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Hamilton as a brand has had a long relationship with films, one that spans a number of decades. They even call themselves “The Movie Brand” and have their own awards, the Hamilton Behind the Camera Awards. There are some well known Hamilton appearances and recently Hamilton watches have been popping up in a number of new movies. Here’s a look back a few years working forward through some Hamilton watch appearances.
Force 10 from Navarone (1978)
Taking place during World War II, Force 10 from Navarone tells the story of a group of military experts who are assembled into a team for a mission to destroy an element vital to the enemy. The movie has some familiar names, such as Harrison Ford, Carl Weathers, Richard Kiel (Bond character Jaws) and Barbara Bach. One of the leads, Robert Shaw as Mallaory, wears a Hamilton Broadarrow in the film, which puts the watch a few years after the movie’s 1943 time period. At least they did get a military style watch to fit the theme.
After Hours (1985)
Director Martin Scorsese takes us on a wild ride as we follow Paul Hackett (played by Griffin Dune) through one surreal trip after another. Paul meets a a pretty woman in the neighborhood of SoHo and shortly thereafter he encounters a strange array of people including criminals, psychotics, punks and angry mob. Paul learns his strange adventures are all interconnected in unexpected ways, which he sees as his story unravels. Throughout the film he wears a military style Hamilton Khaki which has a good close-up in the movie.
Cliffhanger (1993)
In this early 90’s action movie, set up in the Rocky Mountains, mountain climber Gabe (Sylvester Stalone) is back on the mountain after the death of a friend in an attempt to reconcile with his fiancée. While there a group of thieves lead by Eric Qualen (John Lithgow) attempt to recover several suitcases of stolen cash that were dropped across the mountain from a crashed plane. Gabe must save his friends and foil the robbers before his time, and luck, run out. While searching for his loot, criminal mastermind Qualen checks his Hamilton quartz chronograph to see how they are doing against the clock.
Drop Zone (1994)
Drop Zone has been described as “Die Hard” meets “Passenger 57” meets “Cliffhanger” which is an accurate representation. In this action flick Wesley Snipes plays Federal Marshal Pete Nessip who’s brother dies at the hands of rogue DEA agent Ty Moncrief (Gary Busey) and his skydiving crew. Snipes’ character learns how to sky dive with the help of instructor Jessie Crossman, played by Yancy Butler, to take on Ty Moncrief and his gang. Moncrief wears a coin-edge bezeled Hamilton in the film on a khaki colored strap.
Bad Company (2002)
Chris Rock plays the part of Jake Hayes a street wise hustler who come to find out has a twin brother who is a Harvard-educated CIA agent, Michael Turner. Hayes discovers this after his Turner is killed in the line of duty and the CIA recruits him to take his place. Since he only has nine days to to so Officer Oakes (Anthony Hopkins) is sent out to train Hayes to prepare him for his mission. Meanwhile the terrorists Turner was targeting have found out about Hayes and kidnap his fiance. Now Hayes must race against the clock to rescue her and stop an imminent nuclear terrorist attack. The watch issued to Rock’s character is a black dialed Hamilton Khaki Chronograph. The CIA could have made a far worse choice for a field piece.
Big Fish (2003)
This fanciful tale, based on a book of the same name, tells the story of a man (Will Bloom, played by Billy Crudup) who is trying to learn more about his dying father, Edward Bloom. The two have not spoken in some time as Will feels his father is a liar that never cared for nor had time for his family. By vising him on his deathbed, Will relives his father’s tales and begins to understand his feats and failings. The young Edward Bloom, played by Ewan McGregor, wears a Hamilton Khaki during a wartime scene of the movie.
The Raid: Redemption (2011) and The Raid 2: Berandal (2014)
This pair of movies has a variety of Hamilton models between the two films. In The Raid: Redemption Lutinent Wahyu organizes an invasion of an apartment building in Jakarta, Indonesia. The building is home to a violent drug lord and his gang. The SWAT team under his direction breaches the building but is spotted by the drug lord’s lookouts. The team becomes trapped on the 7th floor and learns that Wahyu did not inform the department of his raid and the SWAT team is now on their own. Lt. Wahyu wears a Hamilton Lord Chronograph, and rookie cop Rama sports a Hamilton X-Mach chronograph.
The sequel, The Raid 2: Berandal, follows Rama as he protects his family from the same gang he confronted in the first film. Thinking that his life would return to a sense of normality, Rama instead finds himself having to infiltrate the criminal underworld in order to stop the criminal element that goes all the way to the top. This time Rama wears a Hamilton Pan Europ Chronograph. We also see a Hamilton Jazzmaster Viewmatic on one of the gang leaders, Uco. As someone Rama can turn to for help, Eka wears a Hamilton Khaki X-Patrol. Lastly on the wrist of Andi, Rama’s brother, is a Hamilton Khaki Field Pioneer.
These are obviously just a few Hamilton watch appearances from films. You can see several more on Watches in Moves and Hamilton has a list of appearances on their website.
