Hamilton And Christopher Nolan Built The Odyssey Watch For A World The Predates Watchmaking

If you notice, there's a small contradiction sitting at the centre of Hamilton's newest collaboration with Christopher Nolan. The Khaki Field Auto "The Odyssey" Limited Edition is a watch built for a film set thousands of years before anyone had a use for one.

Starting with the massive success of the much-loved Khaki Field Murph, Nolan and Hamilton have worked together on every movie to bring out a collector’s watch worn by the characters on screen. After Interstellar, there was the Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO as seen in Tenet. For  Oppenheimer, the brand made a set of six watches, worn on screen by Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy), his wife Kitty (Emily Blunt) and Lieutenant General Leslie Groves Jr., played by Matt Damon. This time, of course, making a prop watch is out of the question. Instead, it’s a tribute to Homer’s epic story itself.

So, how do you build a field watch for a world that predates mechanical timekeeping? Simple, focus on the material and the motifs.

So obviously, the case is bronze, at 42mm and 10.9mm thick, set on the familiar Khaki Field Automatic platform. Not only is this an ode to the Bronze Age, but it’s also meant to develop its own patina over years of wear, ageing the way the poem itself has aged across three thousand years of retelling.

The black, vertically brushed dial has bronze-toned detailing all around it, inspired by the engravings on Odysseus' helmet. The sword-shaped hands in bronze, of course, reference his blade. Even the 12 o'clock index is a tribute: it's modelled on a rivet from the sword's scabbard. Flip the watch over, and the titanium caseback carries a sketch of Odysseus' helmet, engraved above the director's signature.

Production of the timepiece is capped at 2,112 pieces, a reference to the significance of the number 12 in Homer’s original epic: it spans 12,000 lines, tells the tale of 12 ships to Troy, and mentions Odysseus firing an arrow through 12 axe heads to prove his identity. 

The best piece in the box, however, has nothing to do with telling time. Every watch ships with a wearable replica of Athena's pin, the talisman Penelope gifts Odysseus in the film, reworked here as a brooch. It’s a nice little nod to the story and serves as an extra collectable beyond, of course, the watch. The packaging plays on with black-and-bronze palette through a bronze strap all around, and a round metallic shield emblem sits on the inner lid.

Underneath the mythology and reference, it's still a fine field watch built to function. The H-10 automatic movement runs on a Nivachron balance spring, holds an 80-hour power reserve, and sits behind a domed sapphire crystal with double anti-reflective coating and 100m water resistance. The strap is brown grained leather with central stitching, closed with a titanium pin buckle.

There’s no hard historical evidence that Odysseus was a real person, but if he wasn’t, this is a watch built for a hero's wrist, one who takes on unbelievable adventures with the sheer force of will and wit. Christopher Nolan’s thirteenth feature film stars Matt Damon as Odysseus, alongside Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson and Lupita Nyong'o, with Zendaya and Charlize Theron. Both the watch and the movie will be released on the same day: July 17.