A fun if impractical way to spend $10 - K. Hattori Altimeter

[bbilford83]

Every now and again I do a search on Yahoo Japan for "K. Hattori," just to see some of the quirky stuff Seiko made before it became a big watch/clock company. It's how I found the WWII-era Fuse I posted about a while back, and I even have a couple of silver sake cups made by them. And I'm hoping one day to find one of those neat huge watchmen clocks Akable posted about a while ago.

A couple weeks ago I found something I'd never seen before - a K. Hattari & Co. "Surveying Altimeter." I was the only bidder at a whopping 1,000 yen (about $10 USD), and I got it in hand today. I have no idea if it's functional or even how to use it - the best info I could find was in Japanese, here. It seems to suggest I could do something by unscrewing the little nubbin on the top, but when I did nothing seemed obvious to me so I am leaving it alone. Maybe one day I will take it with me to elevation and see if the reading changes. But in the meanwhile, it's an awfully chunky and attractive piece of work, so here are some pics:



The outer leather "satchel" style case is marked Hattori, and has both a nice "buckle" (like a watch strap) that secures the lid, as well as a longer leather strap that I assume was to wear it over a shoulder, with its own adjustable buckle.



The inside of the case is lined with something like red felt or velvet. It's molded to fit both the top (what I would think of as like a stem or crown) and...



... this neat little magnifying glass, that folds out from the case.



The altimeter itself is in very nice cosmetic shape.



Check out that dial! Hard to imagine it's as old as I assume it is. I'd be very interested if anyone has more info on this - it's age, specific purpose (aside from determining elevation), etc. And I hope this is interesting to some other than me - for $10, it was certainly fun to play with.

[Rod]

Great old school gauge, test it by putting it into a "Ziplock" bag, inflate the bag slightly and them "ziplock" it shut, by squeezing the bag you'll change the relative pressure and the needle will move up the scale.

Now I haven't used one of these for over 30year so I'm going from faded memory..please feel free to correct me

As these will only measure change in Barometric pressure you need to set it at the point you want to start measuring your hight, when there, loosen the screw and move the main dial so that the "0" aligns with the needle, tighten the screw and away you go.

The lager dial measures in 10m blocks (as indicated) the small sub indicator on the left in 1m blocks, you read the sub-dial the same way as a micrometer, by aligning the top row "indices" with any corresponding main dial indices.

This gauge can also be used to monitor changes in weather, the small inner dial show barometric pressure in millibars, to use this scale you'll need observe the current pressure and monitor it throughout the day to show changes in weather this will only work if you are static, as you move the relative barometric pressure will change and the needle will move, which may offer you a confusing or false reading. The reading of barometric pressure change is a science in its self and reading it will change dramatically with the change in location.

[bbilford83]

Mar 12, 2018 21:45:23 GMT -8 Rod said:

Great old school gauge, test it by putting it into a "Ziplock" bag, inflate the bag slightly and the "ziplock it shut, by squeezing the bag you'll change the relative pressure and the needle will move up the scale.

Now I haven't used one of these for over 30year so I'm going from faded memory..please feel free to correct me

As these will only measure change in Barometric pressure you need to set it at the point you want to start measuring your hight, when there, loosen the screw and move the main dial so that the "0" aligns with the needle, tighten the screw and away you go.

Rod, thanks for the ziplock idea - that worked like a charm, and it definitely is still working.  I still can't figure out how to "set" the pressure - aside from loosening the screw I can't figure out how to "move the main dial."  But it's not like I'm going to use it anyway, so no big deal.

[akable]

Interesting piece Brian, for $10 you can not go wrong with that.

With the screw undone can the dial be rotated with the knurled bezels? If you grip the outer bezel does the inner rotate?

[DAHASCO]

Very Cool Piece, What's not to like for a Tenner   7dfe79adc2f0

[bbilford83]

Thanks all!

Mar 13, 2018 1:52:59 GMT -8 akable said:

Interesting piece Brian, for $10 you can not go wrong with that.

