Hamilton Just Fixed Its Most Extreme Dive Watch

Let’s just say legibility is no longer an issue.

hamilton dive watch dial closeupHamilton

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Sometimes, a watch’s design can get in the way of its practicality. Watches can function as both useful tools and fashion statements, but those two identities can come into conflict with one another.

For example, take Hamilton’s most extreme dive watch, the Khaki Navy BelowZero. The watchย rose to fame thanks to its co-starring role in a pair of blockbuster films, 2015’sย The Martianย and 2020’sย Tenet, and onย paper, it appears to be one of the most capable professional dive watches on the market.

Its oversized and tank-like case is crafted from lightweight and strong titanium. It has a helium escape valve for professional saturation diving and boasts an absurd depth rating of 1,000 meters. And its Hamilton Calibre H-10 automatic movement has a robust power reserve of 80 hours and is fitted with an anti-magnetic Nivachron hairspring.

As I said, on paper, this is a hell of a dive watch. But in the metal, it’s a different story. Because of the BelowZero’s completely blacked-out aesthetic โ€” the case and bezel are PVD black titanium and the black dial features black hands and black-lumed indices โ€” visibility on the watch is decidedly poor.

black hamilton dive watch
The original Khaki Navy BelowZero is certainly a cool watch, but it’s not winning any legibility awards.
Hamilton

From a distance, there are almost no visible markings on the watch at all, and while no one can argue with the watch’s badass style โ€” it’s basically Hamilton’s affordable answer to Panerai โ€”ย it’s hardly practical as a dive watch. Hell, it’s barely practical as a watch at all given its legibility issues.

But those concerns are moot on Hamilton’s latest iteration of the Khaki Navy BelowZero, as the revamped model allows stylish dive watch fans everywhere to have their cake and eat it too.

A Hamilton BelowZero with legibility well above zero

For the new Khaki Navy BelowZero, which Hamilton quietly unveiled earlier this summer, the brand has done away with the model’s signature murdered-out look. (Don’t worry, you can still buy the original if that’s your thing.)

The case and bezel are still crafted from titanium, but the metal is in its natural gray state instead of PVD-coated. This allows for better showcasing of the watch’s various finishes, like the circular brushing on the bezel and the mirror polishing of the case’s hexagonal screws.

hamilton dive watch with yellow strap
A byproduct of Hamilton forgoing the black PVD coating this time is we get to see the surprisingly nice finishing on the titanium case.
Hamilton

The bezel has white lumed markers for the first 15 minutes, which glow far brighter than black lume. The sand-textured charcoal dial boasts large luminous white Arabic indices that are accented with bright yellow hour markers on the minute track, while the hands are filled with high-vis yellow Super-LumiNova grade X1 โ€” some of the brightest lume around.

Even the rubber strap is now a matching bright yellow, which isn’t really necessary for diving but meshes perfectly with the legibility-above-all nature of the new watch’s overall design.

a diver wears a hamilton dive watch underwater
With its new focus on legibility, the Khaki Navy BelowZero is suddenly a seriously compelling dive watch for actual divers.
Hamilton

Otherwise, this is the same beast of a dive watch with the same eye-popping specs: the massive crown guards, rugged and beefy 46mm x 15.7mm titanium case, helium escape valve, 1,000m depth rating and Calibre H-10 automatic movement are all intact.

The watch is just a whole lot more usable now.

hamilton dive watch with yellow strapHamilton

Hamilton Khaki Navy BelowZero Automatic Titanium

Specs

Case Size 46mm
Movement Hamilton Cal. H-10 automatic (ETA)
Water Resistance 1,000m
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