Visiting Hamilton’s Lancaster home and a Khaki Field that celebrates 250 years of the USA
Zach BlassA trip I cannot believe it took nearly six years in my watch media career to make, I have just returned to NYC from Lancaster, PA: the birthplace of Hamilton watches. With 2026 being the 250th anniversary of the U.S., it was clear to the Hamilton team that it needed to do something special for such a major milestone.
Our first stop was to visit Hamilton’s Lancaster boutique. This boutique, which opened in 2024, marked Hamilton’s brick-and-mortar return to its birthplace. And this is not just any building. It is a historically significant building for both the brand and American watchmaking. The Bowman Building that now houses Hamilton’s Lancaster boutique was the home of the Bowman Technical School. This school trained watchmakers in the region for more than a century, and many of these student watchmakers went on to work at the Hamilton Watch Company when it was in Lancaster from 1892 until 1980.
Lancaster is filled with exposed brick everywhere you look. And during our visit, many of us discovered a special Khaki Field Lancaster Boutique Edition none of us had seen before, with a cool brick motif dial and a NATO strap that perfectly colour matches the dial.
We headed upstairs to a room that once trained many budding watchmakers, but it was here that the recently appointed Hamilton Watch CEO, Francesca Ginocchio, delivered a presentation on the direction Hamilton is heading, and to officially announce and launch a new Khaki Field watch that celebrates the 250th anniversary of the USA in a really cool way.
Francesca presented a new set of three pillars that will shape Hamilton’s creations moving forward. Rather than remain within a structure of land, air, and sea, as many sporty watch brands do, the pillars that will guide the brand moving forward are far less generic and even more rooted in what makes Hamilton watches distinct and special.
The first pillar is ‘Cinema & Gaming’. Hamilton’s Hollywood relationships span prop loans, custom-created pieces, and vintage sourcing – with a record-breaking involvement in over 500 cinema and gaming moments. The Murph watch from Interstellar was cited as their global #1 seller, and the Resident Evil collaboration sold out nearly instantly. It is clear that this golden feather in the brand’s cap needed to have its own pillar in the forward-thinking structure of the brand.
The second pillar is dubbed ‘Adventure & American Heritage’. The Khaki Field collection alone represents about 50% of Hamilton’s sales. The watch community is no stranger to Hamilton’s arguably unrivalled value-for-the-dollar field, pilot’s, and diver’s watches. To mark the U.S. 250th anniversary, Hamilton revived a rare 1970s reference, the FAPD 5101, originally made for U.S. Air Force navigators.
The new Khaki Field Mechanical 36mm 250th Anniversary Special Edition remains incredibly faithful to the original: matte steel 36mm case, fixed bars, a hand-wound movement (with the benefit of a modern 80 hours of power reserve and anti-magnetic protection), and even an acrylic crystal keeps things closer to the period. Though the original FAPD 5101 military watch had a sterile dial, this new revival takes after the very rare civilian version of the FAPD 5101 that carried the same Hamilton logo typeface you see on the new special edition. Hamilton provided over a million watches to the military, but the civilian FAPD 5101 was only produced for one month – very, very rare by comparison.
The third pillar centres around ‘Vintage Revival’. Inspired by the demand following the release of the film Oppenheimer, where Hamilton supplied authentic period watches, for such pieces to be created in the modern era. Hamilton has developed a path forward to make this a reality, and we got a glimpse of the first creation that will launch within this pillar. I cannot share any details just yet, but I suspect you will be very pleased.
After the presentation, we then headed to the building that once housed Hamilton’s watch manufacture. Today, it is now a massive apartment building complex, but despite its vastly different purpose today, the building has various memorabilia and echoes of the past that are still incorporated into it. As you walk the hallways, vintage Hamilton advertisements grace the walls, various safes act as doors to storage rooms (which our guide mentioned may have lingering gold dust on the floors), and some lucky tenants have private access to spaces inside one of the various clock towers. The main clock tower, however, can be accessed by anyone in the building on a tour. It’s incredible how much of the building, despite now being residential, makes you feel like you walked into a time machine to visit the manufacture in the past. It is a strong reminder that Hamilton has rich American roots; it must remain connected to them, as it would be such a waste not to. Fortunately, Hamilton has every intention of keeping this connection strong.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Zach and the Time+Tide Team
Zach’s Time+Tide take of the week: The SLGH013 is the sleeper hit of Grand Seiko’s catalogue
I’ll keep this brief because this week’s Friday Wind Down lead was quite lengthy. My take this week is that the Grand Seiko SLGH013 does not get as much attention as I believe it deserves. Though the Evolution 9 range from Grand Seiko is handsome, it has irked me that the brand does not really bring its next-gen calibres to its more historic case geometries. The SLGH013 is an exception to the largely held rule of next-gen movements being Evolution 9 exclusive, with a 44GS case, stunning icy blue textured dial, and, most importantly, an 80-hour automatic dual-impulse escapement-driven 9SA5 high-beat automatic calibre. Debuted in 2022, it marked the first regular production Grand Seiko 44GS-cased watch to house the 9SA5. And it has not happened again for the 9SA5 since (only the hand-wound 9SA4 in two limited edition revivals of the 45GS case).
With ample blue and white dial hues in my collection, I cannot really justify it for my own collection as it stands. But man, if the brand did this watch with a red, purple, or even pink dial, my credit card would be slapping the glass case before the specialist in-store could even finish saying the reference number. Grand Seiko, please pair more next-gen movements with 44GS, 62GS, and even millennium-cased references. I am definitely not the only Grand Seiko fanboy who would love to see it.
Wrist shot of the week: I’m trying to level my stills game up
I’m going full Hamilton this week because, as the sole US Editor on the Time+Tide editorial team, this launch really hits home – both for me as an American and a watch geek. I’m also simply proud of the still I shot here, trying to get that same signature crystal haze Marcus and Pavol always deliver.
Time+Tide Shop pick of the week: Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical 36mm
Inspired by the FAPD 5101 navigator’s watch issued to U.S. Air Force crews around 1970, the watch revives the rugged simplicity of a true military tool. Its matte case, fixed bars, acrylic box glass, and khaki cotton NATO strap stay faithful to the original specifications, enhanced with Super LumiNova® Grade X2 and a protective dust cover. This special edition piece honours Hamilton’s military heritage with authentic, purpose-built detail. It will only be produced through 2026 and is available for purchase worldwide. For those of you in Australia, you can visit our Time+Tide Shop as well. Price: A$1,100 – register your interest to order one here (AU only)
Our favourite Time+Tide coverage of the week
Do the updates in the new Atelier Wen Perception V3 justify its near US$5K price tag?
A natural progression for watch brands, typically speaking, is to move upmarket. The question becomes: what will the brand do to justify it? What new developments will the brand bring to the table? This Atelier Wen Perception V3 has a retail price of US$4,850, around twice the price of the design’s initial retail price. So, what is Atelier Wen now bringing to the table? Zach goes hands-on with the Perception V3 here.
The Omega Seamaster Chronograph worn in the video game 007 First Light is now a real watch
Omega just launched a new James Bond Seamaster Chronograph that is featured in the upcoming 007 First Light video game. It is the first-ever chronograph in James Bond’s Seamaster Diver 300M history. Zach has all the details of this launch for you right here.
Serica’s latest COSC-certified Ref. 7505 field watch proves that 35mm is the new 36mm
It’s long been debated that 36mm is the sweet spot for most wrists, but it has to be said that sometimes, tool watches delivered in small packages can easily miss the mark, that is, until Serica entered the game. Its latest release, the Ref. 7505 Field Chronometer, aims to prove that tool watches don’t need to be bulky.