Hamilton American Classic Chrono-Matic 50 Auto Chrono Limited Edition Reference H51616731 - A Great Tribute Watch, A Review (plus Video)

Recently, I was fortunate to get my hands on a 50th anniversary timepiece from Seiko that commemorates the brand’s first automatic chronograph movement launched in 1969. The Seiko Prospex Automatic Chronograph 50th Anniversary Limited Edition SRQ029J1 was made in honour of the Seiko Caliber 6139. It was a major milestone for Seiko but it also was part of a gigantic battle by big watch makers to come out with the first truly automatic chronograph. In fact, three competing designs were launched in 1969 by the three competing teams. The first team was Seiko, the second team was Zenith and the third team consists of Breitling, Heuer, Buren-Hamilton with the help of Dubois Depraz. I am happy to note that I also just gotten my hand on the 50th anniversary timepiece to commemorate the third team’s first automatic chronograph movement, the Caliber 11 Chrono-Matic. The Hamilton American Classic Chrono-Matic 50 Auto Chrono Limited Edition is the timepiece that Hamilton would like to remember that momentous event.

Like the Seiko commemorative timepiece, the Hamilton design is actually an interpretation of a 1972 model called the Chrono-Matic E GMT Countdown instead of a model designed in 1969 (Seiko chose a 1970 model instead of a 1969 design for their commemorative timepiece). Nonetheless, it was a great choice by Hamilton as the Chrono-Matic E is a classic and much sought after by collectors today.

I am rather surprised (and happy) to note the speed to which this new limited edition timepiece was shipped to the AD in Malaysia. Since it was highlighted to the watch community in November 2019, by December 2019, examples are already in shops. I am more used to the ‘launch’ strategy of Seiko where it may take up to six months from announcement to actually product delivery. Personally, I would prefer manufacturers to deliver the products when launched and not keep the watch community in suspense for months on end.

The Purchasing Experience

I was notified by its availability by my dealer, Sam of Wah Thai Watch Company, Bangsar Village, Kuala Lumpur. Went to pick it up a week later.



The watch-box commensurate with the limited edition status of the watch. The watch-box is a large rectangle cardboard box painted in grey with the brand printed in black at strategic places. The whole package comes in two parts. The first is the transport box while the second is the main watch-box which sits inside the first. All the documentations like the manual and promotional flyers are kept in a small section at the bottom of the transport box. Unlike other limited edition timepieces by Hamilton, there wasn’t any extra straps as backup. Instead, the guarantee documents were given centre stage. The watch is tucked in on the left of the watch-box.



I was also given a nice watch-winder from Hamilton. Not flimsy but made out of wood and thick acrylic glass. I will do a review on the watch winder in another posting.




The Great Automatic Chronograph Movement Race of 1969

Depending who you ask, you will get differing answers to which team won the great automatic chronograph movement race of 1969. The fact of the matter is that all three teams: Seiko, Zenith and the Breitling-Heuer-Buren-Hamilton (with the help of Dubois Depraz) consortium recognised different yardstick to justify their individual right to call their creation as "the first". These are some of the facts being put as 'proof':

1. Seiko started producing the Caliber 6139 chronograph movement in March 1969. The watches with the movement were sold only in Japan and it only got sold outside Japan from 1970 onward;
2. Zenith publicly introduced a prototype of its automatic chronograph, the “El Primero” in January 1969. The first “El Primero” chronographs were only sold to customers in the fall of 1969 onward;
3. The Heuer, Breitling and Buren-Hamilton consortium introduced their new “Chrono-Matic” watches at press conferences held on March 3, 1969, simultaneously at 5:00 in the evening in Geneva and 11:00 in the morning in New York City. In early April 1969, the three brands showed their watches at the Basel Watch Fair. Store receipts from July and August 1969 establish that customers were able to buy the new "Chrono-Matic" watches by the summer of 1969. 

The cover of the Official Bulletin of the 1969 Basel Watch Fair announced the launch of the world’s first self-winding chronographs (picture taken from https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/chronomatic-heuer-breitling-hamilton-50th-anniversary)

Honestly, it does not matter to me as all there teams have differing designs that produce the same output. The purpose of bringing this up is so that we understand the historical perspective of why Hamilton created the American Classic Chrono-Matic 50 Auto Chrono Limited Edition Reference H51616731. If you want to know more about the history of the race, this article by Hodinkee is very detailed: https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/chronomatic-heuer-breitling-hamilton-50th-anniversary.

