stew77
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| Joined: | Thu Mar 26th, 2009 |
| Location: | Colorado USA |
| Posts: | 10254 |
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Arriving earlier this week, the Hamilton Pan Europ, a cool tribute heritage piece to the original Hamilton Pan Europ from 1971. The Pan-Europ from 1971 featured a movement that was co-developed on a Buren base along with Tag Heuer (as seen in the Monaco and Autovia and referenced as the Caliber 11), and Breitling (as seen in Breitling's Chrono-Matic pieces). These vintage watches, with the date at 6 o'clock and a left-side winding crown, have a pretty strong following by vintage watch lovers.
I don't have very many chronograph pieces, but this limited edition chrono (1971 pieces total), from Hamilton is a real stunner! This re-issue is done with an interesting movement too, the Hamilton H31 caliber (base Valjoux 7753), which Hamilton has modified with a longer barrel for 60 hours of power reserve, reversed spiral for better accuracy and stability, and a beautiful modified balance bridge which I've only seen pictures and animations of, but has nicely decorated Hamilton "H" decorations on the bridge. Hamiton has stated that future Hamilton offerings will selectively use this H31 caliber as well as the recently introduced H21 caliber.
This is the first piece I've ever owned with a push button quick-set date (located at 10 on the case side of the Pan Europ).
You can check out an animation of the H31 caliber here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l9KzohZJdk]
First impressions are very good! 
- Very nicely finished case (love the 'sunburst' finishing on the top of the cushion case versus the typically seen radial brushing which is a highlight of this piece). And the case size hits the sweet spot for cases at 45mm, with short lugs that have it wearing slightly smaller than 45mm IMO.
- Love the beautifully done dial work with guilloche patterned subdials and raised, concave surrounds that rise nicely off the equally beautiful blue sunburst dial
- Very nice action in the solid 120 click bezel (which is a bit hard to grip if I'm being picky, but this is not exactly a diver...so I can live with that).
- An interesting note: the watch is fitted with a gorgeous, 'better than your typical Hamilton' big-hole croc strap on a really sweet, high quality Hamilton deployment strap (Really nice combo on the Pan Europ IMO). But, the 22mm strap is fitted with curved lug bars (which works great with this OEM strap and the very short cushion case lugs of the Pan Europ, but may make future non-OEM strap combinations an interesting exercise).
Really basic technical specifications:
Size - Swiss made 45 mm
Case - Stainless steel
Dial - Blue sunburst
Movement - Hamilton Caliber H31
Crystal - Sapphire
Water resistance 10 bar (100 m)
Here's the original 1971 Pan Europ compared to the 2011 tribute piece:
And a couple pics of my own...sorry, haven't had the time to do a full photo shoot, but pics are out there.
Last edited on Thu Dec 8th, 2011 11:36 pm by stew77
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I'm liking it!! Congrats and enjoy...
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