Hamilton Khaki Field Day-Date 42mm “Camouflage” Automatic

Following up on the affordable Khaki Field Mechanical 38mm, Hamilton is introducing the Khaki Field Camouflage collection with larger cases and automatic movements. Back in the 1940’s, Hamilton (then an American brand) received the US Army-Navy ‘E’ Award for its ability to deliver one million reliable, accurate watches to the US military. Although Hamilton is now a Swiss brand, the company is proud of its US military roots and continues to produce models that are faithful to that era and the American spirit. The new Khaki Field Day-Date Camouflage watches are more contemporary than their hand-wound 38mm counterparts but still fall within this military aesthetic.

Three new models represent common environments that military personnel encounter, including forests, deserts and night operations. The stainless steel cases are 42mm in diameter with a brushed finish, differing from the bead-blasted matte finish of the hand-wound 38mm cases. The dials are protected by modern sapphire crystals with an anti-reflective coating that won’t scratch like old-school acrylic. The casebacks are steel and the watches are water-resistant to 100m (10ATM).

Three different dials come with the collection, including khaki green, clay grey and black. The hour and minute hands are the same on all models, nickel-plated with white Super-LumiNova. The nickeled seconds hand has a red triangle tip and no lume. Unlike the hand-wound 38mm models and bucking tradition just a bit, there’s a day-date complication in a split window at 3 o’clock. There’s a double-hour scale with large 0 – 12 Arabic numerals and smaller 13 – 24 ones on the inside. Triangular minute markers on the outer perimeter have a sand-coloured lume, like traditional tritium, but the rest of the indices and numerals are white.

The heart of the new models is a Hamilton automatic H-30 calibre, which is a slightly modified ETA C07.111. It has 25 jewels, beats at 21,600vph (3Hz), has a comfortable 80-hour power reserve and hours, minutes, central seconds (hacking) and a day-date complication. It’s a Swiss-made, robust and reliable workhorse.

There are four strap options, most of which match a particular dial well. There’s a stainless steel bracelet with a folding clasp that aesthetically works with all of them (particularly the black dial). There’s also a green textile strap with pin buckle for the clay-grey dial, a camouflage green textile strap for the green dial and a camouflage sand textile strap for the black dial. Any of these can be interchanged, but Hamilton has properly matched them for field operations.

The new Hamilton Khaki Field Day-Date 42mm Camouflage collection is more contemporary than earlier models, but are great for those that spend more time hiking and less in combat training. They’re robust, affordable and ready for your next outdoor adventure. The watches will be released in August 2018 for EUR 745. More details on www.hamiltonwatch.com.