Suffice to say that Project 99, the code name created by the  Heuer, Breitling and Buren-Hamilton (with the help of Dubois Depraz) consortium produced the Caliber 11 movement or commonly known as the “Chrono-Matic” movement. The movement uses Buren’s micro-rotor powered watch movement with a chronograph module developed by Dubois Depraz. This movement has the crown on the left side of the watch, with the pushers on the right side. The hour counter at nine o’clock, its minute counter at three o’clock, and a date window at six o’clock, with no running seconds counter.

The Caliber 11 movement uses 17 jewels and Incabloc shock-protection. The movement operates at a frequency of 19,800 BPH, with a power reserve of 42 hours.

The Hamilton Chrono-Matic GMT Count-Down 1972 (otherwise know as the Chronomatic E)

The new Hamilton American Classic Chrono-Matic 50 Reference H51616731 is a tribute to the famous Hamilton Chrono-Matic GMT Count-Down of 1972 (otherwise know as the Chrono-Matic E). The Chrono-Matic E is pilot-inspired with its relatively large 48 mm case diameter. It uses the Chrono-Matic Calibre 141 with additional GMT function and two crowns, used to adjust the time as well as rotate the internal time-zone bezel.

Hamilton Count-Down GMT Chrono-Matic of the 1970s - image taken from the internet

As a tribute watch instead of a re-issue timepiece, Hamilton's designers are not forced to incorporate all the original complications into the new Hamilton American Classic Chrono-Matic 50. In fact, Hamilton has eliminated the GMT complication of the original and added a tachymeter scale instead of the original 24-hour and city rings. The chronograph movement is more modern and the controls are different than then original. More about this later.

Other subtle changes such as the texts, the colours and markings on the dial are not that discerning. More importantly, Hamilton was able to capture and retain the nostalgic 1970s era vibes beautifully while incorporating all the modern features now available.

The Watch

The Hamilton American Classic Chrono-Matic 50 is made out of stainless steel. The casing is cushion-shaped with a fine brushed finish. Very vintage in design yet evergreen. Like the original inspiration, the Chrono-Matic E, the Chrono-Matic 50 has similar dimensions. It has a diameter of 48.5 mm and a lug-to-lug length of 51.5 mm. The zero-length integrated lugs help keep the length just a few millimetres longer than the width of the watch. The watch is thick though. Coupled with the boxed sapphire crystal, the watch reaches 16.1 mm in height. Although the dimension can put off quite a number of people, in reality, it is comfortable to wear and fit nicely on my 6.75 inch wrist. This is definitely due to the cushion shape and the integrated lug design. Paired with a sporty black perforated calfskin leather strap, the while package weighs in at approximately 120 gm.

The Dial

The retro-inspired dial is visually faithful to the original Chrono-Matic E albeit some subtle changes to incorporate modern elements. At first glance, one would not be wrong to conclude that the Chrono-Matic 50 has a busy dial. However, on closer inspection, in my opinion, the information available on the dial is properly placed and would not cause any confusion. In fact, the use of colours helps mitigate that risk considerably.

The dominant element on the dial would have to be the two sub-dial in a reverse-panda styling. However, the functionalities of the two counters is different from the original. From left to right, instead of a 30 minute chronograph counter and a 12 hour chronograph counter in the original, the new watch has a sub-second sub-dial and a 30 minute chronograph counter. Visually, when compared between the old and the new, the colour combination on the counters has flipped. Although the styling is the same for the 30 minute chronograph counter, some subtle changes were made on the other counter which is hardly noticeable. Instead of the Arabic numbers 1 to 12, it was changed to 05 to 60. The few other changes made were as follows:

1. The red GMT hand in the original Chronometer E has been taken away;
2. The 24 hour and city internal bezel rings in the original has been replaced with a fixed tachymeter and movable 60 minutes countdown timer;
3. Replacing the word “chrono-matic” with “chronograph” for the new timepiece;
4. All five of the pushers and crown have been re-positioned.  

