Interstellar Watches: Murph's Hamilton, Cooper's Khaki Pilot and the Khaki Field Murph

Interstellar (2014) is a film about time, and its most important prop is a wristwatch. Christopher Nolan's story has Cooper leave his daughter Murph a watch so that the two can compare their clocks when he returns, and later has him move its second hand from inside a tesseract. This guide separates the two Hamilton watches in the film, explains how the effect was made and covers the retail watch the film inspired, labelling how well each claim is documented.

Who wears what: quick reference

Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey)

Cooper's own watch is the less famous of the two. The best-sourced identification is a standard Hamilton Khaki Pilot Day Date Auto, a catalogue watch that carries a day and date display. It is not the dateless watch he leaves for Murph, and the two are often confused.

Two other claims conflict with this. Times Ticking calls it a day/date Field Khaki, which looks like a naming difference. The aggregator Loupe lists a Khaki Field Titanium (H702050), a single-source claim with no cited basis that we treat as unreliable.

Murphy “Murph” Cooper (Mackenzie Foy and Jessica Chastain)

Murph is the character the watch belongs to: Cooper leaves it with her as a child, and she wears it as an adult. Hamilton's own product page credits it as worn by Murph, as played by Chastain. It is the film's plot watch, covered in detail in the next section.

Hamilton says it worked closely with Nolan and Crowley. The prop was a 42mm steel watch with a brushed finish, stepped bezel, large crown and a black, dateless dial with aged lume, running an ETA 2824-2, according to A Blog To Watch. Loupe lists a different reference (H70575733) with a white dial and a 46mm size; that conflicts with Hamilton-era reporting and we treat it as unreliable.

Other characters (Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Matt Damon, Casey Affleck, David Gyasi and others)

We found no watch identified for Brand, Professor Brand, Mann, Tom, Romilly, Doyle or Donald in any source we could open. The IMWDb and watch-id pages for the film could not be fetched, so this is an absence of sources, not proof that none appears.

Watches in the story

One watch carries the film's emotional and scientific plot. The Hamilton Cooper wears is incidental; the one he leaves behind is not.

The Morse effect was practical, not CGI. A Blog To Watch reports that the prop master partly disassembled the movement and added a small servo to drive the seconds hand, with gel to stop it running unintentionally; Worn & Wound confirms the movement was modified. Times Ticking suggests the dateless dial may have made the second hand easier to film. Early availability of the retail watch is reported as April 2019 by some outlets and May 2019 worldwide by another, so we say spring 2019. The first 2,555 pieces came in a tesseract-inspired box designed with Crowley; the number is the days (about seven Earth years) that equal one hour on Miller's planet, per Hamilton. The watch itself is not limited.

Why Hamilton, and what came after

Hamilton is an American brand with a long record of film work; A Blog To Watch counted more than 400 film credits as of 2014. Producers asked for a tool-style watch with American character, and Hamilton had a few weeks to deliver, according to the same outlet. We found no source saying the costume designer, Mary Zophres, chose or sourced the watches, so we do not credit her. For the brand's background see our Hamilton history.

The 42mm Murph was followed by a 38mm version that Gear Patrol calls more wearable. A blue-dial 38mm, reported by Gear Patrol in September 2026, is $995 on leather and $1,045 on a bracelet, and it lacks the Morse “Eureka” on the seconds hand. A black 38mm reference listed by Loupe (H70405730) comes from an aggregator only, so treat it as unconfirmed. No source we opened gives the watch's size as seen on screen. For another film where one watch matters to the story, see our guide to watches in films.

Get the look for less

Real-world watches closest to the ones above, with indicative US prices. These are editorial suggestions, and the first two are the actual retail versions of film watches.

Myths and mix-ups, corrected

• “Murph's watch is a stock Hamilton.” It was a custom prop built from existing Khaki elements, and about 10 were made. The Khaki Field Murph is a recreation.
• “Cooper's watch and Murph's watch are the same.” Cooper wears a day/date Khaki Pilot. The watch he leaves Murph has no date window.
• “The Khaki Field Murph is a limited edition.” It is not. Only the first 2,555 pieces came in the special tesseract box.
• “The Morse code was added with CGI.” Worn & Wound says it was a practical effect, done by modifying the movement.
• “Loupe says the prop is a white-dial H70575733, or 46mm.” That conflicts with Hamilton's 42mm black-dial description and with the outlets that covered the film in 2014. We ignore it.
• “Cooper wears a titanium Khaki Field.” That is a single aggregator claim. Three outlets name the Khaki Pilot Day Date.

Sources

Hamilton (Khaki Field Murph product page and the making-of page), A Blog To Watch (Ariel Adams, November 2014), Worn & Wound (James Enloe, 2014 and 2019), Gear Patrol (2019 and 2026), Times Ticking, A Timely Perspective (Roberta Naas, 2019) and Wikipedia for the plot; Loupe and WatchMaxx for indicative current prices, with Loupe’s conflicting identifications set aside. Prices are US-dollar figures retrieved on October 11, 2026 and are indicative only.