What Does Your Watch Say?
Charter Member
VANTAGE (Hamilton) SST World Time Watch circa 1960s
$600 Canadian shipped OBO
Uncommon Vantage SST world time watch
Hour is shown by the coloured triangles while the minutes hand and second hand read off those times
Turning the crown turns the center disc to the desired time while also moving the minute hand
Vantage hand wind watch
Standard Time caliber 177
Circa 1960s
17 jewels
Original dial, hands, crown, case and crystal
Chromed case is in very good condition
Screw down steel case back
Movement winds sets and runs +22 seconds dial up over 24 hours
Case measures 33.5mm wide 42mm lug to lug and has 17.5mm lugs
Comes with a new IW Suisse leather band
Vantage was a sub brand owned by the Hamilton watch company. Don Sauers wrote in his comprehensive "Time for America: Hamilton Watch 1892-1992": "Vantage had been created in 1962 in response to two competitive challenges: first, the continuing popularity of Timex-type watches (products described by Hamilton salesmen as 'throwaway watches' in their off the record comments), and second, the introduction by Bulova of the low-priced Caravelle line." He adds:"Both Vantage and Caravelle featured jeweled-lever movements, superior in quality to the pin-lever movements in 'dollar watches' and most Timexes. Vantage retail prices ranged from $11.95 to $29.95, definitely competitive, considering their quality. Prior to the transfer of some production to Pforzheim [West Germany] in 1968, Vantage movements had been made exclusively in the U.S. Virgin Islands, by Hamilton's newly acquired Standard Time Corporation. The watches were then assembled in Hamilton's plant in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, a facility that had first served as a fuse factory and then as an assembly plant for automotive clocks." Sauers concludes, "After a slow start Vantage proved to be a winner, showing sales vitality into the mid-'70s. At its peak the line was sold through 9,000 retail stores nationwide and, eventually, parts came from Switzerland and Japan as well as Germany and the Virgin Islands" (pp. 196-197).
$600 Canadian shipped OBO
Uncommon Vantage SST world time watch
Hour is shown by the coloured triangles while the minutes hand and second hand read off those times
Turning the crown turns the center disc to the desired time while also moving the minute hand
Vantage hand wind watch
Standard Time caliber 177
Circa 1960s
17 jewels
Original dial, hands, crown, case and crystal
Chromed case is in very good condition
Screw down steel case back
Movement winds sets and runs +22 seconds dial up over 24 hours
Case measures 33.5mm wide 42mm lug to lug and has 17.5mm lugs
Comes with a new IW Suisse leather band
Vantage was a sub brand owned by the Hamilton watch company. Don Sauers wrote in his comprehensive "Time for America: Hamilton Watch 1892-1992": "Vantage had been created in 1962 in response to two competitive challenges: first, the continuing popularity of Timex-type watches (products described by Hamilton salesmen as 'throwaway watches' in their off the record comments), and second, the introduction by Bulova of the low-priced Caravelle line." He adds:"Both Vantage and Caravelle featured jeweled-lever movements, superior in quality to the pin-lever movements in 'dollar watches' and most Timexes. Vantage retail prices ranged from $11.95 to $29.95, definitely competitive, considering their quality. Prior to the transfer of some production to Pforzheim [West Germany] in 1968, Vantage movements had been made exclusively in the U.S. Virgin Islands, by Hamilton's newly acquired Standard Time Corporation. The watches were then assembled in Hamilton's plant in East Petersburg, Pennsylvania, a facility that had first served as a fuse factory and then as an assembly plant for automotive clocks." Sauers concludes, "After a slow start Vantage proved to be a winner, showing sales vitality into the mid-'70s. At its peak the line was sold through 9,000 retail stores nationwide and, eventually, parts came from Switzerland and Japan as well as Germany and the Virgin Islands" (pp. 196-197).
