An "uncomfortable hunk of metal" Christopher Walken calls the watch during his brilliant monologue in Pulp Fiction. But then, he wore it for years in a rather bizarre place... Welcome to the wonder world of movie watches!

Text: Gerben Bijpost

Watches in films; regularly they play an interesting role. Directors use them to highlight character traits. Or for outlining historical context. And sometimes they are even used to give the plot a surprising twist...

The monologue quoted above was a scene in Quentin Tarantino's second and highest-rated film to date, Pulp Fiction (8.9 on IMDB). Captain Koons (Christopher Walken) tells a little boy named Butch Coolidge about the wondrous adventures of a watch. This heirloom comes from Butch's father. And to make sure the enemy did not get their hands on it during the war, Koons had carried it with him for two years in a place where the sun never shines. Note after this "uncomfortable piece of metal" was given to him by Butch's dying father, who had also hidden it for years in the same bizarre place during the war...

An amusing and typical Tarantino anecdote. But also telling. The watch, of the Lancet brand in this case, has been passed down from father to son for generations and symbolises the importance of family heritage and the willingness to make sacrifices for it. The absurdist anecdote also underlines the emotional value a watch can have.

You won't come across the now defunct watch brand Lancet in films anytime soon. You are more likely to see watches by Rolex, Omega, Casio, G-Shock, TAG Heuer, Seiko, Jaeger-LeCoultre and other big names passing by... But the most popular brand in Hollywood is perhaps Hamilton.   

The beginning

Hamilton's first appearance on the big screen involved a key scene in the successful film Shanghaï Express (1932). Captain Harvey (Clive Brook), a British Army officer, is sitting on the outside deck of the eponymous train when he is accosted by his former lover, Lily (Marlene Dietrich, in her most iconic role). When she asks him about the time, Captain Harvey opens the hinged cover of his watch. In a close-up, viewers see that the bottom of the lid contains a small photograph of a younger Lily. It is immediately clear that she gave this watch to him long ago AND that he still loves her. Below the picture of Lily, the Art Deco dial reads in clear letters: Hamilton.

This striking appearance on the cinema screen proved to be the beginning of a tradition. Indeed, over the years Hamilton has established itself as the watchmaker of choice for many cineastes, and its watches have since adorned wrists of the biggest movie stars and most important characters. In space, on land, underwater. From Ironman to Oppenheimer, Spider-Man, Indiana Jones, Elvis Presley, Charlize Theron and you name it.

Time for action

Like Hamilton's military watches, for example. In the 1951 WWII film The Frogmen, Lieutenant Franklin (Richard Widmark) leads a team of US Navy divers. On their wrists? The Hamilton Frogman. Exactly like their counterparts wear in real life.

Also in Pearl Harbor (2001), fighter pilots Rafe McCawley and Danny Walker (Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett), wear a hand-wound Khaki Field watch, a retro model inspired by the combat watches Hamilton supplied to thousands of US soldiers during the war.

Action is something Hamilton seems to like anyway. As with Bruce Willis's role of John McClane, who takes on cyber criminals in Die Hard 4: Return to Hell equipped with the Khaki Aviation ETO chronograph. Or Robert Neville, played by Will Smith, fighting zombies in I Am Legend with a modified version of the Khaki Aviation Twilight on his wrist. And in the action film Central Intelligence (2016), the Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO is spotted on the muscular wrist of Bob Stone, played by Dwayne Johnson. That same BeLOWZERO, incidentally, was again worn by Matt Damon who plays Mark Watney in the sci-fi blockbuster, The Martian.

Into space

And while we are looking up: in 1968, Hamilton played a major role in Stanley Kubrick's iconic science fiction epic, 2001: A Space Odyssey, one of the greatest films ever made. Requested by Stanley Kubrick to create a wristwatch suitable for astronauts of the future, Hamilton was able to indulge in creativity, resulting in a then ultra-modern-looking science fiction watch.

