Last week, Hamilton and HODINKEE hosted a meet-up here in New York City to celebrate one of the most significant appearances by a wristwatch in a major motion picture. The film in question is the 2014 blockbuster Interstellar, and the watch is the timepiece known as the Murph, named after the character played by (as a teenager) Mackenzie Foy and (as an adult) Jessica Chastain. In the film, Murph is the daughter of former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper, who embarks on a last-ditch expedition to survey a dozen planets which may offer a refuge to humanity from a dying Earth. Access to these planets, which are in a distant galaxy, is via a wormhole which has been placed in orbit around Saturn by mysterious and presumably alien intelligences. In the film, communication between the expedition and Earth seems impossible, until Cooper finds that gravity waves can be manipulated to send crucial information across space and time to his daughter, the second hand of whose Hamilton watch beats out his message to her in Morse code.*
The Murph wristwatch was originally made as a one-off prop for the film (the movement of the seconds hand was effected by use of a hidden servomotor) and was not at first intended for production, but this year Hamilton brought the Murph watch into production, featuring packaging based on the Tesseract location from the film, and with a very subtle Morse code pattern on the seconds hand. Present at the event was the actual prop watch from the film, along with a number of other current Hamilton models. Thanks to everyone who joined us there, and to our hosts, Hamilton CEO Sylvain Dolla, and HODINKEE Editor-in-Chief Jack Forster.
The Hamilton Interstellar "Murph" watch, with Tesseract-inspired packaging.
The original Hamilton watch from the film Interstellar, modified to allow controlled movement of the seconds hand.
Hamilton CEO Sylvain Dolla, left, and HODINKEE Editor-in-Chief Jack Forster