With its beginnings in Lancaster, Penn., near the turn of the 20th century, Hamilton is a watch brand that has always embraced aviation. Recently it teamed up with noted Italian aerobatic pilot Dario Costa and British filmmaker Jacob Sutton to document a real-world “torture test” of the iconic Khaki X-Wind Day Date timepiece in the surreal dunes of Namibia. For three days, Costa piloted a specially modified aerobatics plane over the Swakopmund dunes at low altitude while an international crew captured the dramatic, and potentially dangerous, action and images. “Depth perception over sand is so difficult. I used my experience of low-level flying over the snow-capped Alps, and prepared at home by visualizing the scene thousands of times, over and over in my head,” says Costa. The result is a breathtaking short film entitled Dreams of Flight. As expected, the 45mm steel-with-black-PVD Hamilton pilot’s watch performed beautifully, despite the sand, speed and sweeping air stunts $1,195, hamilton-watches.com; shop.hamiltonwatch.
