Hamilton PSR Review: Retro Done Right

There are tons of different watch styles out there: dress, tool, chronograph, and many, many others populate the market. But very few of these pieces invented a whole new watch genre, and the ones that have are usually very expensive due to their coveted origins; just look at the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms or the Submariner.

And while a large majority of digital watches are seen as affordable (and more condescendingly disposable), they're still a part of the larger watch world. Despite what a Watchuseek or Rolex Forums user will tell you, a Casio F-91w is just as horologically important as a Datejust or a Royal Oak, even if their executions are radically different.

What makes this criticism especially ironic is that when the first digital quartz watches came out, the successful businessmen and women of the world bought them, not Rolexes (who inhabited roughly the same market space as Oris back in the early 70s). While they were out of vogue within a decade, the first digital LED watches cemented themselves as one of the definitive technological advancements of the 70s, and it all began with the Hamilton Pulsar.

Founded in 1892, Hamilton was one of the powerhouses of American watchmaking. While they didn’t have the impressive market share of Timex, they still were a force to be reckoned with domestically and were responsible for several achievements, such as making railroad-approved pocket watches before the proliferation of wristwatches, producing mil-spec timepieces for the US and NATO-aligned countries, and introducing the world's first battery-powered watch, the Ventura. Naturally, their next achievement would be to further upset the Swiss after Seiko made them shit their collective pants by releasing the world's first commercially available quartz watch, the Astron.

Hamilton initially teased the Pulsar in mid-1970, and despite that Johnny Carson made fun of it eight years into his run on the Tonight Show, the Pulsar was even more technologically impressive than the original Astron. While both were battery-powered, the Pulsar was the first practical(ish) watch whose movement had no real moving parts, apart from the button.

The way you changed the time on an original Pulsar was by pressing a magnet (kept in the clasp) against the caseback, which would advance or decrease the time. Before that, all watches (even those weird analog digitals) had some sort of geartrain that made the watch, well, work. The only place a person would find LEDs would be on impossibly advanced electronics found in labs, stuff they'd see Kirk, Spock, and Bones interacting with every Friday night on CBS.

Because the Pulsar was the first of its kind, it wasn't exactly on the same level as a modern Casio. The first mass-market Pulsar, the 18k-gold P1, cost $2,100 upon its release in 1972, which, in 2022 dollars, is $15,000. Even though it could only display hours, minutes, and seconds, it cost more than most cars and certainly more than the average Swiss-made mechanical. Although Hamilton released a stainless steel version for $275 (which is around two grand today), the Pulsar became your boss' boss' boss' watch. It was worn by several statesmen like President Gerald Ford, along with several celebrities such as Jack Nicholson, Keith Richards, Elton John, and Elvis. Even 007 himself wore a Pulsar in Live and Let Die, albeit in his bathrobe and not while punching bad guys. For a very short and very specific period of time, you celebrated a life of long, hard work by purchasing a Pulsar.


While Hamilton released more complicated versions of the Pulsar over the next few years, including versions that had the date and even a calculator (the first of its kind), the technology required to make LED and eventually LCD watches became substantially cheaper, and by the end of the decade, LED watches were considered outdated landfill. LCD watches could perform the same functions as their LED counterparts cheaper and more efficiently; most LCDs didn’t require a battery change every few months. Hamilton also sold the Pulsar name to Seiko, an indicator that the glory days of this once-revolutionary technology were long gone. While Hamilton did release various reissues of it throughout the years (like a limited edition LCD variant for Men in Black II and the Pulsomatic, which somehow managed to have an automatic movement and an LCD screen), the Pulsar was deader than disco.

But it rose from the grave during a time when we all felt humanity was facing its own collective death: March of 2020. Although their timing was horrendously poor, Hamilton relaunched the newly christened PSR to the world. While an oddball piece that doesn't neatly fit in with the Intra-Matics, Jazzmasters, and Khakis, the PSR manages to stand out amongst most other entry-level Swiss timepieces. Despite being very niche, I feel it has the same versatility as a Datejust due to its simple, clean design and specs; it would look great in the boardroom or beside (or even in) the swimming pool.

The PSR is deceptively small, only being 40.8mm wide and 46mm long (39.6 if you don't count the downward-pointing end links, and only 32.7mm if you only consider the actual, rectangular case). Though most of its stock images suggest that it's quite large, Hamilton sized it very similarly to the P2, on which the PSR is based. This results in a watch that wears more similarly to a 38 or 39mm case. Even the initially intimidating thickness of 13.5mm is deceptive since the sapphire crystal is about a millimeter thick.


