The Battle of the Military Quartz Beaters

Marathon all the way. For your money you're getting a lot more watch, with the tritium and HAQ movement.

Also, Marathon is a Canadian brand, so it's clearly better...

Edit: Marathon watches still have NSNs, meaning they are catalogued for military/government issue. They aren't just a brand that at one time made military watches, they still make them.

I'd go marathon.

The Navy diver just doesn't have the value proposition compared to Marathon... and this is from someone who is actually in the Navy 😂

CWC all the way, but the automatic caliber would be my option

Marathon, because tritium.

Marathon is the way. Quartz for a modern field watch makes more sense than automatic no matter what our hearts say. Marathon watches are issued daily to soldiers in the worlds best militaries. Tritium lume is awesome. And marathon have some of the best consumer care agents in the watch world.

The Marathon is better suited as a "beater" watch. It's a watch that actually is used in some of the world's most extreme environments.

If it can survive daily use in winter above the Arctic Circle and in summer heat of the Middle East, then it will overcome whatever you can throw at it.

CWC RN Diver gets my vote. I love CWC as a brand and their history and think their diver is an iconic watch that looks great. I have the automatic and quartz and both get a lot of wrist time.

I don't think you can go wrong with either of these. I would say it probably boils down to which one you think would be most useful to you. 12 hour bezel/tritium on the Marathon or a timing bezel on the CWC.

Fine, I'll be the first: get both!

All jokes aside, I have the non-steel (all black) navigator and absolutely love it. Tritium rules and I probably wear it more than any of my ~10 other watches. But, I also plan to purchase the RN diver because I really love the styling and I already own a Cabot G-series and I think their watches are very well-made and decently priced.

The heavy drive preci drive quartz in the steel nav is a pretty fun and practical bonus to the quartz beater formula, and I'm a tritium/marathon fan anyway. I'd go nav personally, although with a date. I have the old nav, and I'm still fighting my urges to buy the steel one too.

Do it..

I did 😉

The CWC is also quartz.

There's no wrong decision. Just go with your heart.

I have the Marathon Steel Navigator with date, and I really enjoy it. I appreciate the nighttime legibility of the tritium tubes and the high accuracy quartz movement.

I'm sure the CWC is just as good and it is a classic design.

SS Navi.

Now if it was between the G10 or Navi that'd be a harder decision for me personally. Both have user replaceable batt hatches.

However only the CWC offers acrylic AND factory destro/LHD choices.

For the Navi, have to go through Wilson Watch Works more than likely, adding to the price.

Marathon sells direct, and there are great Marathon ADs who offer some appealing discounts... Something I didn't know about until after I bought my three... 🙄

Both awesome choices Congrats! I’m going with the Marathon because it’s gonna be that or the Seiko Arnie and then I’m gonna call it a day for watch collecting and probably I’m gonna go for this Marathon because of better fit and tritium. 🌈

This is a really tough decision, both watches are on my shortlist. I am leaning more towards Marathon even though I prefer CWC’s dial bec of the fixed lugs. That’s just hard to rationalize away for me bec it lessens the watches flexibility, I’d like to be able to use nato, leather, rubber even bracelet (gasp) on such a rugged and good looking watch.

Between the two I would pick the Marathon. But authentic modern military would be more like a G-shock 5610.

Thank you all for weighing in! It is indeed a tough choice. On paper the SS Nav is the better watch, but the CWC just looks so unique and charming 😫

I’m sorry but I couldn’t choose and I’m greedy so I’d have to have both (although I have the CWC so I just need a marathon and I’m happy) 😃

I've got the Marathon SSN, but I'd agree with your assessment. I got the Marathon mostly because I wanted a watch with tritium tubes, but I find the dial somewhat boring and I rarely wear the watch. I think they should have kept the red tip of the seconds hand from the date edition, but as it stands - it's super spartan.

Good quality watch overall, I just failed to connect with it so far.