The Hollywood watch Hamilton

the Hollywood watch Hamilton

Most people have probably seen the 2014 science fiction adventure Interstellar. Although time was the focus of the film, probably not many of us reflected on the brand of the watches used in the film.

The American watch brand Hamilton may not be well known to many people – other than true watch fans. However, Hamilton has a long history as a supplier of high-quality watches to Hollywood productions.

Featured in this article:

A watch featured in many Hollywood productions

In the past, Hamilton watches have appeared in films such as Men in Black, A Beautiful Mind, Lethal Weapon, Fight Club, Independence Day, The Talented Mr. Ripley, You’ve Got Mail and Ocean’s Eleven. The first Hollywood production in which Hamilton was seen was when Elvis Presley used the Ventura model in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii. The Ventura was also the first electrically (battery) powered watch in the world and was launched in 1957.

Given their reputation as a manufacturer of high quality watches, it was perhaps not surprising that the production team behind the film Interstellar turned to Hamilton to supply two watches for use by the main characters. The first watch chosen comes from Hamilton’s standard range and is a pilot-style watch called the Hamilton Khaki Pilot Day Date and it is used in the film by Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey.

The second watch was custom made to specific requirements and is nicknamed the “Murph Watch” after the character Murph, played in the film by Mackenzie Foy. For this watch, Hamilton’s Khaki model was used as the basis, but with some modifications. Among other things, the date window was removed and one of the hands was changed to a so-called “pilot hand”. This model will not be part of Hamilton’s range in the future, but was made specifically for the film.

Below are the drawings of the “Murph Watch”.

Hamilton watch interstellar
Hamilton interstellar

The finished model of the “Murph Watch” used in Interstellar.

Hamilton interstellar Matthew

The Khaki Pilot Day Date model used by Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) is in Hamilton’s standard range.

Hamilton watches interstellar

Cooper wearing Hamilton’s Khaki Pilot Day Date.

Short history of The Hamilton Watch Company

history of Hamilton watches
Manufacturing Hamilton watches at the Lancaster, Pennsylvania factory in 1936. Pictured is a man making corrections as part of a five-day testing of the watches.

The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA in 1892. The first watches were a series of pocket watches known as the “Brodway Limited”. In the early decades of the 20th century, Hamilton was given the prestigious task of supplying watches to the US Army. The first Hamilton wristwatches were used by General “Black-Jack” Pershing and his men during the First World War.

hamilton watches vintage ads

During the Second World War, Hamilton stopped selling to private individuals in order to be able to supply the army; approximately one million watches were delivered to American soldiers.

Hamilton watches old ad

Today, Hamilton is part of the Swatch Group, which owns a large number of watch brands, including Breguet, Blancpain, Glashütte-Original, Léon Hatot, Jaquet-Droz, Omega and Tiffany & Co. in the prestige/luxury segment. Longines, Rado and Union Glashütte in the high-end segment. Tissot, Calvin Klein, Certina, Mido, Hamilton and Balmain in the mid-range segment and Swatch and Flik Flak in the low-range segment.

Hamilton watches vintage ads

Read about the affordable and classic watch brand Ingersoll!

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