You could call this a “diving watch light.” It’s an example of the “sports watch” category that is receiving a lot of attention from many brands (click here for the Top Ten Sports Watches). The Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba looks like a diving watch, with unidirectional rotating bezel and screw-down crown, but its water resistance of 10 bar/100 metres makes it suitable at most for surface swimming. More watches for the beach here. Last year’s Khaki Navy Frogman is a better choice if you are looking for a diving watch, with a 1,000-metre water resistance, helium escape valve and the other usual diving watch features.
40mm case
The Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba is moderately sized at 40 mm diameter, with a steel case. The dial and bezel are of diving watch inspiration, in two alternative colour schemes, black and orange, and all-black. The seconds track has thirds-of-seconds subdivisions, reflecting the movement rate of 3 Hertz. The caseback is solid, engraved with a sort of compass rose motif. Hour indices and hands are coated with SuperLuminova. The watch has a steel bracelet or a black canvas strap.
80 hours power reserve
The watch is powered by the H-10 calibre. This is the self-winding ETA Powermatic 80, ETA CO7.111, which provides 80 hours power reserve, double with respect to the 40 or so hours of the ETA 2824 movements. This increase is attained in two ways: by reducing balance wheel frequency from 4 Hertz to 3 Hertz, and by the use of a special alloy for the mainspring made by Swatch Group company Nivarox. Its high flexibility makes it possible to reduce the diameter of the central mainspring arbour and increase the total length of the spring.
Prices and references
The Hamilton Khaki Navy Scuba is available with a black and orange dial and a NATO strap, reference H82305131, price €645; with an all-black dial and a steel bracelet, reference H82335131, price €995; with a black and orange dial and a steel bracelet, reference H82305931, price €995. Click here to see a selection of the cheapest mechanical watches. Read more on the Hamilton website.
