To begin with, I must admit that this watch came to my attention quite by coincidence. Although I am familiar with the Hanhart brand (Hanhart holds a special place in my alarm watch collection) I hadn’t been closely following their recent releases. That changed when Mark from Seriouswatches.com mentioned during a conversation about my Formex purchase that Seriouswatches would soon become an official Hanhart dealer. Naturally, I decided to see what Hanhart currently offers—and I was genuinely impressed and intrigued by what I found. Hanhart has a wide range of chronograph collections, most inspired by timepieces developed and released in the late 1930s. I highly recommend reading the short history of Hanhart to fully appreciate the design philosophy behind their modern watches.
What truly caught my eye—and ultimately led to my purchase—were two things. First, one collection is named Primus, which happens to be the root of my own first name. Second, within that collection I discovered a real standout piece for my taste: the Desert Pilot.
At the time, there were two versions of the Desert Pilot available. The standard edition—which I ended up purchasing and will be reviewing here—and a special edition limited to 100 pieces, featuring a black DLC-coated case and a knife included in the package. While I was drawn to the special edition, the black coating gave me some pause, and the price difference was significant. Before I could decide, the special edition had already sold out.
So, let’s now move on to my new watch. What makes it so special to me? First of all, it is the beautiful sand-colored dial, perfectly matched with the strap. But there are also many other subtle details that make this watch truly unique.
If we look closer, the dial features a fascinating multi-part structure. The hour and minute hands are also distinctive—they are hollow and not filled with standard luminova; instead, their edges are coated with a rather rare choice: black luminova.
Hanhart has taken inspiration from their vintage chronographs, incorporating a red dot on top of the fixed bezel and red chrono reset pushers. Both elements work well on this watch and add to its distinctiveness compared to most chronographs available on the market. Together with the sandblasted case, these details give the watch a very specific and compelling final appearance.
Mechanically, the watch is a classic chronograph based on the 7750 family (the movement is officially designated HAN3809). I can only add that the movement is very well regulated, running within -2 to +4 seconds depending on the position. After a week of constant wear, the watch gained just +4 seconds in total—more than satisfying!
The Desert Pilot is a relatively large watch, measuring 44mm in diameter and 15mm in height. The case itself isn’t overly big, but the fixed bezel extends over the case, adding almost 2mm to the overall diameter. Interestingly, the 24mm lugs are not fixed—they rotate about 70 degrees. In theory, this should help the case and strap conform better to different wrist sizes. I will share my experience with this feature later.
The declared water resistance is 10 ATM. To be honest, I haven’t tried swimming with the watch—not because I doubt the rating, but because I didn’t want to expose the original strap to water. The inner lining of the strap is definitely not suited for swimming.
To conclude this basic overview, I’d like to add that I really like the sapphire crystal case back. The main glass is also sapphire, with an anti-reflective coating on the inside.
All those facts can more or less be seen on the factory’s webshop and in the watch description. The first impression of the watch is great as well. However, after spending some time focusing on details and using a magnifier, I found a series of imperfections—too many for a brand of this caliber. Take a look at the main ones in the following photos.
The most noticeable flaw is the very poor application of luminova smeared on the left subdial. Even I can see this mistake with the naked eye, without reading glasses. Then, there are white spots on the number 3 and on the top index mark of the right subdial. Finally, the lower edge of the upper triangle on the main dial is scratched. All three of these flaws are not easily visible to the naked eye; the least noticeable one is the triangle scratch, which can only be seen from a specific angle.
The textile strap is quite a disappointment as well. One would expect a textile strap to be soft and comfortable, but the truth is quite the opposite. It is very stiff and has strong reinforcements on the upper side. The deployant clasp does not help much either. The clasp is very long, and combined with the stiff strap, it’s almost impossible to get a good fit around the wrist. Even the clever idea of rotating lugs can’t fully compensate for that. However, I must commend the small red marking on top of the clasp, which fits perfectly with the other red details on the watch itself.
There is one additional minor detail that bothers me about the strap: the holes are reinforced with metal rings, which is generally a good idea to prevent tearing. However, the side effect is that every time you unfasten the clasp, the rings fall out from the strap and you have to reposition them. Very annoying.
What I like about the strap is that the textile seems to be more like nylon or a similar material, which makes it easy to wash. As you can see from the photo, I managed to get the strap dirty, and with such a delicate color, dirt shows immediately. However, the dirt was removed very easily and did not penetrate deep into the strap.
In the photos on the left, you can see how the watch fits on my wrist in two different hole positions. As mentioned, I have serious problems fitting it comfortably. My wrist size falls right between two hole settings, so it’s either a bit too tight or the watch sticks out from the wrist. If you’re lucky and your wrist matches the predefined holes, the watch might fit well.
I deliberately wore the watch in a too-tight position for as long as I could, and after a week or two of constant wear, I think I was able to soften the strap a bit and slightly extend it.
I already mentioned the black luminova used on the hands and on the dial. Hanhart is very transparent about it, and on their website there is a warning that the black luminova fades quickly — and that is indeed true. In theory, the luminova looks nice in the dark, but in reality, it is almost useless, as it is noticeable only for a few minutes before it fades away.
The watch is packed in a leather pouch inside a cardboard box. Nothing fancy, yet effective.
The official price for this watch is €2,750 (including German taxes). For a 7750-based watch, it’s not the cheapest but also not too expensive — if the watch were flawless. However, at this price point, Hanhart simply should not allow itself to release a watch with such imperfections! A brand with such a rich history should pay much more attention to details.
In the end, I would just like to thank Mark from Seriouswatches for all his help with purchasing this watch. It is always a pleasure to do business with him.
P.S.: Please check here, what happened after this review was published…
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