The other named men constituted the original Board of Directors of the Springfield Watch Company.
The Springfield Watch Company encountered severe financial difficulty during its institutional infancy.
Erastus Newton Bates, the second President of the corporation, assumed the chief executive leadership of the newly reorganized concern until July, 1878.
Chief executive leadership of the corporation was assumed by Jacob Bunn Sr. (1814–1897), an Illinois industrialist, railroad financier, railroad reorganizer, wholesale grocer, commission merchant, newspaper publisher, land developer, coal operator, political advisor and financier, banker, and rope manufacturer.
The corporation helped pioneer the logistical technology that served the enforcement of standard time for railroads throughout the world.
By 1932, the Great Depression forced Hamilton to close the Illinois factory, though they retained possession of the name for many years.
The fourth period began in the early 1930s, and is characterized by the Streamline Moderne influence on the styling of the cases.
Many of these watches featured a new 207 movement, 12/0-size with 17 jewels (of which only 40,000 were made) and included such sleek designs as the Futura, Chesterfield, Wentworth, Andover, and the 14kt Rockliffe.
In the 1950s, Hamilton offered a line of Illinois and Hamilton-Illinois wrist watches with Swiss movements.
Caution should be exercised when buying Hamilton-Illinois off auction sites as many sellers mis-represent these 1950s models as examples of 1930s Illinois produced by Hamilton.