Case in point, the watch my wife bought me last year for my birthday was something that completely smacked me from way out in left field.  I had never looked at Hamilton watches before, but when I slapped the Khaki King Automatic on my wrist for the very first time it was as though a surge of electricity had come over me.

God that was a good birthday:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

Last year I fell completely in love with the Tag Heuer Monaco, and it just came out of left field.  Thinking square watches unbalanced somehow I was really taken aback and how much that watch had affected me.  Seeing as how my Seiko Diver had just recently broke, my zen-like state with watches has been shattered.  Where I was at peace with my small but passionate watch collection, I am now at an a crucial moment in which there is no true sports watch at all within my small collection.  That is, until now…

Well ladies and gentlemen, I fell in love again, and this one is a shocker!!!

Recently I had been looking at various watch shops looking for a watch that will fill the void in my heart without much success.  Thinking feelings of ‘been there and done that’ with Omega and Rolex, my search had led me to other brands, but nothing really sparked my interest.  Thinking Breitling too large, Chopard to ornate, IWC too angular, and every other “luxury” sport watch just, “eh…” I oftentimes returned with feelings of big disappointment.

That is until one day I just happened to need some electrical tape and went down to a local mall.  This mall, not really known for being a hot spot of watch activity, I just happened upon a small jewelry store with a small watch selection that was just limited to Rado and Tissot.  Killing time during the work day I saw a very interesting watch and tried it on, and it… was… magic!!!

It was the Tissot PRC200 Chronograph:

Tissot T17158642 Men’s T-Sport PRC200 Chronograph Blue Dial, Free Shipping, Free Sizing

I’m still debating if I should get the black dial or the blue dial version, but this watch has many of the features that I appreciate about watches.  It is simple, clean, and functional.  I love the yellow hands for the chronograph features and I love how clean and simple the bracelet and the bezel are.  Yes it is a quartz, but it’s chronograph function is so not quartz-like that I just love it.  The fact that the seconds are on the 6 o’clock subdial means that the tick…tick…tick of the quartz can easily be overlooked.  Yes it also has a tacky-meter, but that can be overlooked as well.

What?!?

That’s right!  Your shiny new Breitling and your indestructible Omega have movements in them (or “engines” for the layperson) that are NOT made by them.

But don’t fret, they’re not the only ones…

Brands that you have learned to love such as IWC, Rado, Porsche Design, Panerai, Tag Heuer, and even my beloved Hamilton, you’ll be shocked to learn, do not function under their own steam.  Virtually all of them, and I do mean ALL of them, use some form of ETA movement in their watches.

You may not have heard of the name, but ETA is the legendary Swiss movements manufacturer whose constant supply of blank watch movements have made it possible for the Swiss watch industry to exist.

I’m not kidding either, ETA is pretty much the entire Swiss watch industry, and if it were to disappear from the Earth the very next day, the whole of the Swiss watch industry would cease to exist.

It would actually be infinitely easier for me to name all the watch “manufacturers” that DO make their own movements as opposed to those who rely solely on ETA for theirs.

(Here we go:  Rolex, Zenith, Patek Philippe, and maybe a few others…)

Here is one of ETA’s movements which you can see through the back of my beautiful Hamilton:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

So how does it work?

Well basically ETA ships off blank, unused movements to pretty much all the Swiss watch companies for use in their watches.  The movements are then modified and fitted into various watches.  In some cases they are very heavily modified, such as the case with Omega’s co-axial movement.  After that is done, the watch companies etch their name and logos all over the movement and ship ‘em off to the consumers, who are none the wiser.

Notice any similarities between these these three watches?

Breitling Chrono Cockpit – A1335812/C654-SP Gents Watch


Omega Speedmaster Date Chronograph Automatic Men’s Watch Stainless Steel Black Dial 3210.52

TAG Heuer Men’s Link Automatic Chronograph Watch #CJF2150.BB0595

These watches may be made by three entirely different watch companies that embody three different design characteristics, but the under-workings are exactly the same.

You’ll notice that the date window is at the 3 o’clock positions, and you’ll notice that the seconds hand is at the 9 o’ clock position sub-dial.  You operate the chronograph by pushing the pusher at the 2 o’clock position, and you reset it with the pusher at the 4 o’clock position.  Yes the workings of these watches are very similar indeed…

Coincidence?

I don’t think it takes a genius to figure out my point here, and that is that the three different watches from three very different, and well known watch companies, are based off the same chronograph movement, and yup, you guessed it…

… it’s an ETA movement!