In 2014, Hamilton once again contributed to science fiction cinema with his crucial role in the film Interstellar, a visionary epic from director Christopher Nolan (a name we come across more often in this review). Preparing for a space mission to save Earth, Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), gives his daughter Murph a vintage style watch specially designed for this film, which he keeps next to his own Hamilton Khaki Pilot Day Date Auto. "One for you, one for me," he says, explaining that he will return one day and they can compare the time on their watches. A key moment in the film, as Joseph Cooper, later trapped in another dimension, manages to manipulate the second hand of Murph's watch to transmit data to his daughter via Morse code that will save humanity.

Vintage inspiration

There is much to discover about Hamilton's historical heritage in films, with models still in the collection. The watch mentioned earlier in Shanghaï Express was actually the Hamilton Flintridge, a classic watch launched upon the film's release as 'the watch with a flap', and still available today. In Dead Poets Society, the gripping 1989 drama set in a boarding school in Vermontin in the 1950s, we see teacher Mr Keating (Robin Williams) wearing a vintage Hamilton Boulton. This chic rectangular watch from the years is, in a quartz version, still part of the collection today. The Hamilton Ardmore, a 1930s design, seen on Matt Damon's wrist in the award-winning film The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), is also still around.

Dare

Of all the Hamilton watches that have appeared in films over the decades, the most notable is undoubtedly the Hamilton Ventura, which shone on the wrist of Chad Gates, played by Elvis Presley in the 1961 romantic comedy Blue Hawaii.

The Ventura, a futuristic-looking triangular model, was the world's first electric wristwatch. A technological and aesthetic marvel that, thanks to its approval by the King, became the statement around the wrist of its time. By the way, a variant of this Ventura, the Hamilton Pacer, featured in the television series Mad Men, on the wrist of Ken Cosgrove (Aaron Stanton), an advertising man fond of science fiction.

The original Ventura style returned to the big screen in one of the greatest sci-fi blockbusters of all time, Men in Black. Alien hunters J and K, played by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, wore a modernised version of this watch in the first 1997 MIB, after which it returned in all four films of the series, most recently on the wrist of Tessa Thompson in Men in Black: International (2019).

Watches in series & films; once you have started paying attention to this and trying to recognise watch brands and models, it is hard to stop. This can be fun, but sometimes also quite frustrating. Especially when you are sitting in the cinema and cannot rewind and pause a scene to study a watch in detail. Then it is nice to know that you are by no means the only 'watch-spotter'. Check watch-id.com and discover the endless and constantly updated stream of movie and celebrity watches...

Famous watch brands in famous films

Rolex: featured alongside several Bond films on Martin Sheen's wrist in Apocalypse Now (1979). Robert Redford wore one in All the President's Men (1976). In Scarface (1983), Tony Montana (Al Pacino) wears a Rolex Day-Date and Leonardo DiCaprio has a Rolex in The Wolf of Wall Street (2013).

TAG Heuer: best known for Steve McQueen wearing a TAG Heuer Monaco in the film "Le Mans" (1971).

 Jaeger-LeCoultre: In Doctor Strange (2016), Benedict Cumberbatch's character wears a Jaeger-LeCoultre Master Ultra Thin Perpetual.

Breguet: Sir David Niven as Phileas Fogg wears a Breguet watch in Around the World in 80 Days (1956).

IWC Schaffhausen: In Ocean's Eleven (2001), Brad Pitt wears an IWC Portuguese Chronograph.

Panerai: Sylvester Stallone wears a Panerai Luminor in Daylight (1996).

Casio: in Back to the Future (1985), Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) wears a Casio calculator watch and in Speed (1994), Jack Traven (Keanu Reeves) also opts for a Casio.

G-Shock: the solidity of G-Shocks is put to the test in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011) on the wrist of Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise), in Man of Steel (2013) by Clark Kent (Henry Cavill) and also in Black Hawk Down (2001), several characters wear G-Shock watches.