Photo Report: Hamilton Tailors Time With Janie Bryant Capsule & Behind The Camera Awards

For the past 15 years, Hamilton has held an annual awards ceremony dubbed the Behind The Camera Awards, to honor the talented individuals that are responsible for the work that goes on behind the scenes when it comes to bringing a movie to life. This past weekend, I had the pleasure to be invited to the BTC Awards to experience the likes of Mahershala Ali presenting the Screenwriter Award to Benjamin Cleary for his work in Swan Song, Javier Bardem presenting the Visionary Award to Denis Villenueve for his recent incredible film, Dune, and Kristen Stewart presenting the Director Award to Pablo Larrain for his work in Spencer. 

It’s clear that Hamilton has a strong ongoing relationship with Hollywood, from their annual Hamilton BTC Awards, to their watches playing significant roles in major motion pictures (and collaborations off-camera). It’s only fitting that Hamilton has announced in the same weekend, their recent collaboration with Emmy award winning costume designer Janie Bryant, launching the new ‘Tailoring Time’ capsule.

Janie Bryant is known for her ability to transform actors into the characters we have grown attached to in hit shows like Mad Men and Deadwood. Now with the help of Hamilton, Janie Bryant has shifted her creative vision from costume design to watches. The ‘Tailoring Time’ capsule is separated into two different sub-collections, labeled ‘Today’ and ‘Tomorrow’, each containing three watches from the Hamilton American Classic collection with their own unique design theme and inspiration.

Staying in the present, we start with the ‘Today’ collection which includes a trio of watches; the Intra-matic Auto Chrono, Hamilton Ardmore Quartz and the Lady Hamilton Quartz. Each watch follows the ‘Today’ inspiration of warmer tones and subtle aesthetics. The Intra-matic Auto Chrono comes in a 40 mm wide PVD coated pastel gold case and a champagne colored dial that appears more like an off white in the sunlight. The breguet hour hand and the dauphine minute hand are polished and finished in the same color as the dial, completing the refined look. Although I did mention refined, this Intra-matic Auto Chrono doesn’t lose out on anything that makes this a reliable everyday watch. It still has the sizable pushers at two and four to activate the chronograph, the H-31 Calibre movement (Valjoux 7753 Base) and is rated to 100 meters of water resistance. The ‘Today’ Intra-matic Auto Chrono will come on a stitched 20 mm pastel rose leather strap, but if it were up to me, I’d switch out the rose colored strap for a black strap, to make the warm dial pop a bit more and to fit my style.

The second watch pulled from the Hamilton American Classic line, and part of the ‘Today’ collection is the Hamilton Ardmore Quartz. The ‘Today’ Hamilton Ardmore is built in a curvy rectangular silhouette that measures 18.7 mm wide and 27 mm lug to lug. The polished gold coated case matches the finishing on the breguet hour hand and dauphine minute hand, as well as the cardinal hour markers represented by roman numerals. The white opaline dial is also a nice touch and pairs well with the gold finishing. At the center of the ‘Today’ Hamilton Ardmore, and up to the task of keeping accurate time, is the ETA 980.163 Quartz movement.

Rounding out the trio of the ‘Today’ collection is the Lady Hamilton Quartz. The ‘Today’ Lady Hamilton takes design cues from the 1950’s with its contemporary form, jewelry-styled bracelet and svelte 15 mm by 19 mm case finished in a warm plum tone. The hour and minute hands, like the previous two watches in the collection, are finished in the same color as the case, and use the same aesthetic. Looking closely, you can notice the detailed engravings throughout the case head and completing the look, is the black sunray brushed dial with diamond cardinal hour markers.

If the ‘Today’ collection from the Janie Bryant capsule embodied lighter and subtler tones, then the ‘Tomorrow’ collection is the antithesis to that, with bolder and brighter colors. The lineup of watches in the ‘Tomorrow’ collection remains consistent with its ‘Today’ counterpart. The ‘Tomorrow’  Intra-matic Auto Chrono comes in a black dial with light gold sub-registers placed at three and nine, dauphine hands and is encased in a polished PVD yellow gold coating. Like the case dimensions, the dial layout remains the same; white tipped applied hour markers akin to the case color and a color matched date window at six. This was the specific watch that I gravitated towards out of the bunch and strapped on to my wrist.

The ‘Tomorrow’ Intra-matic Auto Chrono wears long on my 6.4’’ wrist and that’s attributed to the pointy lugs that all together measure 49.2 mm lug to lug. The metallic gold leather strap compliments the polished gold case and the “bolder & brighter” theme of the ‘Tomorrow’ collection. Like the ‘Today’ Intra-matic Auto Chrono, I would swap out this strap for a darker toned leather strap with some texture and thickness, to better transition from the broad case.

The ‘Tomorrow’ Hamilton Ardmore Quartz comes in a silver colored case and art-deco designed silhouette. The dial is silver as well, with a shiny sunburst finish and contrasted well by the gold dauphine hands and an all-gold textured sub-seconds dial at six. The narrow gold hour markers use the rectangular case shape to add some dynamism to the dial, with slim longer markers reaching towards the center at one, five, seven and eleven, medium length markers at two, four, eight and ten, and bolder, gold markers at the cardinal hours. With its shapely case, the ‘Tomorrow’ Hamilton Ardmore wears exactly how you would think it would wear, balanced and flushed against the wrist, when buckled in by the 14 mm metallic silver leather strap.

The final watch of the ‘Tomorrow’ collection and the entire Janie Bryant capsule is the ‘Tomorrow’ Lady Hamilton Quartz, taking on an all black form on the case and bracelet. The distinct dial uses a silver sunburst dial as the background for the applied circular gold markers and hands. The ticking heart of the ‘Tomorrow’ Lady Hamilton is the ETA 280.002 Quartz movement equipped with 5 jewels and an estimated 57 month battery life.

During the launch event for the Hamilton Tailoring Time capsule, Janie Bryant shed light on her own watch journey, as she shared a memory of her very first vintage watch given to her by her grandmother and how vivid that moment still is. Janie Bryant’s inspiration from the 50’s and 60’s tastefully combines with her vision for the future, in the new Hamilton Tailoring Time Janie Bryant capsule. All models are currently available and priced here; Intra-matic Auto Chrono CHF 2,295, ‘Today’ Hamilton Ardmore Quartz CHF 595, ‘Tomorrow’ Hamilton Ardmore Quartz CHF 495 and Lady Hamilton Quartz CHF 625. Hamilton.