Custom Hamilton watch featured in Christopher Nolan’s new Sci Fi action spectacle Tenet, coming soon to theaters

Hamilton designers and engineers, in collaboration with the design team from Christopher Nolan’s new film, TENET, produced a custom-made watch with unique features that only Hamilton was trusted to bring to life. 

A favorite of filmmakers for decades, Hamilton timepieces have played an integral role in films and inspired audiences. “The Murph” created for Christopher Nolan’s hit Interstellar became a fan favorite, and a clock we designed for Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey influenced the invention of the world’s first digital watch. 

The latest Hollywood partnership – and biggest one yet – involved extensive collaboration between the design team and the production design team behind Christopher Nolan’s latest film TENET, coming soon to theaters. Initial conversations revealed that the film required a watch with features that do not currently exist in a commercially available Hamilton watch. Accepting the challenge, Hamilton committed to merging creativity with craftsmanship to produce this key movie prop. 

The 18-month preparation included technical development, testing and production at the Swatch Group’s lab in Switzerland where our engineers found a way to combine the needed technology with the display on the dial of our Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO. To meet filming needs, Hamilton produced dozens of the final prop watch and Hamilton watchmakers were on the movie set to offer support with the watch’s unique functions. 

BeLOWZERO SPECIAL EDITION

For Hamilton, the creative process didn’t stop there. The Khaki Navy BeLOWZERO served as the base for the wristwatch featured in TENET, but since the watch was only made for the film, it was decided to celebrate the collaboration with an inspired-by special edition. 

Cased in lightweight titanium, this special edition features a blue or red-tipped second hand as a reference to key colors in the movie. Each color version will be limited to 888 pieces, the number chosen as a nod to the movie title, which is also a palindrome, something that reads the same backwards and forwards.

Special packaging created by TENET production designer Nathan Crowley features colors inspired by design elements in the film. 

“I’m always impressed by Hamilton’s dedication to excellence and their willingness to think outside the box to create timepieces that do so much more than tell time,” says Nathan Crowley. 

“This project was one of the most challenging and exciting collaborations I’ve been a part of,” says Hamilton CEO Sylvain Dolla. “It was truly a partnership of creativity that transformed ideas into a reality we’ll get to see on movie screens around the world.”  

ABOUT TENET

John David Washington is the new Protagonist in Christopher Nolan’s original sci-fi action spectacle TENET. Armed with only one word—Tenet—and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.  Not time travel.  Inversion. 

The international cast also includes Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Clémence Poésy, with Michael Caine and Kenneth Branagh.

Christopher Nolan directed TENET from his own screenplay. The film is produced by Emma Thomas and Nolan, with Thomas Hayslip serving as executive producer. The behind-the-scenes creative team included director of photography Hoyte van Hoytema, production designer Nathan Crowley, editor Jennifer Lame, costume designer Jeffrey Kurland, visual effects supervisor Andrew Jackson, and special effects supervisor Scott Fisher. The score is composed by Ludwig Göransson.