MTM Special Forces Falcon review

A lot is spoken about tool watches. Even more is also spoken about so called 'military watches', Multi-Time Machine (MTM) have upped the ante even more here by having a 'Special Forces' range and even having this inscribed on the dial of this Falcon watch.

So let's get some stuff out the way. I don't do airsoft. I don't play Call of Duty and I don't have an unhealthy obsession with firearms; however I am ex-military and I've been to some places and done some stuff for over a decade.

Now, some of that stuff was with Special Forces and ordinarily they tend to wear GShock or Luminox, or Marathon is they're actually into watches...but I only heard about MTM because of good ol'Jack Bauer and the 24 TV series, which kept me entertained in my downtime overseas. I have never seen SF personnel wear MTM. In fact, to date, I have not seen any military personnel wear MTM.

So, regardless of this, I've been after a decent example of an MTM for some time. They're not easy to come by in the UK and I knew I'd get spanked with import tax (I got this watch for $600...but then paid £114 just to get this watch past customs). I loved this desert version as each watch colour scheme is unique and no 2 pieces will be the same; however it is annoying that the colour scheme effectively negates the bezel as you can't see the numbers on the bezel!

I've been wearing this non-stop for a couple of days now and I absolutely love it. At 44mm it is big and it has a good amount of heft to it; you certainly won't forget this is on your wrist. I suspect some of that is the battery, of which has to be charged every ~28-60 days depending on how often you use the lights. The charger is like clever little pad how most people charge their phones nowadays.

The very cool thing about this watch is the lights. Yes it has strong lume, but at the press of a button a black light illuminates the carbon fibre dial and bright-orange second hand. Press the switch again and some surpringly bright LEDs shine bright enough to be used as a legit torch. The latter is really the only thing that would be useful in a tactical situation...but could equally give away your position from 100s of meters away, so to ensure you don't become pink mist the lights should be used sparingly!

This watch is quartz, like all good military watches should be, and has a 'good enough' 100m WR, which means you can actually go swimming / snorkeling (or tactical amphibious entry if you're so inclinced). The Falcon comes in a lovely peli case and you're good-to-go quickly as the watch comes packaged with tiny allen keys so you can adjust the amount of links within a few minutes. This is pretty straight forward and I loved the attention to detail that the screws used in the links for the metal bracelet come with tiny rubber grommets.

At some point, I'll find a desert / tan 24mm rubber or webbing strap, but for now I'll stick to the chunky metal bracelet.

So, whether you'd actually use this watch in any hostile environment is to be debated (personally I'd stick to a GShock), however this is still a tool watch and very much in military guise if you so wish. I love it.