# Hamilton Interstellar Murph Watch Mod



## Derek N

I just completed my Interstellar "Murph" watch mod this afternoon. This mod took 2 separate watches to build. The first watch was used to scavenge the dial and handset. That watch was the Hamilton Khaki Pioneer Mechanical. And the second watch that I used was a Hamilton Khaki automatic 42mm. The parts that were used was everything except for the dial/handset.

I thought that with both watches being 42mm in case size that it would be a simple dial swap, but it wasn't so simple. The Pioneer dial was bigger than would fit into the Khaki automatic case. Therefore, the dial had to be shaved down to fit the case. After much trial and error fitment issues, it finally went together.

For those of you that are interested in this modification, I got my inspiration from this website:

The Hamilton Watches From The Movie Interstellar | aBlogtoWatch

I used the information and photos from that website to plan my project, and got most of the component pieces exactly the same, except that the dial on mine's says mechanical antimagnetic. Other than that little difference, it is exactly alike. I am happy with the results, and in person; this watch is a stunner!











You can view the rest of my pictures here: Hamilton Interstellar Murph Watch Mod by Derek Nishimura | Photobucket


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## cxsandoval

Looks great! Well done! Build me one  name your $  

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## DaveChE

Very impressive. The pioneer dial is one of my favorites. Great job enjoy 


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## Myron

Very cool! Beautifully built and inspired. I love Interstellar. 

Congratulations and enjoy this unique timepiece. (Have you got a prodigy daughter to hand it down to? ;-)

Kind regards,

Myron


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## Unsolved_Mistry

Great film and great watch, the soundtrack is awesome too 




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## HerrNano

I shaved a dial down once and it made me want to cry. Well done on this mod. That Murph watch has been on my mind for a long time but I had given up on using an actual Hamilton in favor of a Geckota K1 L07 with replacement hands. (Still may do it...) Anyway, wear in good health and stay away from black holes.


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## watch-newbie

Very good.


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## CrazyCat

Nice job! 

So what did you do with the remaining parts?

I think it was difficult to get the dial and hands, so that's why you got a whole mechanical. 
If you could just get the parts, you could get the mechanical back...


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## walliser

Great job!!
If you ever consider to sell it. Just send me some gravity signals.. I'm in..


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## Leonine

Oh man.

Superb job on this. I've been curious on how many would attempt this. It's a looker.


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## J9293

Looks great man. Nice work!


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## Derek N

CrazyCat said:


> Nice job!
> 
> So what did you do with the remaining parts?
> 
> I think it was difficult to get the dial and hands, so that's why you got a whole mechanical.
> If you could just get the parts, you could get the mechanical back...


Well, right now I have a Khaki Pioneer Mechanical case, ETA2834-2 movement, a beige Khaki auto 42mm dial and handset. And the Khaki auto dial does not fit into the Pioneer case because it is too small.

I am planning to find a 35mm dial and modding it to fit the Pioneer case, using the 2834-2 movement. I would ideally like to find an vintage Hamilton pocket watch dial and modify it to fit; however most dials of that era have a sub seconds dial at 6:00 and would not work for me.

From what I could find so far, it looks like I might end up using an Panerai homage dial as they are just over 35mm. Finding modern Hamilton watch parts is not easy. : (

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## Derek N

walliser said:


> Great job!!
> If you ever consider to sell it. Just send me some gravity signals.. I'm in..


Sure thing! Just keep an eye out for books mysteriously falling from your bookshelf. And if one of your watches begins to send you a signal in morse code; I might be trying to contact you. : )

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## THE_BARCODE_GUY

Wow, bold!


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## paulskiogorki

Really cool. Can you describe your technique for shaving the dial down?


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## Justin8836

Looks great, enjoy


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## carducci

Looks great man. Nice work! 

Изпратено от моят GT-I9505


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## Derek N

paulskiogorki said:


> Really cool. Can you describe your technique for shaving the dial down?


I cut out a paper template just shy of the diameter that I needed to cut the dial down to. This template also acted as a protector for the face of the dial. Then I placed the movement holder on top of that and clamped it down with 2 small spring clamps.

The next part was the most harrowing; taking a Dremel with a small course sanding bit and slowly grinding away around the perimeter of the dial. When you realize that the dial is from a somewhat rare Hamilton that you paid $650.00 for, it makes you concentrate very hard.

