Hamilton Drops Limited Edition Chronograph to Celebrate Record-Breaking Tunnel Flight

Hamilton has dropped a watch to mark pilot and brand ambassador, Dario Costa’s world record-breaking “tunnel takeoff” flight.

After a year of preparation, Costa completed the daredevil flight in Çatalca near Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday taking off in one road tunnel in a specially modified Zivko Edge 540 race plane and flying through a second, less than one metre from the ground at 150mph.

The 46mm Khaki Aviation Takeoff Automatic Chronograph is a limited edition of 100 pieces, referencing Costa’s maximum possible flying height inside both tunnels of 100cm.

To reflect the 40-second duration of the Red Bull-backed flight and the low-light conditions in the tunnels, Hamilton only applied Super-LumiNova to the chronograph seconds hand and seconds indications from zero to 40.

The watch features a bi-directional rotating bezel, 15-minute countdown, small seconds, date window and is powered by Hamilton’s H-31 automatic chronograph movement

The flight broke a total of five world records: first airplane flight through a tunnel, first airplane flight through two tunnels, longest flight under a solid obstacle, first airplane takeoff from inside a tunnel and also set the record for the longest tunnel flight at 1,730m.

The Khaki Aviation Takeoff Automatic Chronograph is available now via Hamilton, presented in packaging that also allows for it to be used as a table clock, priced £2,645 GBP (approximately $3,660 USD).