Boat International – August 2019

08 2019 boatinternational.com

BOAT LIFE

PHOTOGRAPHY: ABG; ALAMY

hentalkturnstowatchestheinclinationisto

thinkSwiss,butAmericanshaveanimpressive

horologicalhistorytoo.Afterall,itwasthe

WaterburyClockCompany,ofConnecticut,

that brought the luxury of personalised timekeeping to the

masses during the 1880s. It introduced the first inexpensive

pocket watch and, under the management of Robert H

Ingersoll, created the Yankee, also known as the dollar

watch, which sold 40 million units.

Waterbury became known as the Timex Corporation in

1944, and the Ingersoll dial name was famously used on the

Mickey Mouse watches made under licence from Disney.

Then there’s Bulova, the innovative New York brand;

Waltham, another mass producer; Tiffany, the American

jeweller that moved into watches; and the newest American

manufacturer of all, Shinola, which takes its name from a

defunct shoe polish firm and has been producing watches

in Detroit since 2011.

But possibly the most

famous US watch brand

of all is Hamilton.

Founded in 1892, it

became the main watch

supplier to the country’s

fast-expanding railroad

network before going on

to produce military and

marine timepieces.

Now owned by the

Swatch Group – and

therefore officially

Swiss – Hamilton is still

regarded as American

because of the

Hollywood movies in

which its products have

appeared since its

cinematic debut in

1932’s Shanghai Express.

Other star turns include

Pearl Harbor, The Pink Panther, Superman, 2001: A Space

Odyssey and Elvis Presley’s Blue Hawaii in 1961 in which

the King wore the radical, shield-shaped Ventura (pictured).

In 2014, Hamilton supplied a special version of its Khaki

Field model for use in Interstellar, starring Matthew

McConaughey and Jessica Chastain. McConaughey plays

aNASApilotcalledoutofretirementtofindanewplanet

thathumanitycanescapeto.HegiveshisHamiltontohis

daughter,Murphy(Chastain),andcommunicateswithher

fromthe“fifthdimension”throughthewatch.

Now Hamilton has produced a limited-edition replica of

the so-called Murph watch with a special box based on the

“tesseract” from which the pilot sends his message, and the

word “Eureka” printed in Morse code on the seconds hand.

Just don’t rely on it to

contact the coastguard

if you hit trouble on the

water. hamiltonwatch.com

W

Stars and straps

American watch brands are steeped in history and Hollywood, says Simon de Burton

Above: Hamilton

Khaki Field

Murph, £835,

hamiltonwatch.com.

Right: the Mickey

Mouse watch with

Ingersoll dial

Right: Bulova

Computron, from

£199, bulova.com.

Below: Shinola

Runwell Automatic,

from £905,

shinola.com

Right: Tiffany Square,

£16,000, tiffany.com

Left: Timex

Standard

40mm, £90,

timex.com

Marine conservation

organisation Parley

for the Oceans has

partnered with some

of the world’s most

high-profile artists –

including Ed Ruscha,

Doug Aitken and Julian

Schnabel – to create

a series of limited-

edition reusable tote

bags. Each item is made

from up to five plastic

bottles recovered from

the water, and their sale

funds the clean-up of

around 125 kilograms

ofplasticmarine waste.

parley.tv

Bags of

waste

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