The most time consuming part is fitting the dial to the movement and trial fitting into the case for fit. It took me at least 5 attempts to shave the dial down to where it could fit snugly into the case. Also, it took some time to evenly shave the dial down so that the minute track on the dial would line up evenly to the chapter ring.

I don't think I would attempt to do this again on such an expensive mod. But in the end, the results more than made up for the $ and effort put into it.

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## timmy100

Wow! That's very impressive, well done.


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## slique

Looks fantastic, great mod job!


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## Greg Bell

Impressive. Makes me regret selling my titanium.


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## vabhans

I can just hear him through this watch. MURPHHHH MURPHHHH Don't let me go!
Kudos on the build.


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## cnj8w

That looks just terrific! Really great! I still don't know why Hamilton doesn't just make a watch like this!


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## Derek N

cnj8w said:


> That looks just terrific! Really great! I still don't know why Hamilton doesn't just make a watch like this!


Yes, this! It would have saved me a lot of $$$ and effort. I notice Hamilton does not sell any current watches without the date on their dials. Having a large collection of watches in rotation, I prefer my watches not to have the date feature, as it takes too much time to set the date when I grab a watch to go in the morning. That's why when this Khaki Pioneer mechanical without date popped up, I grabbed it.


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## mikkolopez

Beautiful mod. Wish Hamilton offers this no date Murph watch.

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## Cliffio

very nice mod!


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## DoctorWolf

Absolutely beautiful. Well done. Come on Hamilton just do it already and take my money.


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## candy287

are you going to produce this for us WUS member :0. i love this watch since i saw the movie.


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## Derek N

candy287 said:


> are you going to produce this for us WUS member :0. i love this watch since i saw the movie.


Your best bet is to redirect someone's attention at Hamilton to this thread; so that they can see how popular this watch would be in their lineup. I just wore this watch today, and can't tell you the big smile it puts on my face every time I look down to see what time it is.


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## Derek N

Hi all, just adding the defunct images from the first post; you can thank Photobucket for that!


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## dator

Amazing ( and brave! ) build. Wish Hamilton would release this model


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## ConfusedOne

The perfect field watch...and also the watch Hamilton refuses to produce.


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## ChiefWahoo

Gorgeous watch. Now I have to watch the movie to find out what all the fuss is.


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## mastertime

I wonder if i can buy the dial and hands from hamilton from the pioneer without having to buy a whole watch !


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## JonS1967

Wow, Derek! Looks awesome! Fantastic job.


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## MikeyMo34

Happy New Year everyone! I just completed this mod yesterday using a different method to shave down the Pioneer dial. Please excuse cell phone quality and stock Khaki strap (black Hirsch Modena is on the way!). Thanks to Derek for taking the plunge first!


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## N8G

Interesting. I didn't know that it wasn't a "real" model and that the seconds hand effects was not computer created. Where'd your pics go though, OP!?


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## Derek N

MikeyMo34 said:


> Happy New Year everyone! I just completed this mod yesterday using a different method to shave down the Pioneer dial. Please excuse cell phone quality and stock Khaki strap (black Hirsch Modena is on the way!). Thanks to Derek for taking the plunge first!
> 
> View attachment 12769257


Congratulations on the Murph Mod; looks awesome! Nice to see others taking the plunge.


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## Derek N

N8G said:


> Interesting. I didn't know that it wasn't a "real" model and that the seconds hand effects was not computer created. Where'd your pics go though, OP!?


The original pics got terminated by Photobucket. I reloaded the original pics; see post #30 of this thread.


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## mplsabdullah

MikeyMo34 said:


> Happy New Year everyone! I just completed this mod yesterday using a different method to shave down the Pioneer dial. Please excuse cell phone quality and stock Khaki strap (black Hirsch Modena is on the way!). Thanks to Derek for taking the plunge first!


