Update on Hamilton’s 2011 collection Khaki Pioneer

In my entry “Hamilton, mass-produced anachronisms“, I mentioned the new Khaki Pioneer seen at BaselWorld 2011. On close analysis, the watch revealed to be heavily inspired by early Hanhart FliegerUhren.

The Khaki Conservation model (a.k.a Team Earth) was already unveiled last year by Hamilton, with the endorsement of actor Harrison Ford to support Team Earth. For a detailed description and pictures of the watch, check out the review by forumer Watchlizard on Watchfreeks.com.

In the meantime, Hamilton has been working on a chronograph version of the watch, which was showcased this year at BaselWorld.

Like the “original” three-handed model, this new chronograph measures 42 mm in diameter. It comes with a sapphire crystal and is water resistant to 10 bar, which makes it a perfect outdoors watch.

The lug width comes at an unusual 21 mm, which drastically limits the options of strap change.

The calibre H 31 is a Valjoux 7753 that it built without the 12 hours hand normally located at 6 o’clock. The 30 minutes counter situated at 3 o’clock runs thanks to a gear train that transfers the motion from its original position at 12 o’clock.
As a consequence of the mechanical alteration leading to this type of display, the manual date setting can no longer be operated from the crown, and it has to be carried out through a corrector located on the side of the case, at 10 o’clock. This characteristic is common to all Valjoux 7753-based calibres.

The Khaki Pioneer collection takes the same elements as the Khaki Conservation. The case design and strap seem to be the same, and the dial use the same print although the colours are different.

On the Khaki conservation, we had a black dial on the three hands version and a silver dial on the chronograph. On the Khaki Pioneer, the three hands version comes with an ivory dial and the chronograph version comes with a black dial and silver subcounters or a dark silver dial.