If you’re looking for a watch that’s really unusual, you may want to consider the limited edition ODC X-03 from Hamilton. If I were making the obvious joke, I’d say it’s out of this world.
The ODC X-03 is a very unconventional watch, but it has ties that go back a long way in time, as well as going way out in space. The watch is a paean to the planet Jupiter, but it has historical links to the 1960s groundbreaking science-fiction film “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The ODC in the watch’s title is both a direct reference to the title, and a legal tactic; there was some copyright issue regarding the name when the ODC X-01 was first released.
The original ODC, the X-01, was the watch that Hamilton designed for use in the film. This was released for sale to the public in a limited release. Several years later, in 2006, they released a tribute piece that was the X-02. (Why they didn’t do that five years earlier in 2001, I can’t imagine, but perhaps they had a lot on their minds.) Both these watches retained a certain rocket-ship feel to them, a futuristic vision from a bygone era.
But the ODC X-3 is a modern timepiece, designed by Nathan Crowley, a film production designer who has worked extensively with Christopher Nolan, on such films as “The Dark Knight” and “Interstellar”. After working with Hamilton on “Interstellar” (the watch brand made the future-retro wristwatch that was used to transmit across time and space) Crowley was offered the chance to design something for them. And what he came up with was the ODC X-3.
The ODC X-3 is a futuristic-looking wristwatch, all right, and it has Jupiter square in its sights. The dial looks like it’s a porthole, and the planet looms large in the view. There are three time zones on display in the watch: Home, Local, and UTC, Coordinated Universal Time. The watch is powered by the ETA 2671 automatic movement and by two different ETA 901.001 quartz movements. On the case back are some useful facts about the planet Jupiter. One of the most interesting is that a day on Jupiter is only 9.9 hours long, because the gas giant planet spins so much faster than Earth does. This gives new meaning to the term “daily-wear watch,” since you really wouldn’t be wearing it all that long. However, because Jupiter is so much further away from the sun, and thus takes longer to revolve around it, a single year on Jupiter takes 4,333 Earth days. That is all kinds of sobering, so maybe it’s a good idea to get no closer to Jupiter than just seeing it through the porthole.
But whether you love the original “2001” film, or “Interstellar,” or just love Hamilton’s association with the cinema, there’s no denying the appeal of the ODC X-03. This watch will capture the explorer in you, and it might impress you with the awe and majesty of the solar system’s second-largest inhabitant. And who knows – maybe it’ll give you a little more joy in being firmly planted on the green hills of Earth.
