Collection: Hamilton Khaki Navy

The Hamilton Khaki Navy collection carries the brand's dive watch heritage forward, built for U.S. Navy divers and ocean explorers who need serious water resistance and dependable underwater timekeeping. That heritage runs deep: Hamilton supplied waterproof wristwatches to the Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs), the WWII-era predecessors of today's Navy SEALs, back in 1943, featuring a distinctive screw-down crown designed to keep water out during underwater mine-clearing missions.

Within Khaki Navy, the Frogman line most directly channels that history, named for the "frogmen" of those original Navy demolition teams and popularized further by the 1951 film "The Frogmen," one of the earliest movies to depict scuba diving on screen and the first to feature Hamilton watches prominently. Modern Frogman models keep the tribute alive with a canteen-style screw-down crown reminiscent of the original locking mechanism, paired with a highly legible dial and up to 300 meters of water resistance. Alongside the Frogman, the Khaki Navy Scuba models offer a sportier, ceramic-bezel dive watch with GMT and date functions, and the Khaki Navy Pioneer rounds out the collection with a more understated everyday dive watch aesthetic. Across the line, cases typically run 41mm to 43mm in stainless steel or bronze, with automatic movements offering up to 80 hours of power reserve.

King Jewelers carries a wide range of Hamilton Khaki Navy watches, including the Khaki Navy Scuba Auto, Khaki Navy Scuba Auto GMT, Khaki Navy Frogman, and Khaki Navy Pioneer, backed by Hamilton's 24-month international warranty covering manufacturing defects. Every Hamilton watch purchase includes free shipping, and our team can help you compare Khaki Navy models in person at our Green Hills showroom in Nashville or online at kingjewelers.com.

1943: A Watch Built for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships
The Hamilton Khaki Navy collection, and the Frogman line at its center, traces back to 1943, when Hamilton produced mil-spec waterproof watches for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Ships (BuSHIPS). These original watches were issued to the Naval Combat Demolition Units (NCDUs), the WWII-era predecessors of today's Navy SEALs, whose dangerous job of clearing mines and obstacles ahead of amphibious landings made a genuinely waterproof, dependable timepiece a matter of life and death. The watch's most distinctive feature, a canteen-style screw-down crown protector resembling the lid of a thermos, linked by a small soldered chain, was designed specifically to keep water out of the movement during underwater demolition work.

Hollywood's First Real Dive Watch Cameo
Hamilton's first mass-produced civilian version of the watch arrived in 1951, and it debuted on the big screen the same year in "The Frogmen," a 20th Century Fox film based on the real exploits of Navy underwater demolition teams during WWII. Made with cooperation from the Navy and Department of Defense, the film became a cultural sensation as one of the first movies to depict scuba diving, and the production's decision to outfit its divers with the historically accurate Hamilton watch cemented the "Frogman" name in the brand's catalog, a Hollywood tie-in tradition Hamilton continues today (Interstellar, Men in Black, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny).

Key Milestones

1943 — Original BuSHIPS dive watches issued to U.S. Navy NCDU combat divers

1951 — First civilian Frogman debuts, featured in the film "The Frogmen"

1980s — Hamilton's last military watch contracts conclude

2016 — Khaki Navy Frogman formally relaunches as a modern collection, with a 46mm titanium version (1,000m water resistance, helium escape valve) and a 42mm stainless steel version, both featuring a prominent canteen-inspired crown guard and scuba mask-embossed caseback

2022 — Frogman redesigned with a sleeker, more symmetrical "bridge-style" crown protection system, replacing the original canteen guard across the lineup

Ongoing — Khaki Navy Scuba and Khaki Navy Pioneer expand the collection with sportier diver and vintage marine-chronometer-inspired styling

What Defines Khaki Navy Today
Across the collection, Khaki Navy watches share a consistent dive-watch DNA: unidirectional rotating bezels, luminous hands and bold numerals for underwater legibility, screw-down crowns, and water resistance ranging from 100 meters up to 300 meters depending on the model. Most run on Hamilton's automatic H-10 caliber, based on the ETA 2824-2 but modified with a slower beat rate for an extended 80-hour power reserve, the same movement family used across Swatch Group's Powermatic 80 and Caliber 80 lines. The Khaki Navy Scuba adds ceramic bezels and GMT functionality for a more contemporary sport-diver look, while the Khaki Navy Pioneer draws its styling from Hamilton's 1940s marine chronometers for a more understated, everyday aesthetic.

At King Jewelers
King Jewelers carries a wide range of Hamilton Khaki Navy watches, including the Khaki Navy Scuba Auto, Khaki Navy Scuba Auto GMT, Khaki Navy Frogman, and Khaki Navy Pioneer, backed by Hamilton's 24-month international warranty. Every Hamilton watch purchase includes free shipping, and our team can help you compare Khaki Navy models in person at our Green Hills showroom in Nashville or online at kingjewelers.com.

The Hamilton Khaki Navy collection ranges from the rugged, canteen-crowned Frogman to the sportier ceramic-bezel Scuba and the vintage-inspired Pioneer, spanning 41mm to 46mm cases in steel and titanium. King Jewelers carries this full range of dive-ready Khaki Navy watches.

Khaki Navy Frogman — Canteen-inspired crown guard, scuba mask caseback, 300m water resistance, direct homage to 1943 U.S. Navy dive watches.

Khaki Navy Scuba Auto — 43mm, ceramic bezel, sportier modern diver aesthetic.

Khaki Navy Scuba Auto GMT — Adds GMT function and date to the Scuba's dive-watch base.

Khaki Navy Pioneer — Styling inspired by Hamilton's 1940s marine chronometers, a more understated, vintage-leaning look.