Which method did you use to shave the dial? Which Hamilton model case did you use? Did you just shave the dial and swap it and the hands into the new case? Thanks in advance


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## MikeyMo34

mplsabdullah said:


> Which method did you use to shave the dial? Which Hamilton model case did you use? Did you just shave the dial and swap it and the hands into the new case? Thanks in advance


H60419533

I practiced first on a couple dials I had laying around from prior Seiko projects. In the end what worked for me was the following, try this at your own risk:

1) Take a bamboo skewer (no joke, like the ones you use for kabobs), cut most of the length off with shears, using the pointy end with total length of about 3 inches
2) Load a blob of rodico onto the pointy end, expose the tip of the skewer
3) Load the dial through the pointy end of the skewer, push it down until it wedges onto the skewer (center dial hole is too big for it to slide all the way down the skewer)
4) Load another blob of rodico on top of the dial, use the two blobs of rodico to stabilize the dial on the skewer, I squeezed the two rodico blobs toward one another, sandwiching the dial between them
5) This is the crazy part, load the skewer onto a dremel, picture a dremel with a cut-off wheel loaded, but instead it's the watch dial
6) Steady hand, run the dremel at the lowest speed (mine was 5000 RPM), and VERY VERY CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY bring a cutting tool (I used a metal cutting burr like this: http://drillco-inc.com/ProductImages/7000A.jpg) to the spinning dial to shave off diameter
7) Shave very gently (pushing too hard will wobble the contraption and send your dial flying across the room, ask me how I know)
8) Stop often to re-sandwich the dial between the rodico
9) Test fit frequently
10) Shaved dial and cathedral hands are now a direct fit into the new case/movement.

This is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it did work for me, and ensured an even shave around the entire dial.


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## mplsabdullah

MikeyMo34 said:


> H60419533
> 
> I practiced first on a couple dials I had laying around from prior Seiko projects. In the end what worked for me was the following, try this at your own risk:
> 
> 1) Take a bamboo skewer (no joke, like the ones you use for kabobs), cut most of the length off with shears, using the pointy end with total length of about 3 inches
> 2) Load a blob of rodico onto the pointy end, expose the tip of the skewer
> 3) Load the dial through the pointy end of the skewer, push it down until it wedges onto the skewer (center dial hole is too big for it to slide all the way down the skewer)
> 4) Load another blob of rodico on top of the dial, use the two blobs of rodico to stabilize the dial on the skewer, I squeezed the two rodico blobs toward one another, sandwiching the dial between them
> 5) This is the crazy part, load the skewer onto a dremel, picture a dremel with a cut-off wheel loaded, but instead it's the watch dial
> 6) Steady hand, run the dremel at the lowest speed (mine was 5000 RPM), and VERY VERY CAREFULLY AND SLOWLY bring a cutting tool (I used a metal cutting burr like this: http://drillco-inc.com/ProductImages/7000A.jpg) to the spinning dial to shave off diameter
> 7) Shave very gently (pushing too hard will wobble the contraption and send your dial flying across the room, ask me how I know)
> 8) Stop often to re-sandwich the dial between the rodico
> 9) Test fit frequently
> 10) Shaved dial and cathedral hands are now a direct fit into the new case/movement.
> 
> This is definitely not for the faint of heart, but it did work for me, and ensured an even shave around the entire dial.


Thanks for the details. Which Hamilton model did you use for you case, movement, etc.

And great work btw.


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## MikeyMo34

mplsabdullah said:


> Thanks for the details. Which Hamilton model did you use for you case, movement, etc.
> 
> And great work btw.


Thank you!

H7055533


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## Unsolved_Mistry

I think I would faint doing that, knowing my clumsy self I'd be left with a pile of dust and no dial

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## MikeyMo34

Unsolved_Mistry said:


> I think I would faint doing that, knowing my clumsy self I'd be left with a pile of dust and no dial
> 
> Sent from my LG-H990 using Tapatalk


It was definitely a bit of a "HOLD MY BEER" situation, few butt-clenchers sprinkled throughout. I believe I've found my limit to what I'm willing to tinker with after this project!


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## Unsolved_Mistry

MikeyMo34 said:


> It was definitely a bit of a "HOLD MY BEER" situation, few butt-clenchers sprinkled throughout. I believe I've found my limit to what I'm willing to tinker with after this project!


I'm still finding it hard to remove and replace hands, practising on some Seiko 5s before handling my Seiko divers

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## oso2276

I was inspired by this thread. To test if I was able to do the trim of the dial I decided to assemble a Chimera with bits and bytes I had laying around.
Took a generic case and a dial that was 1 or 2 mm wider. Then the trimming began. A circle was drawn in the back side and with a dremel, and lots of patience, material was removed bit by bit. Took a while, not the best finish but it is centered and it fit well. 
I will start looking for preloved donors.
This is how my test looks









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## oso2276

Just got the first source of parts. I have to say that I like it a lot as is...








