AN INTERVIEW WITH MY FRIEND AND MENTOR, RENÉ RONDEAU

On March 9th, 2025, I sat down and had lunch with René Rondeau, a person who was instrumental to me in the Hamilton Watch world. I call him my friend and mentor. He helped me more times than I can remember. He is the “Hamilton Electric Guru.”

We met at our usual spot in Larkspur California, which we have done for years. René sat down and joined me and a fellow collector, Richard Tung, for lunch. After René ordered his Cappucino, we noticed he was wearing his Hamilton Electric Converta III with a Hamilton prototype electric 502 movement and custom clear back.
I surprised him and said today, I want to interview my mentor, someone I have known for some 30 years. Much to his surprise, his eyes lit up and he said fire away.

I started off by asking about his childhood and where he was born and much to my amazement, he was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and grew up in nearby Springfield. We started talking about his youth, René has one brother, but added he has a wife, daughter and, as his eyes lit up, said he also has two granddaughters. Spoken like a true grandpa. René attended the University of Kansas, majored in French lit with a minor in Japanese, but also studied Arabic and Italian. He has always had a gift for languages. When we started going through his career path, he explained that out of college he worked in the fine wine industry for 23 years, specializing in Bordeaux. Outside of the wine business, René has collected and repaired old phonographs since 1961. (Years ago, on a visit to his home, his living room was filled with vintage phonographs, and I was fortunate to hear one play, what a great sound it was.)

Moving on, we got on the subject of watches, René explained when he was a teenager he first became interested in watches and collected several early pocket watches (only one of which he still has – a Hampden, made in the 1880s in his hometown of Springfield, MA). Later, in 1983, René bought his first collectible wristwatch, a Hamilton Brock, a 14K gold watch with a 982 movement, for $200. He was hooked, just like the rest of us. He rapidly began to acquire a wide variety of vintage watches from various makers.

So, this discussion naturally lead to my asking how he got into electrics. On a trip to the Smithsonian, in 1984, Rene saw the original display of “World's First Electric Watch,” which Hamilton had donated to the museum in 1958, and which was still being exhibited, with no updates. The display included a Ventura with the two-tone gold and black band, and several prototype watches. One early prototype had the battery in the strap! This got him to thinking about how complicated it must have been to put a battery into a watch movement. This brief introduction sparked an interest that became an obsession. As soon as he got home he purchased a Pacer from Don Levison, a collector in San Francisco, and as René laughingly said, it ran. He soon acquired other electrics, not all of which did run. Over time he began selling off all his non-Hamilton watches. Then he saw a black & white photograph of an Altair in a want ad in the NAWCC Mart magazine and his obsession over the electrics went into overdrive.

There was almost no information available about Hamilton electrics at the time. They were barely mentioned in any books, and no one knew what the various models were originally called, which is why most collectors called the Altair the “Tomahawk.” René wanted to learn more and began digging for information, but there was hardly anything. One day he saw a photo in the NAWCC Bulletin of a retired Hamilton employee at a NAWCC event. He got the man's phone number through 'information' in Lancaster, PA, and called. That fellow hadn't worked on the electric project, but he knew someone who did. So René called him. That discussion led to more names, and so on.

As it happened, René's in-laws lived in Delaware, only an hour or so from Lancaster. While visiting them in 1987 he took a day trip to Lancaster to meet a few former employees and buy some of their old memorabilia. Over the next year and a half he went back to Lancaster many times, interviewing more and more people who were directly involved with the electric watch.

As he gathered material, he proposed writing an article for the Bulletin. But soon he realized he had far too much for a short article, so instead he published his first book, “The Watch of the Future,” released in February 1989. (Three more editions followed later, in 1992, 1999, and 2006.)

René got into repairing watches sort of through the back door. In 1989 he had a four month paid sabbatical from the wine business, so he signed up and took a watchmaking class at a City College in San Francisco, which as he said, “was not organized at all.” But that worked to his advantage. He was able to learn some of the basics, and become familiar with tools and equipment, and then started tinkering with his own watches. If he ran into a problem, the instructor was there to help. He discovered that he had the right temperament for watchmaking, which takes a steady hand, concentration, and a knack for problem-solving.

