This Hamilton Khaki Aviation Pilot Day Date is a very unique, yet ballsy design! If a German Flieger from WW2 and an American pocket watch were to mate, and have a baby, it would look like this!

The case is very nice and wears smaller than the 46mm suggests. Although 46mm is far too large for a lot of peeps, Hamilton do a 42mm version of this great wristwatch. It has a better day-date layout too, at 12 and 6 o’clock rather than this 46mm one, which has both day and date at the 3 O’Clock position. It’s a special piece, that has a unique dial and matching Calfskin leather strap which is also quite unique. It has the ‘H’ with wings emblem, which I presume is the Hamilton Aviation design? The Museum caseback shows off a tweaked version of the ETA 2836-2 that makes the power reserve last for 80 hours.

It does have some things that I’m not happy with. The black (maybe charcoal) coating scratches very easily, I’m not going to slag off the size for two reasons, if you are looking for a watch like this, you’re probably looking for a big vintage style, Pilots watch to begin with, and secondly Hamilton make a smaller one at 42mm. So back to the other truths: The strap is beautiful, except it’s been lightly tanned, and underneath that colour is an almost white leather, so if it gets scuffed or nicked, it shows as white specks.

The price is very high at $1095, but can be bought cheaper online. I’d make sure it’s an AD! I would rather have a good warranty with that tweaked 80 hour power reserve movement, I mean, I’m no watchmaker, but if you had a V12 under the hood instead of a straight 6, you may find it needs more servicing (do you like my Jaguar analogy?). This comes from learning the hard way. The other issue is it’s not a watch for every occasion, although that’s no big issue if you are a collector.

Overall I like the uniqueness of the Hamilton Khaki Aviation Pilot Day Date, but not the price. I’d prefer the Interstellar Day Date over this any day! But then again, it’s all about your personal preference. I do love the ‘Pilot who wears this on drug runs’ Tom Cruise in ‘American made’ type of charm though.