The perfect travel-watch doesn't exi...

Like you, I often fantasize about travelling the world with a paradoxically beautiful jewel-like yet robust tool watch on my wrist, ala James Bond. Readable at an instant glance, reliable due to some magical arrangement of gears and rotors, alluring to those who know, eyebrow raising to those who don't.

Or maybe you dont fantasize about that, and hey, that's ok. It's probably not me either and here's why...

With my wife at my side and 2-year-old in tow, more bags than I can count, and ridiculously close connecting flights to catch at a sprint across maze-like airports, I kinda want to know exactly what time it is, and not cringe when my wrist goes BANG against the inside of the overhead bin as I attempt to dislodge a stubborn stroller. This is when the Marathon SSNAV-D enters the chat.

It was a couple of fellow watch nerds that brought this piece to my attention a few months back. While the asymmetric case and high contrast bezel caught my eye for an instant, I dismissed it out of hand for being quartz driven (ew, right?) with a 12 hour bezel (what's the point of that?) Then, like so many of us, I started down the rabbit hole learning what this odd little object was all about and built up a feverish desire to snag one ahead of a 3 week trip abroad.

Why? Well I hate my cellphone, for starters. Or, more precisely, I need to disconnect now and then, and if I can leave the tether in the backpack and check in on work etc. on a carefully rationed basis then I'm a happier guy on holiday. So if I wanna know what time it is, it's a watch -fair enough. That and like you I'm into watches, so any excuse, right?

Now, I do need to know what time it is back home to synch up to a handful of important calls, and so the temptation was always there (still is there, honestly), to pickup a cool gmt such as some of the offerings by Christopher Ward or Grand Seiko (or countless others) to manage the task of rapid dual-timezone readability. But a 12 hour bezel does the trick, it turns out, and in many cases proves more quickly discernable. Not as sexy a solution perhaps, but there's something to be said for the elegance of simplicity.

So, why the Marathon? Well I won't repeat the tacti-cool marketing material but for this: an ETA HeavyDrive-PreciDrive movement accurate to +/- 10 seconds PER YEAR with significant shock resistance, a slim case with a distinct design, tritium gas tube lume (because I love big lume and I cannot lie), and it's home grown(ish) from a Canadian company manufacturing in Switzerland.

Now the lume here won't knock your socks off, but it also won't die (for a couple of decades) and requires no charging. Parents in the room rejoice; when you're putting your kiddo to sleep and need to know how long you've been at it, you can see quite quickly without lighting up the room.

The slim profile at 11mm means it fits under sleeves and rarely if ever catches an errant drawer handle or arm rest. The dial being much smaller than the case shrinks the apparent size well below the specified 41mm case width. That said, and despite its military upbringing, this watch does not want to sit nicely on a nato strap on my wrist (despite even having a nato stock number to brag about). At least, not on the straps I've tried so far. This seems to be because:

1. The straps add a lot of height, which seem to unbalance the watch on the wrist.

2. One of the straps I bought, while "heavy duty", is too damn stiff and floats the watch even further off my wrist.

3. The lug width is probably closer to 19.75mm than it is 20, causing the straps to pop upwards notably from the case before sloping back down the wrist and generally adding a feeling of bulk.

A single-pass seems to work better than a true doubled nato, but this does kinda irk me. Trying a 19mm strap might be my next move. It certainly looks great on various straps.

Then there's the 100m of water resistance and a screw down crown. Minimum spec for warm vactions by the sea, no? I jumped into the ocean every chance I had without hesitation with the Navigator on my wrist. It feels solid despite its thin profile and light weight, and the crown screws down with authority. Would I dive with it? Nope, but that's because I prefer a more traditional divers bezel for backup bottom timing.

Did I kinda miss having a dressier piece for nice dinners out etc.? You bet I did, and I may pack a second piece for that reason next time. Or not, because with the kiddo alongside us one tends to forget stylistic considerations and simply pray they sit and eat long enough for you to at least taste your own meal while it was warm.

Anything else I don't like about it? Yes, in my case the second hand is not always bang on the markers, but I've kinda gotten over it. I'm also certain I'll eventually find the perfect strap for it, just needs a bit more experimentation. The bezel could use a lock or perhaps slightly more resistance to accidental movement (sounds nice though) Oh, and the crystal definitely could use better (any?) AR coating, but that's mostly an issue for photos rather than real world legibility.

Now that my trip is over am I still wearing it? Yes, this level of accuracy is addictive. Almost 2 months after I first set it it's still lock step with atomic time to the second. It's great when I work from home and need to mind schedules with a team a few timezones away, but does get benched when I'm going out for the most part. -gotta give the other pieces some love too, after all.

Is it the perfect travel watch? Well, putting aside the "nothing's perfect" argument, I'm thinking the perfect travel watch is in fact a case with 2 or 3 watches in it depending on the crime stats of where you're headed. But for Mr. Bond over here, I'd say this tool fits the bill for the action parts of the mission.