This is the Hamilton Mechanical Bronze Khaki Field Watch, it’s a classically-designed field watch with clear military watch influences, and it has a bronze case with a hand-wound mechanical H-50 movement.
Watches like this make excellent daily wearables thanks to their built-in toughness, and their minimalist design which makes them perfect for wearing with anything from a suit to a pair of overalls.
This is the Hamilton Mechanical Bronze Khaki Field Watch, it’s a classically-designed field watch with clear military watch influences, and it has a bronze case with a hand-wound mechanical H-50 movement.
History Speedrun: The Hamilton Watch Company
The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in November of 1892 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from the merger of two bankrupt watch manufacturers – the Keystone Standard Watch Company (which provided the factory building) and the Aurora Watch Company (which contributed machinery).
The company was named after Andrew Hamilton, one of Lancaster’s founding fathers and a famous Philadelphia lawyer, to highlight the firm’s local historical ties and perhaps to capitalize on a little name recognition.
Hamilton produced its first watch in 1893, it was an 18-size, 17-jewel pocket watch – thanks to this timepiece the company quickly established itself as a precision watchmaker – and Hamilton watches were used extensively in America’s rapidly expanding railroad system.
Hamilton manufactured its first wristwatch in 1917 as America entered World War I – wristwatches were far more popular with troops than more traditional pocket watches purely as a matter of convenience, as they could be read while the soldier’s hands were busy holding a rifle.
During World War II, Hamilton played a crucial military role – in 1942, Hamilton became the official watchmaker for the US military, stopping civilian sales entirely to focus on the war effort and producing over a million timepieces for military use.
The company faced major challenges in the 1960s with the advent of quartz watched and electronic timekeeping. Production relocated from the US to Switzerland in 1969, and in 1974, Hamilton became part of SSIH (now the Swatch Group).
The Hamilton Mechanical Bronze Khaki Field Watch
The Hamilton Mechanical Bronze Khaki Field Watch is one of the company’s newer offerings, and an homage of sorts to the many military watches the company made for use both in WWI and in WWII.
The watch has a 38mm bronze and titanium case with a black dial with luminescent numerals. The hand-wound mechanical H-50 movement has an 80 hour power reserve.
The watch has a 38mm bronze and titanium case with a black dial with luminescent numerals. The hand-wound mechanical H-50 movement has an 80 hour power reserve. Each watch is made in Switzerland, and it comes with a NATO leather watch strap.
It’s now available via the outfitting company Huckberry with free US shipping, free US returns, and a best price guarantee. If you’d like to read more or get one for yourself you can visit the listing here.
Images courtesy of Huckberry
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
