simple to distinguish. Others are more deceptive and thus harder to authenticate.

To determine the authenticity of a Pacermatic, the first clue is the dial. All counterfeit Pacermatics will have refinished dials, since the original "electric" marking would have to be replaced by the word "automatic." However, a refinished dial alone is not an infallible indication that the watch is not authentic. Most of the original Pacermatics I have seen in my career have had discolored dials, because the case design required a notched stem hole that allowed moisture and dirt to enter the case more readily than in electric Pacers. (Figure 2.) Many original dials have been refinished over the years as a result of this corrosion problem.

Obviously, an original dial is a very strong indication that the watch is correct. These original Pacermatic dials were always silver, never black, with the famous "H" logo below 12 o’clock, just above the italic-printed Hamilton name. The lower portion of the dial is marked "automatic" in script, and below 6 o’clock the word "Swiss" appears in small print. (Figure 3.) Unfortunately, detecting original dials can sometimes take experience, and some made-up counterfeits have such nicely refinished dials that they can be misleading—especially if they have had enough time to develop some patina.

(EDITORS NOTE: Please see the August 2000 Bulletin, pages 485-488, for this article in its entirety. Critical information concerning ways to verify authenticity based on the watch movement and case adaptations are further explained in the full article.)

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Dan Mitchell (UK) for his invaluable assistance with this article.

About the Author

René Rondeau is a watchmaker and dealer who has been collecting Hamilton wristwatches since 1984. A specialist in Hamilton electric watches of the 1950s and 1960s, he is the author of the books The Watch of the Future and Hamilton Wristwatches—A Collector’s Guide. He has also written numerous articles about the Hamilton Watch Company for the Bulletin, and has frequently been quoted in other horological publications.