By Nikhil Kurmala
What do the films Men In Black, Die Hard and Interstellar have in common besides their success on the big screen? The main characters all were given a custom made Hamilton to wear for their particular those movies. Back in 1932, a Hamilton watch first appeared on the big screen in a film named ‘Shanghai Express’. Now, almost 86 years later, Hamilton watches have appeared in over 450 feature films from futuristic masterpieces to comedy capers, action blockbusters to inspirational biopics. These include famous movies such as: ‘Blue Hawaii’, ‘The Frogmen’, ‘Force 10 from Navarone’, ‘Cliffhanger’, ‘Men in Black’, ‘Big Fish’, ‘Pearl Harbor’ and, more recently, ‘Interstellar’ and ‘The Martian’, just to name a few of them.
Being so frequently on the screen, Hamilton decided back in 2006 to pay tribute to those who work off-film to make movies a success, and created the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards. Hamilton hosted the very first Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards in Hollywood to celebrate the heroes who work behind the scenes. The recognition of the off-screen talent was underlined by the presentation of the awards by top movie actors and directors. In celebration of the 10th Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards, Hamilton has unveiled the special edition Jazzmaster Regulator Cinema.
The Jazzmaster Regulator was initially based off a regulator clock which was used to provide a central point of reference for clock and watchmakers in their workshops as they provided complete clarity and legibility thanks to their separate dials for the hours, minutes and seconds. However, there still were legibility issues due to the small dials and difficult layouts that they were made of. Hence, Hamilton Jazzmaster Regulator does away with the traditional vertical layout is swapped for a more asymmetric design, resulting in an unexpectedly modern take on this old relic.
The 42mm stainless steel Jazzmaster Regulator liberates the minutes display from the hour display in a stunning asymmetric design, turning watchmaking tradition into a contemporary talking point. The result is a statement of accuracy and style, for wearers who appreciate the finer things in life. The special edition design is inspired by the vintage movie reels with the hours and seconds sub-dials depicting these turning reels of vintage movie cameras. This particular regulator movement allows the minutes and hours to be separated from one another on the dial, contracting the previous drawback of the regulator clocks. The Jazzmaster comes with a sapphire glass caseback that provides a complete view of the Swiss H-12 movement, an ETA-2825-2 based movement, which provides the timepiece with a 40-hour power reserve. Being a special edition, the caseback is enriched by a 3D image of movie film from a projector, a nice nod to the cinematic history.
Presented to the honourees and presenters at the 10th Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards in Los Angeles on November 4, 2018, the new Jazzmaster Regulator Cinema special edition celebrates the long and prestigious relationship with the movie industry and does so with style. Paired with a high-quality black leather strap to match the dial, the complete piece tops out at a price of US$ 1,275. Visit Hamilton here.
