This is my 2004 Hamilton Khaki Field Automatic ref. H62415133. My wife bought it for me right after we got married. I've been wearing watches since I was a kid, but I think the most expensive watch I had was a $50 Timex. Although this is a field watch, and it was only $276 bucks, I felt like I was wearing a Rolex. I wore it almost every day from 2004 to 2012. In 2012, it just stopped.





You can tell by the amount of scratches all over the watch that it was my everyday beater. I did everything wearing this watch, and I wore it everywhere. It got pretty beat up over the years. I never had it serviced, so it's no surprise that it just packed in one day.

When I first contacted Hamilton back in the day to have it fixed, they wouldn't tell me how much it would cost to have it repaired. They told me I'd have to mail it to a service center and have it looked at. They'd then prepare a price quote if they could fix it, which I was told was "generally $200 dollars". I didn't feel like sending my watch out to some random repair shop somewhere with a hope and a prayer that I got it back. I also wasn't keen on the idea of spending $200 bucks to get it fixed. That just seemed way too high. The watch has sentimental value and I'd love to get it fixed, but spending $200 on a $275 watch just seemed crazy. I can see spending $200 to have the ETA 2824 movement completely stripped down and serviced, but $200 buck to send it in and have it "looked at" and possibly repaired seemed nuts. Needless to say, the watch went back in the box where it sat for the past 5 and a half years.

I just picked up a new Seiko 5 and I've really been bitten by the bug. I really want to get this watch fixed. Not just because of the sentimental value that it has, but because I love this watch and I really want to start wearing it again. What's the point of having a broken watch sitting in a box?

I found a local watch repair shop just 15 minutes up the road. I was so excited to learn that I might actually be able to get this watch fixed after all this time. I am not a big fan of mailing my watch to someone I don't know. I'd much rather deal with someone in person.

After work I took a trip over and showed the guy my watch. He said he wouldn't know for sure what was wrong with it until he took the rotor off and checked out the mainspring. He asked to hold on to it for a couple of days. I agreed. A few days later, he called back and told me, sure enough, the mainspring had snapped.



I agreed on the measly price of $65 bucks to have a new mainspring put it. $65 bucks is nothing to have this watch fixed. He didn't give it a full service, (which would have cost more) but he did give it a little cleaning here and there while he was in the case.

I decided to breathe some new life into this watch by replacing the tattered metal bracelet with a nice blue NATO strap. Being a field watch and all, I found it fitting. Plus, on a 42mm case, that bracelet is pretty heavy. It's also scratched beyond belief and just looks horrible at this point.



Awesome. I'm so happy to finally have this watch working again and back in rotation.