The PSR comes with a president bracelet, which is integrated into the case with male endlinks that point downwards, making it wear even smaller. While some might take issue with the non-standard lugs (and the complete lack of strap options), the way the watch is designed necessitates it. The PSR comes equipped with a screw-down caseback, contributing to its 10 bar water resistance, turning an otherwise novelty gimmick into a beefy, if not distinctive GADA watch. There's also an engraving of a pulsar (the star, not the watch) on the caseback.


The bracelet itself is very good; it manages to feel like a quality item while still feeling period-correct by being thin yet dense. It also comes with a nice butterfly clasp that's slightly sharp, but not to the point of overt discomfort. Additionally, the bracelet has a unique sizing system that allows for the cotter pins to be inserted on either side of the link; the pins work in conjunction with steel sleeves/tubes that live inside the bracelet so it stays together. It threw me off when I initially unboxed my PSR, and it took me a bit to get the hang of sizing the bracelet correctly. I'm not sure if this is what other Hamilton bracelets are like, but if they are, then they've got another repeat customer now.



Like most other LED reissues, like the Gerlach Kosmonauta, the Armitron Griffy, the Bulova Computron, and the aptly named Yema LED, the PSR doesn’t come with a lot of functions: only the hours, minutes, and seconds are included. You don’t get a chronograph, a second time zone, an alarm, or even the day, the date, and the month. You can see the seconds on the PSR by firmly pressing its button (which will illuminate the screen) followed by another firm press. Pressing the button feels exceptionally satisfying, and feels like you're using a unusually well-engineered keyboard or mouse.


You adjust the time by pressing and holding the button until you enter the setting mode, and from there, you press and hold the button to move to the hour, minutes, and seconds, which can be adjusted using more rapid presses. I like how you set the seconds; instead of having to reset it after 30 seconds like most digitals (and having to repeatedly push it until a new minute begins), you simply push the button in the seconds-setting mode when your reference time starts a new minute, and the seconds have been fully reset. You exit the setting mode by not pressing the button for a few seconds after you’ve adjusted the time. While setting the minutes will reset the seconds, the hour can be adjusted independently, so it doesn’t inconvenience you if you took your PSR to Bermuda or the Bahamas with your pretty mama. Since it doesn’t have a 24-hour mode, either, AM and PM are distinguished by midnight displaying 0 instead of 12 (so 12:45 am would appear as 0:45).


Even though it has an LED display, the PSR also has an LCD/OLED display like most other digital watches. The LCD is what’s typically displayed when you glance down at your wrist, and its red numerals stay visible in most lighting conditions thanks to the anti-reflective coated sapphire crystal. However, if it’s too dark to see the time, you press the PSR’s only button (which is also staggered upwards on the case for more intuitive pushing) to turn on the LEDs, and boy is it cool.


Hamilton went out of its way to ensure that the LEDs on the PSR look as authentic as the original; you can see each tiny diode when you press the button, something that every other modern LED doesn’t do. While the Griffy, Kosmonauta, Computron and the Yema are all cheaper (and come with more functions), they don’t feel as special to me because their diodes are much larger, and they used seven-segment displays instead of trying to recreate the original. You get the impression that the PSR is intended to be a faithful improvement of the LED watch formula with no detail overlooked, instead of a straight reissue that merely uses modern technology to accomplish a less impressive result.

Despite its lack of features, I feel the PSR thrashes the other aforementioned watches because it’s simply easier to live with. It simultaneously stays true to its roots while having a few extra touches that shows whoever designed this watch knew what they were doing, and that they wanted to make something more than just a niche gizmo.

The only real complaint I have about the PSR is that Hamilton sells it for $745, and that’s before taxes and shipping. While I got mine from Jomashop for about $200 off, you could very easily end up spending $800 on a fad that died out 45 years ago.

But that’s the thing. In my opinion, Hamilton has to make it that high due to the combined R hell, you’ve probably seen one on here within the past 24 hours. The Swatch Group had to start from scratch with the PSR: they had to figure out how to make a digital quartz movement with an LCD AND LED display that was faithful to the original P2, AND they had to make sure that they could break even with sales. It’s probably why they’re doing all these limited editions and variants that are even more expensive.

But, if the PSR is what you’re into, or if you want something a little different, then it’ll sure as hell not disappoint.