Introduced in 2013, this Hamilton Khaki Pilot Pioneer Auto Chrono is based off one from the 1970s Hamilton designed for the Royal Air Force. 

Diameter: 41mm

Lug-to-lug: 47mm

Thickness: 16mm

Lug width is: 22mm

The watch has 100 meters of water resistance.

Looking at the face of the watch, which is protected by a domed sapphire crystal, one can see it isn’t actually symmetrical. The right side bulges out more to accommodate the crown and chronograph pushers. It’s definitely noticeable but I don’t think it looks odd and has been integrated into the design quite well.

This is the silver dial variant which I think has something of a beige look to its sunburst style. The watch has losange style hands and features two subdials. The left subdial is the small seconds of the watch, showing Arabic numerals at the 20, 40, and 60 second positions. The right subdial is for the minutes of the chronograph, showing Arabic numerals at the 10, 20, and 30 minute positions. This chronograph only goes to 30 minutes and, while historically accurate to the design, limits the watch’s tool functionality to short-duration events.

There is a date window at the 4:30 position that will alienate some people. While I’m fine with the date window and think it is well sized and relatively well placed, the fact that the dial is stark white I do think creates a somewhat cheap look that does not integrate particularly well with the rest of the dial.

Arabic numerals run around the watch diameter in all positions not obscured by the subdials, with the 12 and 6 enlarged and filled with lume. All hour positions feature a lume pip, and there is lume on the hour hand, minute hand, and chrono- second hand. There is no lume on the subdials. 

The steel case of the watch is sandblasted creating a soft look, though in a nice touch Hamilton’s H symbol is polished on the crown. Interestingly, though this watch has 100 meters of water resistance, it does not have a screw-down crown and I think that will concern a lot of people about actually swimming with it. At the 10 o’clock position on the case edge is a button to quick-change the date. When the crown is fully into the case the watch can be wound.

When pulled out the crown allows you to set the time. The top chronograph button starts and pauses the chronograph feature and the bottom chronograph button resets the chronograph when it is stopped.

The watch does have a display caseback which provides a view of the minimally decorated Hamilton caliber H-31. This movement is a modified Valjoux 7753. It’s a 27-jewel, 4 Hertz movement with several modifications from the original Valjoux base, most notably a 60-hour power reserve which is a significant gain on the 7753’s 42-hour reserve. Just like the Valjoux, this features a uni-directional rotor and you will know you are wearing it. As the H-31 only automatically winds in one direction the rotor freely spins in the other. It can, and will, spin fast, and is both relatively noisy and has an extremely noticeable wobble when on the wrist. That said, my movement has been quite accurate. Using the Watch Accuracy Meter app I measured the watch in five different positions with my cell phone, getting an average loss of 2.4 seconds per day with a positional range of -5 seconds per day to +2 seconds per day.

This version of the watch came on an olive NATO strap. I really like this strap, it’s quite comfortable and I like the added touch of a leather strip to reinforce the pin holes. It does add some thickness to an already thick watch. But with a lug width of 22 mm you can easily find alternatives to wear. That said, given the size and style of the watch I think it is really only suitable for casual situations.

My overall thoughts:

The positives:

• It’s quite accurate

• Great lume

• Well thought-out dial

• Comfy strap

• Quite wearable diameter and lug-to-lug size

The negatives:

• Ugly date window

• Annoying Valjoux-style rotor wobble

• The 16 mm height makes it annoying with many cuffs

• Chronograph only goes to 30 minutes

Overall, this is a good chronograph to consider if you are looking for an automatic at the lower end of the price spectrum and either only want the look or don’t need to time things past 30 minutes. I would recommend trying it on to see if you can tolerate the H-31/Valjoux 7753 rotor wobble. Some people actually enjoy it but I find it extremely distracting and thought the watch was broken at first as this was the first mechanical watch I ever owned where I could even feel the rotor on my wrist.