The Electronic Expert

The watch was ticking, but intermittently. I noticed that the minute hand was loose. It was 40+ years old and needed help from an expert.

I love Google.

Search "Hamilton Electronic" and you'll find a man named Rene Rondeau. If you are at all interested in the history of Hamilton Electric watches you have to check out his site. He is the authority. www.rondeau.net

I was giddy. I read as much as I could until I ran into this: "PLEASE NOTE: I am no longer repairing Swiss-made Hamilton movements..."

Shit! My grandfather's watch has a Swiss-made movement.

I e-mailed Rene to find out if he knew of anyone who would/could work on the Electronic movement. It turns out that there is one man in the world that is considered an expert on Hamilton Electronics.

Paul Wirdnam. www.electric-watches.co.uk

I checked out his site and found this:

That's right, a Hamilton Electronic "Armco" Presentation Watch.

I knew this was the man I needed to talk to.


I e-mailed Paul about my grandfather's watch. After a few days of correspondence I found out that Paul lived in Brighton.....in the United Kingdom.......an hour south of London.


As fate would have it, I'd be in London in early February. The stars were aligned.

Maybe I was supposed to have the watch after all?


I arranged to ship my watch to Paul, have him cure what was ailing it, and then pick it up whilst across the pond.


The adventure begins......