Hamilton Ryan - Original Box & Bracelet - Art Deco - 10K Gold Filled - 1951

Turn this watch over and seventy years disappear. Engraved across the caseback in elegant script: To My Darling Husband / Love, Always / May. Someone chose this watch as the object through which to say something permanent, and the care that went into that choice is still legible in the quality of the engraving and the condition of the watch itself.

This Hamilton Ryan was produced in Lancaster, Pennsylvania from 1951 to 1954, one of dozens of named references Hamilton offered during their most inventive period of American watch design. The square 10K gold filled case with its gently curved lugs and hourglass waist carries the characteristic stepped inner bezel that frames the dial with an Art Deco sensibility that looks entirely intentional even seventy years later. The two-tone dial uses a recessed center field with applied gold Roman numerals at twelve, and a geometric step-cut index pattern at the remaining hour positions, all in solid 18K gold. The small seconds subdial sits at six within a matching stepped surround. The gold-toned hands are original and correct.

The movement is the 12/0 sized Hamilton 752, 17 jewels, made in the USA, finished with fine striped côtes de Genève decoration across the bridges that sets Hamilton's better movements apart visually from standard production grade calibers of the era. The caseback is stamped Hamilton Watch Co. / Lancaster PA / 10K Gold Filled / L&K with serial L594721.

This watch comes with its original Hamilton presentation box, cream with blue velvet interior and the Hamilton crest on the lid, and the original Speidel bracelet, confirmed by the Speidel stamping on the reverse. The bracelet and box together elevate this significantly above the typical bare watch listing for this reference. Finding a Ryan with both is not common.