Hot Watches - the blog

Hamilton launches new watches for autumn 2010

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The great and the good from the watch-making world gathered at their spiritual home in March to chart the latest developments in the time-keeping market.

The vast Swiss exhibition, Basel World, brought together 1,915  designer watch and jewellery brands from 45 countries to showcase their wares to the world.

Across 160,000 square metres, Switzerland’s largest trade event provided business leaders and consumers with the chance to check out the pulse of an industry emerging from one of the toughest economic periods in decades.
Amid the optimism for the year ahead, the world’s behemoth watch brands took the opportunity to unveil their arsenal of new or re-released models that they hope will pull them back on track to the good times. One of the brands for the future is Hamilton. The former American watch brand is now owned by the Swiss giant Swatch group, who launched a number of new watches this year at Basel World. The Hamilton watch brand, have this year, expanded on wide range of sports watches and classic watches that they currently make such as the Jazzmaster and the classic Khaki range of watches. Key new additions to the Hamilton brand for 2010 are:

The summer kicks off with the launch of the Time Player, which its creators have dubbed “latitude and longitude with attitude.” The brilliantly-unique design comes straight from the world painted by Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The Time Player is a sports watch for anyone with an insatiable habit of fiddling with gadgets. The limited edition model which is launched very soon really will make some of the most enthusiastic men’s watch fans sit up and take notice. Sliding panels each with their own clock face for different time zones can be endlessly slotted in all directions till your heart’s content.

Later this summer brings a re-working of a classic Hamilton watch concept the RailRoad. The brand’s birth can be traced back to the dawning of the age of railroad. Hamilton supplied pocket watches to the railway pioneers over a century ago to keep trains running punctually. To mark that heritage the company will launch a number of rail-related models. Among them are; the Hamilton RailRoad 9am Train which is based on the original design of pocket watches that consisted of a counter disk positioned at 9’o’clock. A more modern member of the Railroad family is the Midnight Train which has a face beset with winds of the track through the middle of the dial.

The Pulsomic celebrates the 40th anniversary of the day Hamilton changed the watch industry forever with the launch of the world’s first LED digital watch. Hamilton plays on the themes of science fiction and technological breakthrough by cleverly marrying sleek designed watches with a robust 1950s feel. This watch is powered by kinetic technology and is supported by 120 days of reserve power.

The Hamilton X-Landing watch has been created to show that alongside the well-documented role Hamilton played in the early days of American railways, the firm also has its roots deeply entrenched in aviation and its 1920s infancy. To recognise this strand of its historical DNA, the limited edition X-Landing watch incorporates a ‘top of descent’ function. Although this certainly adds novelty to the watch, the smart-but-simple function also serves a purpose and can practically by flying watch enthusiast and pilots alike even if the office desk is the only thing that the wearer pilots. It marks the position between cruise and descent phases for pilots but also the number of nautical miles before the final destination is reached. It may be of no use to non-fliers but, with 24 different time zones this is a sports watch that will does have a spirit of exploration, and should appeal to many people.