I’m a lover of the Military Field Watch style and probably more accurate to say that I’m a lover of the military watch in general. Lots of watch companies will claim “Official Watch of the US Navy SEALS” or “Official Watch of the US Military” or whatever.
The simple fact of the matter is that military members can wear any watch they want as long as it is tasteful and there are probably only a handful of jobs these days where the military will issue you a watch.
The only watch company that is on the US Government Qualified Products Database that qualifies to a Military Specification (Mil-Spec) which is Mil-PRF-46374 is the Marathon Watch Company. Every link on the picture below goes to Marathon Watch Co.
QPD (click picture to enlarge)
Someone on a watch forum requested I do a review on the watch. I guess the best place to do that is to link to the specifications .
Marathon Watch Mechanical Stainless Steel Specs
The specs are impressive and you can read about the requirements the watch must meet by downloading and reading the Mil-Spec.MIL-PRF-46374G (clicking on the link will download the document).
So now you have the relevant information. Let’s talk about what John thinks about it personally.
I love it.
There you go. It is a stylish and somewhat smallish watch
Marathon Stainless (click pic to enlarge)
One of the things I love about it are the face markings, specifically the “US Government” and “H3” and the radiation marking. I’m a US Government employee for over 35 years and still running and it makes me proud to wear it. The strap is military looking however it is pretty thin at 16mm. The watch sits well on the wrist and the lume (the glow in the dark stuff) is H3 gas or Tritium gas which is radioactive.
Marathon Stainless Lume (click pic to enlarge) Taken with Nikon D7000 w/ Nikkor 105mm manual focus lens at 30 second exposure.
The lume is very legible in the dark and there is even a lume tube near the end of the second hand. Also in daylight conditions the second hand tip is red which is a NICE TOUCH. Really great attention to detail.
Not a lot to not love about this watch. The back of the watch is a virtual cornucopia of information replete with the qualified Mil-Spec. Nice.
Marathon Stainless Back (click pic to enlarge)
This is a real life US Government military issue watch (if you can get someone to issue it to you in this day and age). Good luck with that. They can be purchased directly from the manufacturer however their watches can be had for much cheaper from a couple of their distributors. I use WatchMann.
Not sure what else to say. Rock solid specifications. Made to last in harsh situations. The watch is attractive enough to wear in a non-work environment and has remarkable lume. Small but not too small and extremely legible. Sapphire crystal in a 316L Stainless Steel case is a big plus. Expensive though.