Stratford: another brand set up by Hamilton in the 1960’s to address the bottom, cheaper end of the market? They are extremely similiar to the Vantage range. They consisted of both mechanical and electric models; in the latter case, those bold Richard Arbib case designs were nowhere to be seen; the Stratford watches were plain in design and usually the cases were made of cheap plated base metal.

The electric movements were based on the Hamilton 505 and some of the parts, such as the balance and coil, are interchangeable. However, to further blur the connection between Hamilton and Stratford, these movements were marked “Standard Time Corp.”, a company Hamiton set up to assemble mechanical movements from imported Swiss parts.

The Andre Bouchard on this site also houses the electric Std Time Corp movement; were they a Hamilton brand as well? I’m not sure.

Picture below shows my small stock of Stratford parts… awaiting their time in the restoration queue. At least one of the chromed cases and dial are in very good condition, so we should get one nice example out of these parts.

Stratford Electric