It was a landmark movie moment. In the 1932 smash hit, Shanghai Express, British army officer Captain Harvey, played by Clive Brook, lounges on the outdoor deck of the titular train as he’s approached by his old flame, Lily – played by Marlene Dietrich in her most sultry and iconic role. When she asks him the time, Harvey lifts the hinged lid covering his wristwatch. In a close-up, the audience can see that the lid’s underside bears a tiny photograph of a younger Lily and realizes that this is the wristwatch she gave Harvey long ago. The turning point in the movie, it proves that he still loves her. Beneath Lily’s photograph, the watch’s Art Deco dial bears the name in bold lettering: HAMILTON.
This auspicious screen debut was just the beginning. Over the years, Hamilton established itself as Hollywood’s favorite maker of cinema watches. Our timepieces adorned the wrists of some of cinema’s greatest stars and boldest characters.
From outer space to underwater, Ironman to Spider-Man, Elvis Presley to Charlize Theron, Hamilton has been the on-screen choice of adventurers, daredevils, leaders and superheroes, racking up hundreds of appearances through the decades.
Built for action
Unsurprisingly, military watches have taken a leading cinematic role for Hamilton. In 1951’s World War II movie The Frogmen, Lt. Franklin payed by Richard Widmark leads a team of US Navy demolition divers equipped with Hamilton Frogman watches, just as the real divers would have been. In fact, the ‘canteen’ crown on the original Frogman watch can still be found on its modern-day counterpart, the Hamilton Khaki Navy Frogman.
A more recent World War II epic, Pearl Harbor (2001), sees fighter pilots Raf McCawley and Danny Walker, played by Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett, sporting our Khaki Field Handwinding, a retro model inspired by the battle-worthy timepieces Hamilton supplied to thousands of U.S. soldiers during the war.
Modern-day action heroes relied on Hamilton’s toughest and most capable contemporary timepieces. In 2007, John McClane played by Bruce Willis took on cyber-criminals in Live Free or Die Hard equipped with the Khaki Aviation ETO chronograph, while Robert Neville played by Will Smith fought terrifying zombies in I Am Legend with a customized version of the Khaki Aviation Twilight. Both watches were designed to accompany professional pilots through even the most extreme circumstances.
In the action comedy Central Intelligence (2016), the all-black Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO muscles its way onto Bob Stone, played by Dwayne Johnson’s sizeable wrist. The BeLOWZERO was also worn by Mark Watney played by Matt Damon in the science-fiction blockbuster, The Martian.
Another all-black style, our Khaki Field Auto Chrono, is worn by Jack Ryan played by John Krasinski in the exhilarating Prime Video series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, in which Krasinski battles terrorists with the help of James Greer, played by Wendell Pierce, who wears the impressive Khaki X-Wind Auto Chrono.
Vintage inspiration
Just as the story of Hamilton’s past is told through our modern collections, many of our film appearances highlight important designs from our heritage. The watch featured in Shanghai Express was in fact the Hamilton Flintridge, a classic of the era advertised at the time of the movie’s release as “the out-of-doors watch with a cover!”
In Dead Poet’s Society, the captivating 1989 drama set in a 1950s boarding school in Vermont, kindly teacher Mr. Keating, played by Robin Williams, wears a vintage Hamilton Boulton. The elegant rectangular dress watch from the 1940s complemented Mr. Keating’s bookish style, and a quartz version is part of our collection today.
The Hamilton Ardmore, with a similar design that first appeared in the 1930s, is seen on the wrist of Tom Ripley, played by Matt Damon’s mysterious 1950s anti-hero in the award-winning The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999). The early Ardmore inspired today’s elegantly chic female version, the American Classic Ardmore Quartz – worn on film in 2018 by Heidi Bergman, played by superstar Julia Roberts in the Prime Video series Homecoming, and by Anne Weying played by acclaimed actress Michele Williams in the superhero movie Venom.
Let’s not forget two more female stars who brought Hamilton’s vintage legacy to the silver screen. In 2009, Amelia Earhart played by Hilary Swank brought legendary aviation pioneer to life in Amelia, appropriately wearing Hamilton’s tribute to its own pioneering aviation watches of the day, the 38mm Khaki Field Automatic. A decade later, Charlotte Field played by Charlize Theron ran for the White House in the romantic comedy The Long Shot, wearing the modern interpretation of another 1930s favorite, the Hamilton Bagley.
Venturing forth
Of all the iconic Hamilton designs to appear in movies over the decades, none are more astonishing than the Hamilton Ventura that gleamed on the wrist of Chad Gates, played by Elvis Presley in the 1961 romance, Blue Hawaii. If the Ventura, shaped like a triangular fin, looked futuristic, that’s because it was the world’s first electric wristwatch. A marvel of both technology and design, it was a natural choice for the world’s biggest superstar, and with the King’s endorsement, it became the must-have watch of its era. Reflecting that fact, a Ventura variant, the Hamilton Pacer, was appropriately featured in the 1960s-set TV show, Mad Men, on the wrist of science fiction-obsessed ad man Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Stanton).
The Ventura’s out-of-this-world style returned to the big screen in one of the biggest sci-fi blockbusters of all time, as the charismatic wristwatch completing the look of the universe’s most suave alien hunters, the Men in Black. Agent J and K, played by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones donned the updated Ventura in 1997’s original MIB movie, and it’s appeared in each of the four sequels, most recently on the wrist of Agent M, played by Tessa Thompson in 2019’s Men in Black: International.
Hamilton and superheroes
From one universe to another: the Ventura, in its contemporary Ventura Elvis80 form, entered the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2017 on the wrist of Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, alter ego of the superhero Iron Man, in the movie Spider-Man Homecoming.
This continued a partnership between Hamilton and Marvel that began with The Avengers in 2012, one of the highest-grossing blockbusters of all time, in which Tony Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr wore the Khaki Titanium Auto and Captain America, played by Chris Evans emerged from the 1940s with a suitably-retro military watch, the Khaki Field Auto.
That same year, Peter Parker, played by Andrew Garfield (Spider-Man) wore the Jazzmaster Viewmatic Auto in The Amazing Spider-Man. Hamilton’s most recent Marvel appearance in 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, was another elegant Jazzmaster. Now the highest grossing movie in cinema history, the last Avenger’s film featured Happy Hogan, played by Jon Favreau wearing the Jazzmaster GMT.
Going interstellar
In 1968, Hamilton contributed to the immortal style of Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction epic 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the greatest movies ever made. Approached directly by Kubrick to create a wristwatch suitable for astronauts of the future, Hamilton’s bracelet wristwatch remains an immortal piece of sci-fi horological design.
In 2014, Hamilton once again contributed to science fiction movie history with its crucial role in another visionary epic, Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar. Preparing to leave for a space mission to save the Earth, Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey gives his daughter Murph a vintage-style watch specially designed by Hamilton for the movie, which he holds alongside his own Khaki Pilot Day Date Auto. “One for you, one for me,” he says – explaining that one day he will return and they can compare time on their watches.
This proves the movie’s pivotal event, as Cooper, later stuck in another dimension, is able to manipulate the seconds hand of Murph’s watch to convey Morse code data to his daughter that will save humanity.
Since 1932 when the word ‘HAMILTON’ first appeared on the silver screen, our watches have added authenticity to pivotal scenes and we are proud to be the watchmaker helping Hollywood tell its stories.