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## DNARNA

oso,

This is true. I put mine on a black pilot strap with rivets(x-wind band, but any riveted strap would do) and it looks very sharp. However, I can see the dial popping more when installed inside a polished/bushed case.

Beautiful watch that keeps popping up from time to time as NOS.


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## mplsabdullah

oso2276 said:


> Just got the first source of parts. I have to say that I like it a lot as is...
> 
> Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk


I really wanted to get the mod done as well however I also really like the watch as is.


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## katfromTN

oso2276 said:


> Just got the first source of parts. I have to say that I like it a lot as is...[iurl="https://www.watchuseek.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=12938335&stc=1&d=1519916701"]
> 
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> Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk


I like the watch as is too and would be more than happy with it, if it were just a tad smaller.


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## heymatthew

You’re more brave than I am. Fantastic mod!!


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## oso2276

Found a Hamilton case without a movement. I think I'll wait a few day before scavenging the dial and hands









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## MikeyMo34

oso2276 said:


> Found a Hamilton case without a movement. I think I'll wait a few day before scavenging the dial and hands
> 
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> Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk


I do slightly regret doing the mod, as the Pioneer kept original is beautiful. I wore both watches without tampering for a long time before I worked up the courage to mess with them. Do you have an ETA 2824 yet?

Good luck with your mod!


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## oso2276

MikeyMo34 said:


> I do slightly regret doing the mod, as the Pioneer kept original is beautiful. I wore both watches without tampering for a long time before I worked up the courage to mess with them. Do you have an ETA 2824 yet?
> 
> Good luck with your mod!


I have an older 2824 in good condition. The problem, it is gold plated. So now I'm looking for a Hamilton oscillating weight so it will not be too odd

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## oso2276

Just finished ✌
Used the dial, hands, and movement. So I ended with a manual wind Murph mod. Will take and share better pictures tomorrow 









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## oso2276

Here it is. Happy with the results ✌

























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## iuam

looks good!


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## oso2276

I think a friend of mine still has an older 2801,that has its main bridge engraved with "Hamilton". Perhaps he will agree to swap his movement for this one...


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## wwarren

That's the second best Murph Watch I've ever seen...

Great job! Love it!


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## MikeyMo34

oso2276 said:


> Here it is. Happy with the results ✌
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> Enviado desde mi iPhone utilizando Tapatalk


Congratulations!

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## dator

Grrrrr .... photobucket. Can't see the pictures anymore


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## oso2276

oso2276 said:


>


OK, found a candidate Hamilton bridge, for the hand wound movement in my Murph.
Need to see it in person before doing the swap 









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## xraytech

Here's my Murph Mod with an ETA 2824


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## xraytech

Here's my Murph Mod with an ETA 2824


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## oso2276

Nice 


xraytech said:


> Here's my Murph Mod with an ETA 2824


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## xraytech

And the final touch on my Interstellar Murph Mod.

Hamilton Signed Rotor


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## watchinho

Cool! I wonder why they haven't released that watch yet...

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## Sir-Guy

watchinho said:


> Cool! I wonder why they haven't released that watch yet...


This image from Hamilton floated around leading up to Baselworld 2018. Made some of us think it was coming.

Maybe it still is?


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## oso2276

Nice, I might convert mine to auto but I kind of like it as a manual wind watch.
I have to say that while I like the looks of mine, it doesn't get too much wrist time as I find the reflections annoying 









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## Greenbird007

Best mod ever! 
So weird that Hamilton wouldn’t see the heavy interest in the murph, and capitalize on it.


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## brightstar

double post.


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## brightstar

Greenbird007 said:


> Best mod ever!
> So weird that Hamilton wouldn't see the heavy interest in the murph, and capitalize on it.


They just have .Release date May 2019


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## yankeexpress

oso2276 said:


> Just got the first source of parts. I have to say that I like it a lot as is...
> View attachment 12938335


Have thought about this mod long and hard as I have done a few mods before, though never a dial shave.

Decided to keep my Pioneer stock. May get a real Murph but really am not pleased with the H-10 movement the Murph comes with. The Pioneer sweep looks so much smoother. Have gotten used to the bezel and actually like the sandblasted case a lot.


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## oso2276

Still with me









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## oso2276

Today I order the real stuff, I'll compare both, at the time the Murph arrive

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## oso2276

And a real Murph 









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