With the screw undone can the dial be rotated with the knurled bezels? If you grip the outer bezel does the inner rotate?

Anthony, I can't believe I hadn't noticed that the edges of the case were knurled for obvious turning - there's even a third knurled portion in the middle, and with the pin removed I was able to make all kinds of adjustments, including adjusting the outer dial ring  so that the hand was at 0.  Thank you!  So yes, for $10 it appears I got a fully functioning example.  I wish I could date it somehow - the eagle eyed among you might have noticed that it actually has a serial number on the dial - "No. 2030" - but obviously that is not much help.

[mncz]

Really fantastic. Congratulations and thanks for sharing. I do hope that you are able to date it.

[Rod]

Mar 13, 2018 10:24:20 GMT -8 bbilford83 said:

Thanks all!

Mar 13, 2018 1:52:59 GMT -8 akable said:

Interesting piece Brian, for $10 you can not go wrong with that.

With the screw undone can the dial be rotated with the knurled bezels? If you grip the outer bezel does the inner rotate?

Anthony, I can't believe I hadn't noticed that the edges of the case were knurled for obvious turning - there's even a third knurled portion in the middle, and with the pin removed I was able to make all kinds of adjustments, including adjusting the outer dial ring  so that the hand was at 0.  Thank you!  So yes, for $10 it appears I got a fully functioning example.  I wish I could date it somehow - the eagle eyed among you might have noticed that it actually has a serial number on the dial - "No. 2030" - but obviously that is not much help.

does the outer rim (the one with the 10m decent/ascent) move, I'm hoping it does!

[bbilford83]

Mar 14, 2018 4:17:22 GMT -8 Rod said:

Mar 13, 2018 10:24:20 GMT -8 bbilford83 said:

Thanks all!

Anthony, I can't believe I hadn't noticed that the edges of the case were knurled for obvious turning - there's even a third knurled portion in the middle, and with the pin removed I was able to make all kinds of adjustments, including adjusting the outer dial ring  so that the hand was at 0.  Thank you!  So yes, for $10 it appears I got a fully functioning example.  I wish I could date it somehow - the eagle eyed among you might have noticed that it actually has a serial number on the dial - "No. 2030" - but obviously that is not much help.

does the outer rim (the one with the 10m decent/ascent) move, I'm hoping it does!

Yep! By turning just the front-most knurled part of the case.

[mikeyt]

I would think that you have gotten your value from this, just playing with it.  If you decide that you haven't, I'll give you your $10 for it.  

[Rod]

Mar 14, 2018 6:20:19 GMT -8 bbilford83 said:

Mar 14, 2018 4:17:22 GMT -8 Rod said:

does the outer rim (the one with the 10m decent/ascent) move, I'm hoping it does!

Yep! By turning just the front-most knurled part of the case.

That's great, so to use it, set the main 10m increment to zero, aligned with the needle at your start point, go for your hike/walk/drive.

Once there, move the outer small scale so that the "0" on the accent/descent aligns with the needle (so if you've ascended align the accent "0" and vice-versa for decent), now read the main dial, (so for the pictures you've posted it reads between 630-640) now (without moving the dial again) read the small scale by aligning one of the top row indices with one below, in the picture you can see that the 8/2 aligns with an indicie in the main dial, as you've ascended you would use this 8m. So this one reads between 630m and 640m use the lower figure of 630m+8m, 638m (if set correctly) remembering that for accent the needle will move to the left, as pressure decreases..

Now I'm hoping that the small inner dial also moves, if so, to use the inner for weather prediction you will need to know the current barometric pressure, available from the web in todays world, move the dial to align the needle with the current pressure and then your ready to play "weather man". I'd hang it on the wall and use it as a standard barometer, once initially set you shouldn't need to adjust it, unless you move it. 

Hope that this makes sense 

[mirrorman]

Nice pice of kit .. even if I'd not know how to use I'd grab it at that price aswell. 

Very cool  7dfe79adc2f0