Virtually every brand, large and small, has tried their hand at the simple field watch. While straightforward in design, they are surprisingly hard to get right. If you try too hard to distinguish your design from the rest of the pack, you risk a dial or case that’s far too busy for its good, negating the entire purpose of a field watch. Too stark, on the other hand, can have drawbacks as well. Losing visual interest might not be a primary concern, but when you have to make choices about hour and minute tracks and their associated markers, you’re playing with a user’s ability to tell the time at a quick glance. Hamilton, of course, is no stranger to field watches, but unlike most brands they’ve been at it since the literal invention of this style of timepiece, back in the days when pocket watches needed to be converted to wrist wear for military use. As the decades marched on, Hamilton never really stopped producing field watches, perfecting the design in the years of the second World War, when consumer watch production was halted to produce watches for the military. Today, Hamilton’s field watches build on that long tradition, while using modern materials and technology that make them relevant for today’s consumer.
Hamilton Khaki Field Titanium
- Case Material: Titanium
- Dial: Silver, black
- Dimensions: 42mm
- Crystal: Sapphire
- Water Resistance: 100 meters
- Crown: Push/pull
- Movement: Hamilton H-10
- Strap/bracelet: Leather
- Price: Approximately $945-$995
- Reference Number: H70665533; H70545550
- Expected Release: March
The Khaki Field Titanium is Hamilton’s newest field watch. It adheres pretty closely to the classic field watch formula at an initial glance, with three distinct dial sectors counting off minutes, hours, and a 24 hour scale within the innermost ring. Legibility is great – aided by the clear and crisp printing of the numerals and the mixing of dial textures, which effectively breaks up the dial, bringing your eye right where it needs to go.
Two versions of the Khaki Field Titanium are available: a bare metal version with a silver dial, and a black PVD coated version with a black dial. The bare metal version is the more traditional of the two, with the black version being decidedly sleeker and more modern. That said, the natural gray-titanium color of the silver dialed version gives the watch a tactical look that it shares with its blacked out sibling.
Titanium is a great material for a field watch. It’s lightweight, and allows a watch (even one that’s on the larger side) to feel unobtrusive on the wrist. The Khaki Field Titanium comes in at 42mm, and while some purists may bristle at a case size over 40mm for a watch that’s meant to discreet, this is a very wearable size for a modern watch, and it should be quite comfortable on the wrist given its titanium case. Hamilton has outfitted the watch with their excellent H-10 automatic movement with a full 80 hours of power reserve.
The Khaki Field Titanium will be available in March. The retail price in the bare metal finish is $945, and the black PVD version is $995. Hamilton
