The New Hamilton Murph 38mm With "Stardust" Blue Dial (Hands-On)

Since its introduction in 2019, five years after its predecessor caught the attention of eagle-eyed watch enthusiasts on the big screen, the Hamilton Khaki Field Murph has gone from one-off movie tribute piece to a bonafide collection-within-a-collection, an everyday alternative to the more military-inspired stylings of the larger Khaki family. The 42mm original ushered in the more unisex 38mm models that followed in 2022; bracelets have joined the original’s brown leather strap as an option, and the array of dial colorways has expanded. Today, Hamilton has unveiled a pair of new 38mm Khaki Field Murph models whose deep blue dials have a uniquely cosmic inspiration.

By now, most of us are familiar with the Murph watch’s origin story. The very first one was a prototype, a cobbled-together prop worn by actress Jessica Chastain in the 2014 Christopher Nolan sci-fi film Interstellar. The watch, which acquired the nickname “Murph” after Chastain’s character in the movie, played a key role in the on-screen narrative but didn’t actually exist in the brand’s lineup. Hamilton added it as a permanent part of the sprawling Khaki Field collection after its design — combining a traditional round steel case and simple, high-legibility dial with cathedral hands and applied Arabic numerals — proved enduringly popular.

The very first Murph dial had a subtle visual nod to the movie that spawned it: the Morse code for the word “Eureka” printed in lacquer on the seconds hand, a reference to Interstellar’s climatic scene in which Murph uses the Hamilton watch to, essentially, save the world by using it to send coded signals. Since then, however, none of the Murph releases have featured specific callbacks to the movie or its outer space setting — until now.

The dial of the newest Khaki Field Murph 38mm watch, offered on either a black leather strap with a steel pin buckle or a three-link steel bracelet with a folding clasp, is luminous blue at its center with a gradient effect that fades to black at the outer edges. Hamilton describes the eye-catching colorway as “inspired by the journey of an interstellar comet” and evocative of “the depth and vastness of space.” Adding even more thematic appeal, and visual depth, is the dial’s distinct grained “stardust” texture, which creates subtle variations of light across its surface. The cathedral hands have a nickeled finish and are coated in Super-LumiNova.

The 38mm stainless steel case sits easily on the wrist at 11.1mm high. Ticking inside, behind a clear sapphire window in the caseback, is Hamilton’s proprietary automatic Caliber H10, which is a descendant of the workhorse ETA Caliber C07.611, and thus a member in good standing of the Powermatic 80 family of self-winding movements, offering a power reserve of 80 hours, or more than three days. On the bracelet, the Hamilton Khaki Field Murph 38mm with blue dial retails for $995; on the black leather strap with white contrast stitching, the MSRP is $1,075. You can learn more at hamiltonwatch.com