The Breitling Watch Blog

When we think of affordable Swiss Made automatic chronographs, one name that keeps coming up over and over again is Hamilton. With what seems like dozens of Valjoux 7750 Chronographs to choose from, they have one for everyone’s budget. The Hamilton X-Wind is one of the higher end Chronos that they carry, and of course uses the workhorse ETA Valjoux 7750 movement with a exhibition caseback to view the inner workings of the watch.

Ever since I saw the X-Wind I wanted to buy one, and when I tried one on in the Caribbean I really wanted it. I finally got a chance to get one at a decent price and here it is up for review. Big beefy 44mm peice.

The watch has two crowns in addition to a bi-directional rotating bezel that allows you to calculate complicated cross winds and things that pilots might need to calculate. Beautiful black dial with silver subdials and guiloche patterning on the subs.

As you can see, the watch has a left crown and pushers, with the day-date complications on the left side as well. This takes a bit of getting used to initally, but its not that hard to do.

Exhibition caseback has a uniquely shaped crystal, and a degree chart of some sort also for calculating complex pilot things that us layfolk will never need, but its cool to have! This X-Wind is on a bracelet, which I like, but felt that the rivet strap looked better on my wrist. Possibly due to the watch looking larger. I believe the rear crystal may be Mineral as the marking only states Sapphire Crystal in the singular. Either way, Hamilton’s watches are still a great bang for buck.

Nice machined press-lock clasp. The links are pinned, not screwed, but the clasp is a nice one. I’ve always liked the way the Hamilton clasps are made, and it just finished off an already very nice watch.

This is a video review of the Hamilton Jazzmaster Chrono. Such as great value as far as Swiss Watches go, the Hamilton offers a Valjoux 7750 movement, Swiss Made construction, and a beautiful case and bracelet, along with a Leather Deployant for around $1200 with a street price of around $850. Doesn’t get much better than that!

The Hamilton has a very classy dial, and open caseback so you can see the movement in action. Case is a healthy 42mm in diameter, and wears slightly larger than it’s size would suggest in my opinion. Take a look!

The new Hamilton Sunset watch is worn in the movie I Am Legend, by Will Smith’s character, and follows in Hamilton’s trend of complicated looking chunky watches with lots of functional wrist instrument style. Some of the other watches in this vein are the Hamilton X-Wind and Frogman. The Twilight differs with the Sunset in that it displays twilight info rather than sunset info.

The Hamilton Sunset and Twilight are very cool looking watches with their new Crown Protection system, which looks really cool. I’m unfamiliar as to how it actually works, but it is in several of the new Action series of watches from Hamilton. They are really starting to impress me with their innovative looks and selection of Automatic watches. Here are the specs on this bad boy:

Diameter: 44mm
Water Resistance: 200m
Sapphire Crystal
Movement: ETA 2893
Complications: GMT Hand

Sunset: Sunset times on the 15th of the month for 6 world cities – London, Gander, Los Angeles, Nadi, Manila and Muscat (Why these 6 cities I have no clue.. Muscat? Perhaps the watch is popular in Oman.)
Twilight: Twilight end and start for New York City on the 1st, 11th, and 21st of the month.

Link to Sunset on Hamilton site: http://www.hamiltonwatch.com/webapp/en-us/collection/?c=ka&y=115&p=340