Around the same time as he took the class, he went back to Lancaster, PA and visited again with Jim Reese. But this time he wasn't asking questions about history. He was there to have Jim give him pointers on how to repair the Electric Watch, especially the tricky art of adjusting contacts in the Model 500 movement. Afterward he returned to his class and repaired all of the watches in his own collection, then started doing it for friends. Soon others started asking him for help with their electric watches. This turned into a sideline, working on watches on days when he wasn't in his wine shop. As his watch work grew, he started to cut his hours in wine. Then in early 1993 he decided to quit his original career and repair Hamilton electrics full-time, which he did for the next 23 years.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s he ran advertisements in the magazine Horological Times saying “Hamilton Electric repairman seeks parts.” That worked better than he expected. He not only got a lot of critical parts from watchmakers who did not want to work on them anymore, but also many referrals for repair work.
When I asked René who was the most influential person he met in the watch world, the answer was Jim Reese without a doubt. René smiled and said without Jim, I would have been lost, his time and effort to help him were never forgotten. When I asked about the biggest issues with the 500 was, his response was quick and precise: in their rush to get it out on the market, Hamilton overlooked the fact that the 500 was still a prototype, not really ready for release.

A big problem with the 500 was the contact system. The design of the delicate contact wire and strip spring was very “elegant,” from a laboratory standpoint, but way too fragile for a production watch. Watchmakers back in the day really struggled with that.

But the biggest problem for Hamilton was that they decided the electric watch was so complicated that watchmakers shouldn't attempt to fix them, and instead told them to send them to the factory for service. This was an insult to skilled watchmakers. By the time Hamilton started a training program the damage was done. Hamilton's reputation suffered.

Another person that helped René with Hamilton research (and parts) was Dr. Robert Ravel, a Pennsylvania collector. Dr. Ravel had purchased several semi-truckloads of materials from the factory when it closed in the early 1970s. He filled several warehouses with equipment and materials. Among the many treasures Ravel had saved from destruction were the “Halligan Records,” summarizing decades of production at Hamilton, in great detail. Ravel loaned René his original copies of those records, saying he could copy them for his own use, and could use the information in his upcoming book “Hamilton Wristwatches, a Collector's Guide,” but he could not share the records with anyone. Those production figures had never been published anywhere and were a huge help to collectors. After Dr. Ravel passed away, René gave me a copy of the Halligan Records with a signed NDA. Later on the records were given to the NAWCC by Dr. Ravel’s estate, and now everyone has access to the same records. I was lucky to have them back then as it helped me with my collecting efforts. René chuckled and said “Mark, you found even more production records through your research, so you are way ahead of the pack.”
 
When I asked René who he was most impressed with in the watch world, it sure wasn’t me, but again, it was Jim Reese. René owes it all to this man.

On the subject of his favorite Hamilton Electric, it without a doubt was the Altair with the original band, followed up by saying his favorite electric movement was the 500. (“Not very rugged, but really elegant.”) But he admitted the 505 is a better movement. He was most impressed the day he acquired an 18K Coral Ventura. It was such a rare and beautiful watch. His favorite repair job was working on Lyndon B. Johnson’s Pacer, which René owned. His most satisfying restoration was when a customer sent him a Hamilton Taurus electric which he had won in a college Bowl game in 1964. The watch and especially the dial were very beat. When René sent the dial out for restoration, the refinisher did not have the dial die for the award logo and had to make it. It came back and looked like new old stock, just like the watch did after the movement was restored, the case polished, and a new crystal and strap installed. The customer called him and said he cried when he opened the package when he saw his watch in its old glory.

When I asked, what is the coolest thing you have seen, his reply was again lightning quick. Dr. Ravel had some dial books, like you have Mark from the factory, there was a black flight II dial in the book, so we know it’s legit as it was in their dial book.

On the subject of the dumbest thing you have seen, it didn’t take him long to remind me of when he sold me two Flight 1 prototype cases purchased from Dr. Ravel and I threw one away by mistake and now there is only one. When I asked him about his least favorite worst part of watchmaking (we all dislike some part of it), he said I'm not crazy about repairing hairsprings.

As the day wore on and we were almost done, I asked René if he had any electrics still. He said I have a few nice watches left, but nothing important as I sold most of my collection through Heritage Auctions many years ago, after retirement.

René is a wonderful author and has written two books, four editions on the “Watch of the Future” and of course the “Hamilton Wristwatches – A Collectors Guide.” We laughed about how popular the collectors guide is even today, 25 years after publication, with resale prices of over $200.

He was also the Hamilton Watch Company's official historian for over 20 years, up until his retirement.
We finished with the obvious question and the elephant in the room. How is retirement? As he said, “I would rather still be working on watches, but my several neck surgeries prevent me from doing so.” René looks great and all is good in his world with family and friends. I am truly honored to be his friend, without René’s help like he got from Jim Reese, I too would be a lost sheep.