I am a great fan of the history of Hamilton as the first, best, American watch company. As with fountain pen companies such as Parker and Waterman, which are both owned and operated overseas, I see Hamilton as more of an expatriate American company than part of a Swiss conglomerate ("An American in Switzerland", if you will).
If Hamilton was still made in the U.S. and still manufacturing their own movements, I would still be very interested. If Hamilton made their own in-house movements NOW, I would still be interested. If Hamilton utilized another, well thought of supplier to the Swiss watch market, I would still be interested.
Though I do own Seiko (I have a Kinetic and a Seiko 5 Automatic), and know that that are very well made products and that their high end (Spring Drive and other luxury automatics) certainly compete in quality with some of the best Swiss watches, I still share many peoples prejudice against Japanese (and pretty much anybody else's ) movements, as being inferior to Swiss. So, if Hamilton, like Invicta, used Myota or any other non-swiss movements, I would lose interest (certainly in any watches made with those movements), even if they had a reputation for being good.
I like ETA movements. They are well made, reliable and in just about any Swiss watch from $50 (on eBay at least) to several thousand dollars. Interestingly enough, the ETA 2842 automatic movement, which is one of the more commonly used movements in mid to higher-end watches, is in the Swatch automatics. Interestingly enough, however, if you hang on timezone.com, you will notice a considerable bias against ETA as a mass-producer of movements. But, these are also people who wear $1000 "beater watches" to change their oil, wear their Pateks to the gym, and make posts like this one: http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&th=941184&start=0&rid=26691 (had to save it when I saw it).
If Hamilton was still made in the U.S. and still manufacturing their own movements, I would still be very interested. If Hamilton made their own in-house movements NOW, I would still be interested. If Hamilton utilized another, well thought of supplier to the Swiss watch market, I would still be interested.
Though I do own Seiko (I have a Kinetic and a Seiko 5 Automatic), and know that that are very well made products and that their high end (Spring Drive and other luxury automatics) certainly compete in quality with some of the best Swiss watches, I still share many peoples prejudice against Japanese (and pretty much anybody else's ) movements, as being inferior to Swiss. So, if Hamilton, like Invicta, used Myota or any other non-swiss movements, I would lose interest (certainly in any watches made with those movements), even if they had a reputation for being good.
I like ETA movements. They are well made, reliable and in just about any Swiss watch from $50 (on eBay at least) to several thousand dollars. Interestingly enough, the ETA 2842 automatic movement, which is one of the more commonly used movements in mid to higher-end watches, is in the Swatch automatics. Interestingly enough, however, if you hang on timezone.com, you will notice a considerable bias against ETA as a mass-producer of movements. But, these are also people who wear $1000 "beater watches" to change their oil, wear their Pateks to the gym, and make posts like this one: http://forums.timezone.com/index.php?t=msg&th=941184&start=0&rid=26691 (had to save it when I saw it).
