Hi, I'm David Jacobson with a review of the
Hamilton Khaki Field Quartz.
This is a watch I've had for a little over
a year now, and that I think is a really solidly
built and reliable timepiece.
I'll start this review with a tour of the
watch and give you its basic specs, then I'll
tell you why I chose it, why I'm mostly very
happy with it, and what I would change about
it if I could.
Let's start by taking a close-up look.
The watch we're looking at here is the 38
mm version of the Hamilton Khaki Field with
a quartz movement, reference number H68411533.
This watch remains available today; although,
they have changed to a different quartz movement.
There is also a nearly-identical automatic
offering, which I'll talk about later.
The first thing you notice when you look at
this watch is the "field watch" styling.
It is made to look like the kind of watch
an infantry soldier would wear in the early-to-mid
twentieth century, and in fact Hamilton made
many such watches for the US Army back when
they, themselves, we an American company.
(They are now part of the Swiss Swatch Group).
You can see some clear similarities between
the Hamilton Khaki and this world-war-two-era
Hamilton, including the large, easy to read
numbers, the simple, brushed-metal bezel and
lugs, and the large textured crown.
The modern watch adds a few additional elements,
especially the date window at three-o'clock
and the 24-hour time running inside of the
large indices.
There are, of course, also modern touches.
The numbers, these pips around the outer track,
and the hands are painted with phosphorescent
material.
The crystal is sapphire and should be very
difficult to scratch (I've worn this watch
every day for a little over a year and, as
you can see, not a scratch yet except a few
on the stainless steel itself).
And, of course, the most modern touch of all
is the quartz movement, which on this watch
is an ETA 955.112 and, on the models available
today, is an ETA F06.111.
While I have the watch off, let's also take
a look at the back.
It's stainless steel and engraved with the
Hamilton logo and some information about the
piece: "Water resistant to 10 bar; stainless
steel; sapphire crystal; Swiss made; and a
serial number."
What led me to buy this particular watch?
Well, first, for me it has to be quartz.
I love the idea of a mechanical watch, and
that connection to traditional watchmaking,
but it's just not worth the loss in accuracy.
I paid $250 for this watch and find that it
tends to drift by about 5-10 seconds per month.
If I care about being accurate to the nearest
minute, I only need to reset a quartz watch
a couple of times a year; I'd have to reset
an entry-level automatic every couple of days.
I also knew I wanted a fairly small-diameter
watch, which 38 mm is by modern standards.
I have pretty thin wrists, and I think a bigger
40 or 42 mm watch just wouldn't look right.
I also knew I wanted a watch with a sapphire
crystal so I didn't have to worry about scratching
it and decent waterproofing so I didn't have
to worry about that either.
Of course, this watch is on a leather strap,
which I think looks great, but does preclude
taking it in the water.
Finally, because I wanted to wear it everyday,
I didn't want something that was really bulky.
I think this watch meets all of what I wanted
very nicely.
The movement is the seven-jewel ETA 955.112,
which is now the three-jewel ETA F06.111 in
the newer watches; I'm don't know enough to
know if that distinction is meaningful.
The movement has what's called an end-of-life
indicator: when the battery is getting low,
the second hand is supposed to start moving
in four-second jumps to tell you it is time
to change the battery.
I can't say if this actually happens, since
I haven't replaced that yet.
And, as I mentioned, the movement has that
standard quartz accuracy of about +/- 15 seconds
per month.
The stainless-steel and sapphire construction
seems very durable, at least so far, and I
continue to really like the design.
The face is very clear and easy to read, aside
from one issue I'll come back to in a minute.
You set the time and date in the usual way,
and that works well.
With the leather strap, you sacrifice water-proofing
but I think you get something that looks really
nice.
The included strap is of good quality, and
says "Hamilton" both on the underside and
on the clasp.
For my 6 3/4" diameter wrist I am using the
second-to-smallest hole in the strap; if your
wrist is much smaller than mine, you might
have issues there.
No watch is perfect, and there are, of course,
some features that would be convenient to
have that that Khaki Field doesn't.
The most obvious would be some mechanism for
timing: either a chronograph movement or a
rotating time bezel.
But, I'm not sure how you do this without
either crowding the clean face or bulking
up the overall watch.
There are, however, two straight-up flaws
with the design that I want to mention.
The problem is with these markings around
the outside of the face.
We have illuminated pips on the hours and
tick marks on each second, which, by the way,
the second hand does a good job of lining
up with (at least on this particular watch).
But then, between each second mark there are
four more little tick marks.
These serve no purpose, since a quartz movement
only ticks in one-second increments; they
just make it hard to read the time down to
the minute and second at a glance.
My guess is that these small tick marks are
there because this watch shares nearly the
same face with the 38 mm Khaki Field having
an automatic movement, where the smoothly
sweeping second hand would pass over those
little marks.
That being said, I think they would still
just make the watch harder to read even in
that case.
While I have this picture up, I'll point out
that, for those who prefer mechanical watches,
there is the Hamilton H70455533, which is
also a 38 mm Khaki Field but which does have
the self-winding mechanical movement.
There are a couple of other differences between
the quartz and automatic watches as well:
note the red tip on the end of the seconds
hand for the automatic, and the polished bezel,
rather than the brushed finish for the quartz.
The second issue is with the glow-in-the-dark
paint: it just isn't very good.
After exposing the watch to bright light,
the numerals and the pips around the dial
only remain visible for a few minutes.
The hour and minute hands remain visible longer--perhaps
a couple hours in total darkness--but certainly
not all through the night.
But, that being said, I think this is a great
everyday quartz watch.
It looks great, and, at least so far, it holds
up too.
You can pay less, but I don't think you're
going to get something that is so well made.
And, frankly, I'm not sure what more you are
going to get unless you pay a whole lot more.
The Hamilton Khaki Field Quartz H6411533:
highly recommended.
