Military watches in the digital age

My grial its my mechanical khaki field

This is what I wore when I was young, cheap, and just wanted a reliable and comfortable watch.

I was never one for G-Shocks, they were all too bulky for my tastes. I never saw the need for a watch that could take more punishment than the wrist it was on.

These days I wear what I want, because I mostly work in the office.

I’m rocking my Seiko 5 Snk805 today. Have a huge respect for those who serve and love the aesthetics of field watches.

One of my favourites from my collection, issued in 1993 making it 30 years old this year, these were issued to helicopter and jet pilots in the RAF and Royal Navy, a non lume version was also supplied to crews of nuclear submarines. I love the mystery of where it's been in its life, although this is a very clean example the few dings and scratches it has could tell stories of their own I'm sure.

i love your watches Sir!!🥰

Love the Citizen Promaster Nighthawk

cheers for the military analog watch

(But if the shit goes down I’d grab my G-Shock)

Seiko 5!

A grail of mine is the MilSub. Sadly they are way out of my range (outside of a huge lottery win).

This one scratches the itch for me.

I always thought the Sinn Diapole looked like something that would have been issued.

I wore my 1675 through a couple of different conflicts both in the military and beyond.

my father’s old watch. he wore this every day until it ran out of battery and for whatever reason he never bothered to replace it… until several years later he said he would give it to me if i “fix” it… so i did, and now its a precious part of my collection. neither of us are military but i think this is very much a military watch

This is the only Felca Military I've ever seen without so much as another pic of one online. It's generous size and dark colorway make it a favorite. I would love to learn more about it.

#felca

My CWC vintage issued W10

I love my military issued watches! In my collection, I have military reissues from Hamilton, Timex, and Marathon.

Covered:

I would bet they are. There were originally around 2000 MilSubs. In the 80s and 90s when they were being auctioned at surplus they were much cheaper than a standard 5513 so many of them were snatched up by watchmakers and 'converted' to standard models to sell at a higher price. Some were sent in for service and the hands and bezels changed. Some were also lost through attrition. I have heard numbers thrown around like less than 200 complete examples are left.

That is a great grail though👍

I was wearing my mil-spec GG-W-113 most of today. Bought this one as a non-runner and patched it back together a few weeks ago. I find it interesting that it's so small at 34mm as I suspect most think Military Watches are large.

I love my mechanical Khaki. Still on the original bracelet too. Plan on getting something lighter for it

For the summer.

I have only really started collecting watches over the last 3 years. My most worn watches while serving active duty in that time have been these 2:

Prior to this and on all my deployments to active war zones I always wore G-Shocks. I needed something robust when I was working on aircraft.

(As a NCO I had to make sure the Airman was properly servicing the tire)

(Only a G-Shock could withstand the wear and tear of pointing at smoke in the distance)

There’s something about those green dial khakis from back in the day which just does it for me

It's funny but you are correct on both accounts. If you scroll through eBay and history books, a lot of the issued or personally procured watches used in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam would be considered small and or dainty by today's standards. Like borderline sold as women's watches only.

For example, the Seiko 6619-8060, the "Raider Rolex" issued to and worn by MACV-SOG dudes, 36.5mm diameter. No one in their right mind would call any of these dudes dainty.

Now that some of their missions have been declassified, it's like reading a Rambo movie transcript, and their casualty rate was 100%! ("everyone who served in SOG was either wounded, most multiple times, or killed. And to this day, 50 SOG Green Berets are still missing in action." -source Sandboxx.us)

While owning the OG is probably out of the budget for now, I'm keeping any eye out for the Seiko 5 reissue.

Here are the military watches in my collection.

Bulova A15 Pilot

Marathon GPM

Bulova Hack

Vintage WWII Era Bulova Small Seconds

This last watch really illustrates a point made in this thread about the size difference in vintage military watches. It is 32mm in size, even smaller than my Marathon GPM, which is definitely small by today's standards.

I think that's the 1980 model with the diamondhead second hand.

#seiko5at55 🍻

#seiko5at55 🍻

My lightly modded Willard. Not issued, but we all know the story...

This Casio G-Shock DW-6600 was issued to me by the US Air Force 2009. One of several model of watches issued to Special Forces back then. Featured in the movie "American Sniper". It was discontinued some years ago. NATO strap, bull-bars, and compass are my personal mods.

A 50th anniversary commemorative re-issue - exact copy - of the U.S. Army General Purpose MIL-W-46374 made by Benrus during World War II. Used also during the Korea and Viet Nam conflicts.

Snk381k1 is not an official reissue, but unofficially it is. Wonderful watch.