Hamilton released new styles of its iconic 1971 design Pan Europ Chrograph in 2012. This attractive watches come with two color ways, black dial with white sub dials and tachymeter or silver dial with black track sub dials and tachymeter. The version I have is the one with silver sunburst dial.
Technical Specifications:
- Movement: Hamilton Calibre H-31, 60 hours power reserve.
- Case Size: 45 mm
- Case Thickness: 15 mm
- Crystal: Sapphire
- Crown & Caseback: Screwdown crown and casback (display)
- Unidirectional rotating bezel
- Water Resistance: 100 meters / 330 feet
- Lug Width: 22mm
- Lumed hour/minute hands and hour markers
- Leather Strap
Watch comes with a high quality croc pattern embossed leather strap. It has white stitches and is aggressively padded in the center to match the case thickness. It also has nicely finished matching signed buckle.
Well, while the stock one is a beautiful and shiny strap I do not think it fits the racing soul of the watch. So I would recommend a proper rally strap. It really unleashes the already handsome watch in terms of looks department. Observe below. Because of the case shape, lug holes are too close the watch body, so you need curved spring bars to install straps on it. It already comes with curved bars but it wouldn’t hurt to get an extra pair since it is a little hard to remove springbars from the original strap.
After you sort out the strap issue, you will definitely fell in love with this watch. Although its size is enormous on paper, it wears (see other reviews for my wrist shots with skx007) very nicely on my wrist and similar to popular Seiko Turtle reissue watches. It also fits under the cuffs and it is a real looker. It puts a smile on your face when you look at it 🙂
Gray version has a beautiful sunburst dial. I think this version looks more attractive than the black one. Dial, subdials, printings and tachymeter are very well finished and nicely proportioned. There is nothing distracting on watch face. One downside on dial is the lumed&applied hour markers. They are not very straight and not equally placed in the tachymeter grooves. That is a shame for an otherwise excellent watch.
Case is beautifully finished with a mix of brushed and polished surfaces. Top surface has matching sunburst like brush direction as the dial. Sides are horizontally brushed. Polished bezel and polished corners create a nice contrast. As you can see Pan Europ is very diver enthusiast friendly and features unidirectional rotating bezel. Alignment is not very good but close enough. I understand alignment issue is Seiko’s thing but at this price point I wouldn’t expect it from Hamilton.
Another diver enthusiast friendly feature is the screw down crown. It is easy and smooth to screw in and out. Crown features a H logo and polished like the chrono pushers. Logo on the crown does not line up while many micros can do that. Pushers work very well and has this beautiful feeling like you are playing with an expensive chronograph movement.
Date setting is done by a recessed pusher on the other side of the case. Hamilton includes a fancy H logo wooden tool for date changing. Toothpicks can have another function now 🙂
Pan Europ has caseback with screws. Despite most chronos with similar caseback has 50m rating, Hammy has 100m water resistance. Display caseback shows off the beautifully decorated H-31 movement. This is a modified ETA Vajoux 7750. It offers 60h power reserve versus the stock 40h while having lover beat rate. In my opinion beat rate difference is not very noticeable on the small sub dial so the longer power reserve is very logical and handy. Also it is budget friendly since (in theory) you do not have to get it serviced as frequently.
Where to get this watch? I do not think Hamilton sells it anymore (I could’t find on their website while writing this). You can find a used one for a reasonable price or you can check the some popular online retailers. Despite its small drawbacks It definitely worth the price.
