Jessica Chastain stares down at the watch she’s holding. The big hand points to 7 and the small hand points to 8.
It is 7.35 o’clock.
But something’s up with the second hand. It’s bouncing about all over the place at 9. Almost like it’s spelling out something in… morse code?
The year on screen is 2067. In reality it is 2014 and you are watching Interstellar, the Christopher Nolan film starring Matthew McConaughey as Joseph Cooper, a widowed ex-Nasa pilot who’s taken up farming. Chastain plays Murphy “Murph” Cooper, Joseph’s daughter, who herself becomes a NASA scientist. Thirty-nine minutes into the film, Joseph removes the watch from his Carhartt jacket and gifts it to Murph, before heading for the stars. Look down at the watch, he explains, and remember how time might move differently for the pair of them.
Murph’s watch fills the screen. ‘HAMILTON’ the unambiguous branding reads. ‘KHAKI AUTOMATIC’.
The watch becomes central to Interstellar in the same way Big Ben becomes central to The Thirty Nine Steps. As product placement goes it doesn’t really get much sweeter.
Nolan had a hand in designing the watch himself, taking different elements from existing Hamilton models to create something new.
It went on sale to the public in 2019, a retro field style model with a fetching jet-black dial and handsome beige numerals. The Khaki Field Murph.
One imagines the marketing department at Hamilton HQ taking an early lunch that day and waiting for the Omega-for-James-Bond style fan celebrations to come flooding in.
How galling then, that “the watch community” was not totally convinced.
Sure, the Murph was a nice-looking watch. But it was also too chunky. And at 42mm it was too big.
Now Hamilton has answered those criticisms and rereleased the Murph in a compact 38mm case, a size arguably more befitting its supposed origins as a field watch.
As anyone who has ever read the below-the-line comments on a watch blog knows, following the suggestions of the watch community would seem to be a sure way to drive yourself completely bonkers. A tiny design detail that’s spot-on for one person is guaranteed to be an affront to humanity for another.
But here Hamilton has taken those comments to heart and acted on them. We know so, because the company has come right out and said so.
“We recognise the importance of taking an active part in conversations to connect with our fans, understand their needs and exceed their expectations,” CEO Vivian Stauffer said, in a statement.
“They told us what they wanted. ‘Just make 38mm version of Murph. Many people want it.’ ‘When is the 38mm Murph coming out?’ ‘38mm Murph PLEASE!!!’ Hamilton, are you listening?’”
“And yes, we did!”
As may be obvious from that, the company, originally American, now based in Switzerland, has a reputation for being more agile and fun than some of its more taciturn neighbours. It also has a great history, particularly in high quality field watches, and a strong design language across its catalogue.
Other than the now compact case size, the “Murph” 2.0 is a bang-on copy of the original, featuring that great contrast dial, elongated lugs and a black leather strap with white stitching.
To join those below-the-line commentators for a moment, one might take issue with the use of shiny polished steel on the case. That’s not something you usually see on field watches. But it’s true to the Nolan/ Interstellar original, a “made up” model in the first place, so we can’t really complain on that score.
It’s a lovely looking watch, now in a more useful size. At £820 the Khaki Field Murph 38mm is also a complete steal.
Bonus points all round to Hamilton for giving the fans what they wanted. And having the honesty and wit to say that’s why they did it.
Sure, it is now eight years since Interstellar came out. But, as we know, time moves differently for everyone…
£820; hamiltonwatch.com
