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.

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CASIO G-SHOCK MULTIBAND 6

Casio has a line of wristwatches that utilizes something called Multiband 6.  What that is is a radio receiver which allows the watch to receive a signal from WWVB in Fort Collins Colorado which keeps the watch synchronized with their atomic oscillators.  There are also transmitters in the UK, Germany, China, and Japan which provide the same service.  If you have a Multiband 6 watch and travel it should sync with the perfect time most anywhere.  The actual definition of Multiband 6 is that is the number of transmitters that the watch can receive from.  There are six such transmitters.

60 kHz Transmitters (click pics to enlarge)

The station WWVB is run by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) which maintains the time and frequency standards and makes them available to the American public.   The signal is broadcast on a frequency of 60kHz with a 70kW signal.

NIST was on the chopping block about a year ago by our esteemed government who decided to shut it down.  Then at the last minute it got a reprieve.  While losing the ability to sync a Casio G-Shock may not be catastrophic there are many time sensitive computer and clock devices that even the US government and scientific fields NEED.  Shutting down would have been problematic.  This web page gives a list of manufacturers and what services they use WWVB for.  Much of it is academia and scientific research and GPS usage. Shut down NIST and GPS’s might act weird.

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Rolex, Omega, Breitling, Casio, Timex, Citizen and on, and on, and on.  Some watch brands we know.  Some we have never heard of.   I recently became interested in Horology, which is the study of the measurement of time.

I AM NOT A WATCH SNOB.   I do own a nice Omega Speedmaster though.  For many, many years I stopped wearing a watch because our phones have taken over the duties of other devices and of course, the measurement of time being one of those duties.  Darn phones have taken over the role of stand alone cameras as well.  (I still like stand alone cameras as well).  Call me old school.

Anyway as I began studying Horology it became apparent that the modern wrist watch evolved from World Wars I and II.  My personal preference in watches revolve around those military style watches sometimes referred to as “Field Watches”.   While I don’t get out as much as I like, I love to camp and hike and I’m a gear junkie.  Knowing what time it is while hiking is VITAL. I not only want, but NEED a Field Watch.

So I began digging into military field watches and keep running into these Bertucci Watches.  Never heard of them before.  I hit the watch forums on the internet and while there isn’t much chatter about Bertucci most of what I read is positive.

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