Hamilton Chronograph 6BB/924-3306 British RAF

At one point I thought I should start collecting chronographs… So many collectors who are into chronographs so I thought I should give it a try…

I did as I always do, start with something small that appeal to me to try it out…

One of the chronographs that I tried was this military chronograph, Hamilton 6BB/924-3306 made for the British Royal Air Force.

The Hamilton 6BB/924-3306 is a T.W.O register, 30 minutes chronograph which follow the British Ministry of Defence standard – Chronograph Watch reference 924-3306 post 1970 which allowed a more traditional chronograph movement with two buttons instead of the original standard – Chronograph Watch Type H.S.9 from 1966 which required a single button chronograph operation.

This is why earlier British MoD chronographs before 1970 are single button chronographs, while chronographs after 1970 often have two.

Another difference between the earlier and the later standards is the asymmetric case. The asymmetric is not specified in the original 1966 MoD standard H.S.9, but are in the later revision for the reference 924-3306.

The asymmetric case works as a crown/pusher guard. It’s both practical and looks kind of cool, but to be honest – not sure it’s for me…

Here is my Hamilton 6BB/924-3306:

I really like the look, but I never got used to the “unbalanced” case. Each time I put this one on my wrist I get a bit motion sick because my eyes keep going to the left side, trying to find what’s not there…

That said, I really appreciate this watch. The big luminous hands, the matt back dial with the gilt numbers and markers!

Based on the markings, my watch is from 1972 and according to Wornd & Wound the stamp mark around the RAF “6BB” indicates that it was originally issued to another branch, but later re-issued to the RAF branch.