Hamilton has announced a special collaboration with Dune: Part Two, Denis Villeneuve’s upcoming sci-fi epic.
The project saw the watch company work with the film’s prop master, Doug Harlocker, to create ‘the Desert Watch’, a ‘wrist tool’ named for the arid planet of Arrakis, where Dune plays out, and which features in the film.
That in turn inspired two limited-edition watches commercially available down here on Earth. Both are based on Hamilton’s Ventura model, the Space-Age triangular design that debuted in 1957 and was the world's first electric watch, powered by a battery. (Many versions of the Ventura have followed since.)
The new models, which share design DNA with the film’s Desert Watch, are the Hamilton Ventura XXL Bright Dune Limited Edition and the Hamilton Ventura Edge Dune Limited Edition.
Both watches feature luminous blue dials said to recall the "unmistakable blue eyes" of the Fremen people, Arrakis’ inhabitants.
The Hamilton Ventura XXL Bright Dune Limited Edition comes in a whopping 52mm x 46.6mm steel case with a black PVD coating. Its dial features a Dune graphic that lights up vivid blue when a pusher is pressed.
The Hamilton Ventura Edge Dune Limited Edition measures 51mm x 47.2mm and comes in a case made of the same materials. This version displays the time in blue digits and mimics 3D relief elements seen on the film's Desert Watch. It also introduces a new profile for the Ventura line, that will be rolled out going forwards.
Both limited edtions come in commemorative ellipsoid packaging designed in conjunction with the film’s prop-makers, with an orange section in reference to Melange or ‘the spice’, Dune’s fictional psychedelic drug, and a blue section representing water, closely associated with wealth in the stories. The boxes are inscribed with The Litany Against Fear, the Freman people’s emboldening mantra, and will surely be instant collectables.
The Hamilton Ventura XXL Bright Dune Limited Edition is produced in a run of 3,000 and retails for £1,585.
The Hamilton Ventura Edge Dune Limited Edition comes in a run of just 2,000 and costs £2,235.
Hamilton has been the go-to provider of watches for Hollywood for decades – both for securing period-appropriate archive models, or to create new pieces. Its designs have featured in more than 500 movies and TV shows, most recently the Hamilton American Classic Boulton Quartz was worn by Indiana Jones in The Dial of Destiny, while three Hamilton watches were worn by Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer. Hamilton’s Khaki Field Automatic played a pivotal role for Matthew McConaughey in Interstellar. (When Christopher Nolan recently spoke to Esquire was wearing the same watch.) Elsewhere, special edition Venturas were created for the Men in Black franchise, that model having made its film debut in the 1961 musical comedy Blue Hawaii, where it was worn by Elvis Presley.
Esquire spoke to Vivian Stauffer, Hamilton’s CEO, about the new Dune tie-ins, and Hamilton's 90-year business of supplying watches for movies.
How did the Dune collaboration happen?
We have different ways of working with the movie industry – but the Dune project is a new way. Denis Villeneuve’s team contacted Hamilton at the end of 2022 to say ‘Ok guys, we have the Fremen, they are going to wear something on the wrist, you are ‘the watchmaker of the filmmaker’, we need your expertise to design what they’re going to wear’. And we said ‘But the Fremen do not need to tell the time. They do not need watches!’ And they said ‘No, no, we know that. But you are the experts, you know what they could wear, let us know what you would design’.
So we designed the prop watch. The shape was given to us, so we had to create the design of the dial, the inside of this ‘wrist tool’. We came up with blue because in Dune they have blue eyes – so it makes it more powerful. We didn’t know if there was going to be any function for the tool. They wouldn't tell us. They just gave us a ‘white page’. ‘Do whatever you want.’ It was the first time we created a design for a prop! The first time our design was not a watch. So how do we then communicate this [to the public]? We had to use this design and put it in a product. We decided to go to the Ventura. The Ventura is an icon of Hamilton. It can [look] very vintage, from the 1950s but at the same time it’s also a product that can be very futuristic. Then we had special packaging designed by the filmmaker – they designed it for us because we had no information about the movie. We did not know what to do!
What makes a successful movie tie-in?
