Christmas is always that perfect time to wear a dress watch. Or better said, the time you realize you really need a dress watch in your collection. Last Christmas, I was actually prepared and instead of wearing my Speedmaster or Submariner, I found myself wearing a dress watch almost the entire holiday period. Of course, you dont just purchase a (dress) watch to wear it during Christmas only, but I can think of more appropriate occasions where you might prefer a more classic watch over a sports watch. Then, there are people like my younger step-brother for example, who wear a dress watch every single day of the year. It is not for me personally, although I do wear my Globemaster a lot, which can definitely be seen as a dress watch (despite its thickness).Anyway, Hamilton reached out to us with their American Classic Intra-Matic collection and I picked two models I would actually consider myself if Id be in the market for a new dress watch. It is the 42mm gold (PVD) watch with a brown smoked dial and the 38mm stainless steel watch with a grey smoked dial. Both are under 1000 Euro (or $1145USD) and have the same movement. Without further ado, lets have a look.
Hamilton American Classic Intra-MaticI was searching for the Intra-Matic collection on the Hamilton website but didnt find anything. Apparently, the Intra-Matic models are a sub-collection of the American Classic family of watches. Although nearly 35% of our readers are?from the United States and probably most of them are familiar with Hamilton having American roots, lets talk about Hamiltons history for a brief moment. The Hamilton company was founded in 1892 and was in American hands until 1974. From that moment, the ownership of Hamilton became Swiss as SSIH (together with ASUAG the predecessor of the in 1983 founded Swatch Group) bought all shares. But surely most people will think of Hamilton being an American brand, despite being owned by Swatch Group and situated in Switzerland. One look on eBay and you will find an astonishing number of vintage Hamilton watches offered from the USA. It shows how big this brand was, and still is, in the United States.And who isnt familiar with the unusual shaped Hamilton electric (Ventura) watch that was on the wrist of Elvis Presley in the movie Blue Hawaii? Hamilton is also known for their (US) military watches (and a lot of the modern Hamilton pieces refer to military watches, as we wrote here and here) and watches used on the movie screen. The first time in 1932, in the Marlene Dietrich movie Shanghai Express'. Since 2003, Hamilton (originally?located in Pennsylvania) resides in Biel, where we also can find other big Swiss brands like Swatch, Omega and . More about the history of Hamilton can be found here. Today, Hamilton produces (Swiss made) watches that are considered affordable and have a wide selection of mechanical watches as well as quartz powered pieces. Myself, I consider them to be a watch brand that offers no-nonsense mechanical watches at an attractive price point even considered that the competition is huge.38mm and 42mmLets get back to the two watches that I received from Hamilton for this review. Although my initial preference was the 42mm gold version, I have to admit that the 38mm with grey dial version was the one that attracted me more as soon as I unpacked them. The gold is of course not solid, but a PVD layer on a stainless steel case. The colour is a bit darker than solid gold, but certainly not bad. My wrist size is about 18cm (~7 inches) and thats also why I thought 42mm would be more suitable. But I have to say that 38mm just felt better, for me. That can be entirely different for you, of course. It is a matter of preferences and what youre comfortable with. I dont mind wearing 36mm watches (or even smaller), but I know enough people who have similarly sized wrists who are of the opinion that everything under 40mm looks ridiculous. To each his (or her) own, Id say. Dial wise, these watches are both available in each diameter. So the grey dial Intra-Matic is also available in 42mm and the brown dial model with gold PVD case is also available in 38mm. Good thinking, Hamilton!
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January 02, 2019