The dial is painted black and has three levels. The highest level is at the peripheral of the dial and on it is the techymeter scale. This part of the dial is fixed in place. The scale is printed in white. The middle level is also thin and it rings around just below the highest level. This part of the dial can rotate and can be moved bidirectionally. On it is the countdown scale painted in red with Arabic numbers and line markers. Half of this section has a white background while the other half has a black background. The lowest part of the dial hosts the counters, texts, date aperture and the rest of the timing scales.

The edge of the bottom dial is the minute and sub-minute scale painted white with short and long line markers. No section of this scale was sacrificed due to any overlap of other complications. Inward to this scale is the primary hour markers. These are square polished metal pieces with Superluminova painted across the centre. These markers are applied on the dial to show depth on the dial. Unfortunately, the 3 o'clock, the 6 o'clock and the 9 o'clock hours markers were displaced by the overlapping sub-dials and date aperture. The hour marker for 12 o'clock is slightly different being rectangular instead for easy referencing.

There are three round openings on the dial. The two larger openings are for the sub-second dial and the 30 minute chronograph counter. The smaller opening is for the date complication.

The sub-dial on the left is the running seconds for the watch. It is painted white and has two levels. The upper level housed the Arabic numbers in black while the lower level housed black line markers. The sub-dial on the right is the 30 minute chronograph counter. Painted in white, it too has two levels. The upper level housed black line markers for every minute. Every alternate 5-minute interval, a red band is painted halfway through the line markers. On the lower level, Arabic numbers are printed in black. Both sub-dials use red colour hands.

The date aperture is a circular cutout with a bevelled and polished edge at 6 o'clock, The date wheel has a white background with red Arabic numbers.

There are six line of texts and logo on the dial. The first three are located on the upper quadrant while the rest are located on the lower quadrant.

The primary handset for this watch is very vintage in styling. Both the hours and minutes hands are covered with Superluminova paint. The chronograph seconds hand is painted red like the original.


    

Protecting the dial is a thick boxed sapphire crystal. Extending at least 1 mm beyond the edge of the casing, the AR protected sapphire crystal creates interesting visual spectacle especially when viewed at an angle.



On the right side of the casing there are a couple of red pushers and a crown. The pushers are painted metallic red while the crown has a metal finish and has the Hamilton logo and gear-tooth texture for grip. The pushers control the start, stop and reset functions for the chronograph mechanism. The crown controls the basic readjustment for the watch time and date functions. The crown has two positions: first position allows manual winding; second position adjust the time with the seconds hand stop mechanism engaged. To adjust the date, the black pusher button at 10 o’clock does the quick change. Do note that the system does not work when the time is between 8:30 pm and 11:00 pm (as stated in the manual).



On the left side of the casing is another pusher in black (the quick date changer) at 10 o’clock and a screw-down crown at 8 o’clock. The sterile screw-down crown controls the inner bezel that has the countdown scale. The internal bezel can rotate bidirectionally.



The solid case-back is a screw-down. The Hamilton name and logo is etched prominently in the centre. Note some key specifications about the watch like the water resistance of 10 bar (100 meters) or 145 PSI as well as the limited edition serial. In my case it is the 112 out of 1,972 examples available worldwide.

Note also that the pushers are plunger-style in design. Front the front it would appear that the plungers are just tubes coming straight out of the watch casing.

The Movement

Powering the Chrono-Matic 50 is a modern automatic movement by Hamilton, the Calibre H-31. Based on the Valjoux 7753 architecture, the H-31 has many improvements over the Valjoux including an extended power reserve of 60 hours. Operating at 28,800 BPH or 4 Hertz, this 27 jewel movement has the chronograph function, the date wheel, manual winding and seconds hand stop mechanism. Unfortunately it does not have the GMT function like the Chrono-Matic E.

The modern movement does require Hamilton's designers to rearrange the controls to be different than the original. Since the Chrono-Matic 50 is an interpretation of the Chrono-Matic E and not a re-issuance, I don't find this as a problem. The only regret is perhaps the loss of the GMT function. I always found the GMT complication to be useful especially when travelling.