One thing I’m doing that is very wrong, and I admit, is that I’m talking about all of this as though it were a bad thing.  But it’s not!

There’s a very good reason why the whole of Switzerland turns to ETA for their movements.  Besides the fact that it’s much easier, cheaper for you and the manufacturer, and lazier that way, ETA makes outstanding movements that is better than what most of the “watchmakers” in Switzerland can ever come up with.

They aren’t very pretty to look at, and they aren’t “handmade” or “in-house” as the watch connoisseurs like to obsess about, but they work very very well, and when it comes to building high-quality, albeit simple movements, ETA is the best in the business.

I personally don’t get it when people obsess about things being “hand made.”  It is my personal preference to have something, especially something as small as a watch, made with the microscopic precision and unwavering nature of a machine rather than the fat fingers of a fondue eating, mountain dwelling goat tender.

Rantings aside,  the bottom line is that what you probably didn’t know about many of the fine watch brands you’ve been drooling about, you now know.  But don’t let that be a deterrent.  If anything, let that be an assurance that what you are buying has got one solid movement.

To offer an example, the back of my own Khaki King Automatic makes a claim of water resistance to 50M:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

Now what does this actually mean? Does it mean that this watch can go 50 meters underwater?

The short answer is, NO!

If you think about it, what does “water resistant” really mean? I mean would you buy body armor that is simply “bullet resistance” rather than “bullet proof?” I mean I can claim that my car is elephant resistant, but if an elephant hurls its mass toward the side of my car, I doubt it would fare very well.

The truth is that the advertised water resistance of most watches is an outright lie, and that any watch that claims any degree of water resistant is not capable of going to the depths it advertises. If a watch claims 50-100 meters of water resistant it may be suitable for wading in the kiddie pool and things like water skiing, but I would be wary to take it even to 1/10th of its advertised depth. And while I may concede that 200 meters of water resistance can maybe handle some light dives, it can’t go anywhere near 200 meters of depth.

I know that this doesn’t apply to the vast majority of you desk jockeys out there, but if you seriously want to go to great depths you have to get a watch that can handle it.

So how do you know?

It’s simple, all you have to do is look for the “DIVERS” mark on the watch:

Seiko Diver’s Automatic 200M – Black Dial – Stainless Bracelet

If you are having trouble reading it, reads:

SEIKO

AUTOMATIC

DIVER’S 200m

Watches that make the bold “DIVERS,” or “DIVER’S” claim means that it has met a certain set of standards and is actually suitable for diving to depths that you may never go and then some. These watches can take the punishment so have at it.

Have you ever worn a jacket or a coat without a shirt underneath?

Or have you ever tried to conceal the fact that you were drunk when out in public?

Well unbeknown to a good portion of the population, wristwatches also conceal a bit of a daring side to it as well. Think about this, have you ever looked at a watch and wondered about what it may look like in the back?

Well if you have not than I don’t really blame you. After all, most watches you buy today have just a solid plate of metal in the back that occasionally gets popped off with a screwdriver whenever you need a battery change. Timex and Casio don’t put a whole lot of attention to the back of the watch, or case back as we like to call it, and for good reason. What does it matter after all when no one will ever see it?

This is one of those categories where “luxury” watches differs from the pack. Similar to how the inner workings of fine automobile are finely done even if the end result is rarely seen, the inner workings of a fine watch are often put on display even if eyes rarely glance at it and few would appreciate.

Take for example my most recent and current favorite watch, the Hamilton Khaki King Automatic.

On the surface it looks just like this:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

But on the back it looks like this:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

Like many luxury watches, this features an exhibition back.  Sometimes called a display back, see-through back, or whatever you want to call it, the ultimate goal is obvious.  In in a practical sense it doesn’t offer the kind of bulletproofing you’d find in a tough divers’ watch, but you just get too astounded by the beauty to really care, and as a conversation piece, having one of these make you stand out as fillet mignon in a world of ground chuck.

The watch world has a similar type of stereotype, and it isn’t particularly harmful, but it is an element of ignorance that I wish to clarify today. That being that while watches serve the ultimate purpose of telling the time, the inner workings of the watch cannot be assumed to be the same. In other words, the way a Timex operates and the way Rolex function are very different and it’s important to know that difference if you wish to enjoy watches to their fullest.

You see the vast vast majority of watches you see on the wrists of ordinary people these days are quartz powered watches. They use a battery, they tick, they’re cheap, you can leave them in a drawer and it will still be running fine months later. Besides that they are very accurate, and they require minimal maintenance. To the layperson a quartz watch is the obvious choice, and rightfully so. They are cheap, reliable, and a breeze to maintain.

