Cool Hunting

In 1966, Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke commissioned a variety of companies to imagine and design futuristic products for the year 2001—and to be featured in their film 2001: A Space Odyssey. They hired Hamilton, a U.S. watchmaker, and John Bergey, a Hamilton developer known for helping to invent the digital watch, created a digital clock and analog/digital wristwatch. (See the movie prop watch here). At the same time, it inspired Bergey's work inventing the Pulsar Time Computer LED digital watch in 1970. In 1968, the movie was released and Hamilton released an entirely different but beautiful watch to the public, the "Odyssee 2001," spelled differently for apparent copyright issues.

Forty years later, Hamilton is now issuing the X-01 a limited edition reinterpretation of the original movie watch for $1195. Only 2001 will be made, cast from Titanium, fitted with four quartz movements, sapphire crystal and three sideview registers for Home Time, Dream Time, and GMT. Unfortunately they are now analog, unlike the digital display from the original. But that is remedied by an old-school trick—the small registers are set using a magnet that's hidden in the clasp, a feature of the first Pulsar LEDs. An odyssey definitely worth taking.

by Watchismo