{"id":287089,"date":"2025-06-11T02:49:49","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T02:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/vintage-hamilton-watch-restoration-1972-sea-breeze-iii\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T02:49:49","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T02:49:49","slug":"vintage-hamilton-watch-restoration-1972-sea-breeze-iii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089","title":{"rendered":"Vintage Hamilton Watch Restoration: 1972 Sea Breeze III"},"content":{"rendered":"


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It’s been a while since I’ve covered a new model for the blog.\u00a0 I’ve done over 800 different models and there are only 1100 or so to be covered – surely I’ve done all the more common, easier to find models by now.\u00a0 Apparently that’s not entirely the case though – not yet anyway.<\/p>\n

Today’s watch is a 1970s model called the Sea Breeze III.\u00a0 It was introduced in 1972 and produced through 1977 – so that’s a pretty good run.\u00a0 In 1972 it was advertised at $45 on a strap or $49.95 on a bracelet.\u00a0 It’s a stem wound model – not an automatic.<\/p>\n

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By 1977 the price increased considerably.<\/p>\n

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Interestingly, in 1972 a very similar model called the Sea Beach IV was also produced.\u00a0 It looks identical to the Sea Breeze III, at least in black & white.<\/p>\n

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In 1975 it appears to have been renamed the Sea Breeze III as well – just cased in stainless steel instead of gold electroplate.\u00a0 More about that in a bit.<\/p>\n

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The Sea Breeze III goes by the model number 688015-4.\u00a0 The -4 represents gold electroplate.\u00a0 I would wager that the stainless steel version and the Sea Beach IV go by the model number 688-015-3, -1 representing stainless steel.<\/p>\n

My project watch is in very good shape, for the most part.\u00a0 Being a 688XXX model, I’m going to guess this has a 688 movement inside.<\/p>\n

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The crystal has a crack inside it that you can see from an angle but not directly straight on.\u00a0 So I’ll have to replace the crystal.<\/p>\n

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The Sea Breeze is a large watch by vintage standards.\u00a0 It’s probably 36mm side to side.<\/p>\n

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It took some doing but I finally got the case back off.\u00a0 The gasket has degraded and part of it has come off with the back.<\/p>\n

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This is interesting… this watch has a 685 movement inside.\u00a0 This is a pretty rare caliber and used in some military watch models.\u00a0 It looks a lot like a 688 and one of the major differences is the 685 hacks, or stops, when you set the time.\u00a0 I will definitely have to replace the gasket in the case.<\/p>\n

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The dial is held in place with dial foot screws on the perimeter of the mainplate.<\/p>\n

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From the front, you can easily tell the 685 is an ETA caliber – it looks like every other ETA caliber in Hamilton’s line up.<\/p>\n

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The 685 hack mechanism is a little more complicated than in later movements like the 649.\u00a0 When the stem is pulled out the mechanism moves and bumps into the balance wheel – stopping the watch.\u00a0 When the stem is pushed back in, the lever moves away from the balance and the watch starts again.<\/p>\n

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Everything is disassembled and thoroughly cleaned.\u00a0 While the parts where in the cleaner I replaced the crystal in the bezel.<\/p>\n

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The reassembled movement is bright and shiny and ticking away with a nice motion.<\/p>\n

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The timing is right on the money.\u00a0 The amplitude is a smidgen low but I haven’t fully wound the movement yet.<\/p>\n

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The dial and hands go back on and then the assembly goes back into the case.\u00a0 I’ll need to order a replacement gasket, this case is much larger than my stash will provide.<\/p>\n

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The finished watch looks great with a new crystal and it’s now running as well as it looks.\u00a0 I’m not a huge fan of the 1970s styling but this is a large enough watch that it actually has some appeal.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s been a while since I’ve covered a new model for the blog.\u00a0 I’ve done over 800 different models and there are only 1100 or so to be covered – surely I’ve done all the more common, easier to find models by now.\u00a0 Apparently that’s not entirely the case though – not yet anyway. Today’s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":287090,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[28086,2049,9199,8857,5110,1274,395],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-287089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-breeze","tag-hamilton","tag-iii","tag-restoration","tag-sea","tag-vintage","tag-watch"],"yoast_head":"\nVintage Hamilton Watch Restoration: 1972 Sea Breeze III - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vintage Hamilton Watch Restoration: 1972 Sea Breeze III - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It’s been a while since I’ve covered a new model for the blog.\u00a0 I’ve done over 800 different models and there are only 1100 or so to be covered – surely I’ve done all the more common, easier to find models by now.\u00a0 Apparently that’s not entirely the case though – not yet anyway. Today’s […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-11T02:49:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot202025-06-0520at209.11.40E280AFPM.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1182\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#\/schema\/person\/b85e3c3dc0e1daea076524dc8810c371\"},\"headline\":\"Vintage Hamilton Watch Restoration: 1972 Sea Breeze III\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-11T02:49:49+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089\"},\"wordCount\":592,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Screenshot202025-06-0520at209.11.40E280AFPM.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Breeze\",\"Hamilton\",\"III\",\"Restoration\",\"Sea\",\"Vintage\",\"WATCH\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=287089\",\"name\":\"Vintage Hamilton Watch Restoration: 1972 Sea Breeze III - 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