There are different objectives. But it is always successful with Hamilton. I’ve worked for Hamilton since 2007 and I’ve never experienced bad comments. The difference between Hamilton and other brands [working with] the movie industry is that we never talk about money. We are not paying to have visibility in the movie. We are only talking about creativity. And we have different ways to work. [We can provide watches] from our core collection. We can provide watches from the vintage collection, like for Oppenheimer, or [a bespoke commission] like Tenet, like Interstellar, like 2001: A Space Odyssey – and now I will have to think of a name for this new kind of collaboration for Dune. I think it's going to have to be ‘a watch inspired by a prop, designed by Hamilton’. Because that's the first ever.
Is it always filmmakers approaching you? Or do you go to them?
It’s the movies approaching Hamilton. [Hollywood] has contacts in LA who can get watches from us. We contacted them just once. I’ll tell you the story. We were working on the PSR [the 2020 reintroduction of the Pulsar Time Computer, a 1972 model billed as the world's first digital watch]. And we created one that was black and green – and when it was ready we said ‘It looks like a Matrix watch!’ We could see that they were shooting Matrix [2021’s The Matrix Resurrections]. So we contacted them and said ‘Guys, we have a product that is Matrix!’ And then we waited to launch the product – we kept it for the launch of Matrix [the following year], in order to create the relationship [the watch was marketed as the PSR MTX]. I think that’s the only time. But we are in continuous relationship [with Hollywood] – we are in about 15 movies a year. We only choose one or two to communicate about.
Why Hamilton and not some other brand?
Because we are much better than the others! No, it is historical. The first watch we had in a movie was in 1932, with Shanghai Express. Hamilton was in the US [the company was founded in Pennsylvania in 1892, before eventually being integrated into the Swiss conglomerate Swatch Group in 1974] until the 1970s. So the Hollywood studios, whenever they needed a historical piece, it was easier for them to call on an American brand. And when we moved to Switzerland we continued to have a close relationship with them.
What’s the collaborative process like? Has anyone been a pain in the neck?
This one [the Dune ‘wrist tool’] was really fast, because they had so many time constraints – they were starting to shoot the movie in Jordan. Our designer, they read the book in a night! They watched the first movie the day after, to get inspiration. But it was good that there was a time constraint. Because when you put two creative people together to start to develop a story about one specific thing, it never ends! They are never happy! And you have to launch something at some point. But [with other movie tie-ins] I will say that it is a very, very smooth relationship. There is no frustration ever. Because, as I said, we don’t pay. Whenever you start to pay, you start to ask for something. If you don’t pay, you don’t ask for something – you just create something. You don’t say ‘I want to see the watch [on screen for a certain amount of time]’. If we don’t see the watch, we don’t see the watch. We don’t want to get involved in their job, in their creativity. They know how to do movies. We know how to do watches. We don’t tell them what to do. And they don’t tell us what to do.
What about Christopher Nolan? He’s famously exacting
Okay, but he’s amazing. It’s a source of inspiration to see how someone, before starting to shoot a movie, already has everything in his head. And we never know how our watches are going to be used. If we talk about Tenet – we supplied them with about 30 watches [the custom-made Hamilton Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO, with its combination digital display and analogue hands]. So many with a red [display], so many with blue. Some with the hands at 10.10. Some at 10.12. Some at 12.18… We were like ‘Huh?’ But [Nolan] already had everything in his head to make sure that it fitted with the story. And that is really a source of inspiration. It’s always good to be pushed a little bit further.
Is every movie good for sales?
They’re all good for business, I think. I’ve never had bad feedback. When you have the chance to be in Interstellar [where the plot literally hinges on Matthew McConaughey’s Hamilton watch, with an appropriately generous amount of screen time], it’s difficult to do better! Because there is so much emotion. But it’s not something that can happen every time. We didn’t know until the day we saw Interstellar that the watch had such an impact in the story. And, you know, you touch different people. If you take last year, you had Indiana Jones, it’s [for] people my age. On the other side, you have Oppenheimer, which is a much wider audience. Now we are in Dune, with probably quite a young audience. And it is always successful. Because you are touching people who are strongly linked with the movie. And the move brings emotion.