But unbeknown to the public at large there is another type of watch that, before the introduction of the quartz watch in the 1970’s, adorned the wrists of the people long before. This is the mechanical watch. As a machine it is similar to a music box. You keep it wound = it works, you don’t = it stops. The drawbacks of a mechanical watch compared to a quartz are plenty. To start a mechanical watch is much less accurate, they cost a whole lot more, they are expensive to maintain, and you need to constantly keep them wound. You can “tune” a mechanical watch to be as accurate as a quartz, but generally speaking a mechanical watch almost never has the out-of-box accuracy of a quartz watch. Whereas an average quartz watch can keep an accuracy within +-15 seconds a month, for a mechanical watch to keep an accuracy within +- 2 minutes is considered to be quite good. On top of that, while a mechanical watch doesn’t use any batteries, or any electricity for that matter, you need to constantly worry about keeping them wound and keeping all those moving parts maintained costs a whole heck of a lot more.

The introduction of the quartz by Seiko delivered a knockout punch to the Swiss watch industry. And why not? They offered a more accurate and less fussy alternative for a whole lot less.

So did the mechanical watch go the way of the dodo? Hardly…

It seems that mechanical watches enjoy a sense of prestige in that all the major high-end watches almost exclusively offer mechanical watches. Whether it be Rolex, Patek Philippe, Panerai, they largely do away with the quartz. So all of you who wish to breathe the rarefied air in the watch world can invest in one of these watches. On top of that watch enthusiasts like me find a deep sense of passion having those small machines adorn our wrists everyday. They are short on sense, but high in passion!

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

It was a great one! Thanks for All the Support!

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

I’m not going to beat around the bush, this watch is absolutely fantastic; And having it for just about a month now I have to concede that this watch is utterly flawless. I love how the dial has millisecond markers, I love the day/date display, I love how the numerals light up at night, I love the stitching on the leather strap, and above all I love how the accuracy of the watch is the same as the accuracy I got out of my much-higher priced Rolex.

I have always seen Hamilton watches at stores though and have always wondered where within the watch the “catch” lies. They are so affordable that I thought there had to be some cracks, but after having for just about a month now I’m pleased to say that I have not found a single chink in its armor.

I even took it down to the southwest with me on a recent business trip and I have to say that with that watch and with my beautiful fiancee at my side, everything felt just right. Here is a shot of this beautiful watch looking down from the top of the Hoover Dam:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

And even at breakfast it is just absolutely brilliant:

Hamilton H64455533 Men’s Khaki King Automatic Black Dial Strap, Free Shipping

I love this watch! And I can tell you right now that it will be a watch I will pass down to my future grandchildren should I ever have any.

Now for a little brand history, I will tell you that if you have not heard of Hamilton watches, than that’s fine, but whether or not you are aware of it, Hamilton watches are all around you. They may receive publicity by being peppered on the wrists of famous actors in countless Hollywood films, but what I’m interested in is how they helped build 20th century America. Hamilton may now belong to the Swatch Group, but make no doubts about it, Hamilton is an AMERICAN watch.

Along with Ball and other American watch manufacturer’s of the time, Hamilton watches were designed to be railroad grade watches, and that meant ACCURACY through and through. When a man or woman in 19th and early 20th century wanted to know the time, they asked a train conductor because he knew the score (or in this case, the time), and one of the watches they tended to carry was a Hamilton. Later on in the 20th century, however, they tended to be become more known more as military watches than anything else. Being slapped on the wrists of one million soldiers during World War II meant that the Hamilton watches were as instrumental to winning the war as the M-1 Garand rifle. Chances are that your grandfather or grandfather’s father has probably once owned a Hamilton. Chances are that in your granny’s house you may find one lying around. I have always equated Hamilton watches as being as American as apple pie. When I think America, one of the things I think of are Hamilton watches.

Furthermore, I have always thought that Hamilton watches represented watches that belonged in a different time. Their design and styling isn’t classy or sophisticated, it is just a style that is unique to Hamilton, and I’ve never known a style like it, and what’s more is that they are affordable and can be bought by anyone. Hamilton watches are worn when you want to escape your world somehow. Say you are sitting at your office (as I’m doing right now) and want an excursion. You can just look at your Hamilton watch and somehow transcend yourself to a different America, an America where things are simpler and where values were more true. Maybe I’m getting a little carried away here, but they are truly a magnificent watch, and I respect it hugely.