If you only buy one watch this year
By Dave Kowalski, Chicago ยท
This is the one I tell people to buy. Seriously, my buddies text me "what watch should I get" and about half the time this is the answer.
38 mm across, 9.5 mm thick. That's about an inch and a half wide and thinner than a lot of quartz watches. It disappears under a sleeve, it doesn't bang into things, and it looks right on basically everybody. Black dial, big numbers, military look straight out of Hamilton's own history making watches for the US Army.
Then the H-50. Hand-wound, 80 hours of reserve. You wind it Sunday night, it's still going Wednesday. Wind it every morning with your coffee and it's never a problem. Open caseback so you can see it. Sapphire up top.
Things I'd change. 50 m is OK, not great. I wouldn't swim in it on the fabric strap it comes on, and that strap gets nasty in summer anyway, so swap it. The lume is decent, not amazing. And if you hate winding, get the automatic, but you lose the thin case.
$525 to $595. I've seen guys spend three times this on something worse. If you're on the fence about getting into mechanical watches at all, this is where you start.
A couple more things, since people always ask follow-ups. Strap first. The 20 mm lugs mean anything fits, so go nuts: a leather strap for weddings, a cheap NATO for summer, a canvas one for the fall. Swapping straps on this watch is half the fun, and it costs you twenty bucks to make it look like a different watch.
Second, the "I'll forget to wind it" worry. Yeah, you might. But with 80 hours, forgetting a day doesn't kill it. Forgetting two days doesn't kill it. You'd have to really try. And if it stops, you give it twenty turns and you're back. That's the deal with hand-winding. It's a little ritual, not a chore.
Third, the Hamilton vs. the micro brands. You'll see guys online saying "get a Vaer or a Lorier instead." Those are good watches. But they cost more, and they don't have the thin hand-wound movement. For pure value, this one's still the champ in my book.