Published in 2006 by René Rondeau.
Hardbound, 8-1/2" x 11", 256 pages, color, $36.95.
See page 84 of Feb 2007 Bulletin for additional ordering information.

If you’re old enough, as I am, to remember the first time you watched The Wizard of Oz on your family’s first color TV, do you remember the thrill you felt when Dorothy opened the door to her farmhouse after she landed in Oz and the screen went from black and white to color?

Well that’s the sensation I got upon opening The Watch of the Future, 4th Edition, by Rene Rondeau. You just can’t help it. Your first reaction is: “Wow, everything’s in color!”

“The Story of the Hamilton Electric Watch,” which is the book’s subtitle, has been Rondeau’s domain, ever since he published his first paperback edition (all of 94 pages!) back in 1989. Two hardcover revised editions followed, and that body of work has remained, up until now, the definitive reference work on Hamilton electric watches.

Now we have this latest edition. And not to take anything away from Rondeau’s previous efforts, but this latest work is so head-and-shoulders above the previous editions that comparisons are darned near impossible.

But let’s give it a try.

Beyond the obvious execution in full color, there’s the size. The previous editions were 6" x 9" format. This one is 8-1/2" x 11". The last edition was 182 pages; this one is 256. This is clearly not just a rehash of a previous edition, as so many in the book-writing business do. The new, bigger, pages are not only chock full of luscious photographs, but include new information never before published.

I’ll get to the photos in a moment; it is this new information that I first want to comment upon. Readers of Rondeau’s previous editions know the pure history of how the electric watch came into being. The idea for the electric watch occurred in 1946 and set in motion years of incremental product development. The first Hamilton electric watches were introduced to the public on January 3, 1957.

All fine and good. But what this latest edition does is take us behind the scenes, from the confidential memos to interviews with retired Hamilton Company executives and line workers. We learn about the process—the intermediate successes and failures, the hopes and doubts—as Hamilton attempted to bring this product from conception to reality. As many a great philosopher has written, life is the journey, not the destination. In this latest edition, we learn about the journey of the Hamilton electric watch, from inception and creation, to its peak and, ultimately, to its demise. Oh, and yes, to its rebirth. Not only have the original Hamilton electric watches become hugely collectible, but the quartz and mechanical reproductions that Hamilton is putting out today have become some of the hottest items on the watch market. Rondeau covers it all in highly readable and lively prose. Rating the book based on its text alone, it is—in a phrase normally reserved for works of fiction—a page-turner.

Most of the new information is deftly woven into the main text of the book.

Other information is broken out into sidebars, following the precedent set in 2004 by Fred Friedberg in his groundbreaking book on Illinois wristwatches. This is a great way to present information incidental to the main story. Like selecting items at a salad bar, you can choose to read or not read these side stories as the mood strikes.

One of my favorites is the sidebar on pages 116-121, in which Rondeau debunks several myths about Hamilton electric watches that have grown over the years. One of them refers to the myth that the Hamilton electric watch put the company out of business. It ain’t so! I'm not going to spoil what, for many, may come as a surprise as to what really put the company out of business. You’ll have to read the book. There is some speculating going on here, and you may agree or disagree with Rondeau’s hypothesis. But one fact is undeniable: Rondeau bases his theories on years of research and poring over literally reams of internal company documents and hundreds of news stories from a variety of sources.

Another of my favorite sidebars is the six pages—bulging with color photographs—devoted to Hamilton electric display boxes. Collectors will find this section extremely helpful in determining what is the correct display box to go with a given electric watch from a given era. Many a Hamilton electric watch has been sold on eBay and other venues with a mismatched box. Some are easy to spot—like the 1950s watch in the 1990s box, for example. But others are not so easy to decipher. You might think this is a trivial point, but watch boxes have become big business, not just for Hamilton electrics, but for all vintage watches. In some instances, the box can sell for as much or more than the watch itself because of their scarcity. (Many people threw the box away or just left it at the jewelry store.)