Whether it’s the association with rare and beautiful military pilot’s watches or for featuring on the coveted wrist of none other than Steve McQueen, Hanhart’s 417 ES is an oft-underappreciated horological icon. The “ES” stands for “edelstahl”, German for stainless steel, forming a key part of the watch’s identity, and something that we see change for the first time with this new limited edition. The name of 417 TI Desert Pilot may give you a hint that this is the first 417 in titanium, introduced in its usual 39mm and 42mm sizes with a sandy dial inspired by another Hanhart of the same name, this time from the Primus collection. The two will now serve as sort of a before and after – the 417 TI in its classic shape but in a new material, and the Primus Desert Pilot as the modern reinterpretation of a classic Hanhart pilot’s chronograph.
What is it?
Our focus today is on the historical model, launching as a 400-piece limited edition (200 in each size), with a distinctly dark, sandblasted, grade 5 titanium case. You can choose between two diameters, 39mm and 42mm. Their thickness is the same, sitting at 13.6mm with two of those millimetres being due to the domed crystal, with the lug-to-lug coming in at 46mm and 49mm, respectively. One of Hanhart’s own developments integrated into the case is a shock-protection system, combining with a 10 ATM water-resistance to make the 417 TI capable of sporty activities too, which is just as well seeing as the promo material shows a Hanhart-branded rally raid Mini going dune-bashing.
Like the Primus Desert Pilot mentioned in the introduction, the 417 TI gets its sandy dial as a tribute to Hanhart’s participation in the Dakar Rally and Abu Dhabi Desert Challenge on the wrist of Stephan Schott. The look is a high-contrast one, with black-printed features and LumiNova numerals and syringe hands with sand-coloured lume inserts.
Flip the watch over, and you’ll find another piece of sapphire – this time flat – letting you peer into the Sellita AMT5100M powering the Desert Pilot. The movement comes from the popular Sellita SW500 family, but is part of the manufacturer’s custom-order arm AMT, allowing prospective customers a higher degree of customisability. This flyback chronograph nods to Hanhart’s history as a famous maker of the complication, which fittingly came in the Cal. 42-equipped 417 models that the Desert Pilot succeeds. It’s a 4Hz movement with a 58-hour power reserve, regulated by Hanhart to sit between 0 and +8 seconds per day, as the brand believes it’s important to not have any lagging movements out of fear of being late. How very expectedly German of them.
First impressions
A new case material for the Hanhart 417 is exciting, as the model has stuck pretty true to its ES name, save for a bronze limited edition here and there. With the fad of bronze slowly receding, titanium is a step that just makes sense. Titanium case finishing has long been the thing that separated brands experienced with the material from those who weren’t, but with that gap closing, we’re seeing more and more impressively finished titanium watches at more and more affordable prices. In that sense, I’m a little surprised that Hanahrt went with an all-sandblasted finish, but I can’t really fault them for it. It looks great, for starters, but it also fits into the narrative of this being a sports watch that you could wear when cresting a dune in your lifted off-roader.
Another surprise was seeing how open Hanhart was being about the potentially lacklustre luminescence because of the darker printing used for the numerals and the hand inserts, though the transparency is always appreciated. It’s not something that would detract me from picking one of these up – not like we’re talking all-out sports watch here – and I can appreciate that getting the design down-pat also played a part in this decision. Just like any other 417, the Desert Pilot is very handsome, and that old-school Hanhart logo will always be one of my favourites.
Speaking of transparency, the movement situation is one more example of Hanhart not feeling the need to manufacture unnecessary confusion. Sellita’s AMT division has too often been misused by brands that will remain unnamed to produce “manufacture” movements (potentially my least favourite set of words in this business) simply because they’re allowed a larger degree of custom work. In this case, Hanhart clearly states the origin of the movement and the fact that it’s regulated in-house – and others should take notes.
I’ll end this introduction with a complaint, which is really just a badly concealed compliment. Why is this a limited edition? Sure, I know that the stainless steel case speaks to the 417’s origins, but come on – how cool is this thing? I guess I can only hope that all 400 pieces sell rather quickly, so we can see a new titanium 417 join the ranks.
Hanhart 417 TI Desert Pilot price and full specifications
The Hanhart 417 TI Desert Pilot is a limited-edition release, limited to 200 pieces in each of the two sizes. Price: €2,990 incl. 19% VAT (~A$5,000)
