Military Hamilton Model 23 Chronograph Flyback Master Navigation Pocket Watch (1946)

Here we have a Hamilton Model 23 Chronograph pocket watch, produced in Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1946. The Model 23 is one of the most mechanically ambitious pocket watches Hamilton ever produced, and this example carries the desirable "P" prefix serial number from the postwar production run.

The Model 23 is a flyback chronograph operated by a single pusher at the pendant. One press starts the central sweep seconds, a second press stops it, and a third press snaps the hands back to zero. Running seconds live in the sub register at the 6:00 position and elapsed minutes are tracked by the register at 12:00, recording up to 30 minutes. Hamilton built this complication on top of the reliable 992B platform, making the Model 23 one of the most complicated watches the company ever produced.

The movement is the size 16 Model 23, 19 jewels, finished in nickel and adjusted to temperature and three positions. These were designed and built in the run up to World War II as Master Navigation Watches, clipped to the side of the Mark IV octant and used by Air Force navigators to fix position by the stars. Pilots, navigators and bombardiers relied on the Model 23 to coordinate squadrons and find targets over open water. This 1946 example was produced after the war ended, when Hamilton continued the Model 23 line into the postwar era and supplied watches to commercial buyers and aviation firms.

This is another excellent example of the mid 20th Century American ingenuity that made the Hamilton Watch Company a worldwide standard for accuracy and precision in timekeeping. A genuine Hamilton Model 23 Chronograph in honest, original condition is increasingly difficult to find.

All vintage pocket watches are cleaned, oiled, and adjusted for accuracy and warranted for one full year from the date of purchase.