Hamilton’s long history of creating dedicated pilot’s watches stretches back more than a century, to a collaboration with the U.S. Airmail service. From those humble beginnings comes an advanced — albeit mechanical — new pilot’s watch designed with professionals in mind, but that will no doubt appeal to any fan of the “pilot’s watch” aesthetic.
The new Khaki Aviation Converter Auto Chrono is an oversized, 44mm automatic chronograph with a special bi-directional slide rule bezel able to calculate airspeed, distance, fuel consumption and much more. In fact, myriad unit conversion calculations that don’t necessarily pertain to flight can be computed with the bezel and some simple arithmetic — provided, of course, that one finds using it more gratifying that just asking Siri for the answer.
Fotostudio2Powered by Hamilton’s 21-Si movement with its silicon balance spring and 60-hour power reserve, the KACAC features a day-date display, 12-hour counter at 6 o’clock, running seconds counter at 9 o’clock and a 30-minute counter at 12 o’clock. A busy dial is made all the more so by the presence of the slide rule bezel, but Super-LumiNova-coated hands ensure high visibility in low-light conditions.
Two models are available (three, if you count the bracelet option on the steel version): one with nickel hands and a plain steel case matched to a dark brown calf leather strap ($1,995) or steel bracelet ($2,045); and one with rose gold-plated hands and chronograph pushers matched to a black PVD case and a black cow leather strap with alligator embossing ($2,145). Both models feature 100m of water resistance and a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating.
Check out the new range of pilot’s chronographs available on Hamilton’s website below.