I was able to conduct a time accuracy test using the Toolwatch app. Straight out of the box, I recorded an accuracy of +12.0 seconds per day. I could not find any official documentation on the stated (manufacturer's) accuracy rate of the H-31 movement. However, I suspect it should be in the +25 seconds per day to -15 seconds per day range. If this is true, the result I got can be deemed to be acceptable.


The Strap

In the case-back photo eatlier, you can clearly see the integrated lug design or commonly known as zero-length lugs. It is due to this design that the overall length of the watch only extends a further 3 mm beyond the width of the watch (51.5 mm versus 48.5 mm). This makes the watch deceptively wearable to those with normal size wrists. Most people will have the wrong impression when seeing the watch for the first time. The immediate assumption is that it can only be worn by people with big wrist. I only have a 6.75 inch wrist and it sits nicely on mine.



With a width of 22 mm, the watch casing is paired with a black calfskin leather in the ‘Rally Racing Style’ design with red underlay seen through many small holes punched from the top leather surface.



The strap uses a simple signed buckle with two leather strap guides. Straight out of the box, the leather was already supple and comfortable to wear. I don't have any urge of even thinking replacing the strap with something else.

The Lume Shot

Only the hour markers and main hands (hours and minutes) are painted with Superluminova. Due to some missing hour markers displaced by the counters and date aperture, the illumination of the dial in the dark is rather weak and sparse. As you can see in the photo on the right, you can just barely make out the general time to be around 11:15-ish.

The Chrono-Matic 50 is definitely not designed to be used in the dark. Not one of its complications can be discerned when there is no light apart from the general time.


The Wearing Experience

This watch is a blast to wear. Those that know about this watch finds it incredible that the dimensions highlighted in the specification sheet does not make it a watch for bodybuilders. The choice of the zero-length lugs makes it fit rather nicely on average sized wrists.

Vintage watch enthusiasts will love this watch. Hamilton was able to incorporate the essence of the 1970s with the bold helmet-shaped casing and the 'Rally Racing Style' leather strap perfectly when the brand chose the Chrono-Matic E to be the basis of the commemorative piece for the Caliber 11 automatic chronograph movement.

I understand the philosophical message that Hamilton wanted to deliver with this design. Back when the top-secret Project 99 was in full swing, the movement that was being designed was envisage to be a technological leap in mechanical watch design. It was supposed to be modular, easily produced using the latest CNC machining tools and much more robust by having shock absorbing and antimagnetic properties. What better way to show the strength of the movement by pairing it to a tool watch. Back then, chronographs were fragile watches and some level of tender-loving-care was expected if these watches need to be in working order.

The Chrono-Matic E was an in-your-face and in-the-muck kind of watch. Definitely not the style and type of previous chronographs.



It does have wrist present. The height and the box sapphire crystal are the key factors that make this watch stand out to be noticed. Nevertheless, it can be subtle and demure if required. Despite the tall watch casing, the cushion-style or helmet-shaped design helps it slip under shirt cuff easily without snagging.



Overall, the watch fulfilled all the basic requirements as a tribute watch.



Specifications

Product Range: American Classic
Case Material: Stainless steel
Glass: Box sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment
Water Resistance: 100 metres
Complications: Chronograph, tachymeter, internal countdown bezel
Dimensions: Width 48.5 mm; Height 16.1 mm; Length 51.5 mm; Lugs 22.0 mm
Weight: 120 gm
Dial: Black with silver subsidiary dials and applied indexes and hands with Super-LumiNova

Strap: Black calfskin leather
Buckle: Stainless steel pin buckle
Strap Reference: H600.516.100

Movement: H-31 automatic chronograph
Power Reserve: 60 hours
Jewels: 27
Frequency: 28,800 BPH (4 Hertz)
Functions: Hours, minutes, chronograph seconds, sub-seconds, 30 minute counter, date

MSRP: RM10,050; CHF2,495; USD2,545; GBP2,195
Launch Date: November 2019
Production: Limited edition of 1,972 examples
Warranty: International two (2) years
Purchase Date: 27 December 2019
Purchase Price: RM7,500
Model Number: 0112/1972
AD: Hang Thai Watch Company, Bangsar Village, Kuala Lumpur


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