Our Favorite Military-Inspired Watches

As much as it is unpleasant to think about, it is the times of war and conflict which have been more instrumental in ultimately positive innovation than any other periods of human history.

Among the list of inventions literally too numerous to mention, we can ‘thank’ warfare (if that’s the right word) for giving us everything from duct tape to microwave ovens, from jet engines to tea bags and from canned food to the internet.

And we can also look to the horrors of combat for popularizing the humble wristwatch. It was in WWI, the first war which utilized radio in order to synchronize attacks over great distances, where split-second timing accuracy became paramount. During that period of the early 20^th century, wristwatches were still very much ladies accessories, with men almost exclusively using pocket watches. But in the heat of battle and the terror of the trenches, fishing around in a uniform for a pocket watch, opening it, reading the time, closing it and securing it away again was a cumbersome and laborious activity. Officers took to jerry rigging their pocket watches onto leather straps and wearing them on their wrists for convenience. And, when they returned home as conquering heroes (or valiant losers depending on which side you’re on) with them, the image of the wristwatch as an effeminate accouterment was gone forever.

Military Watches

Ever since, a rugged, reliable, easy-to-read timepiece has been standard equipment for fighting forces the world over. Many nations’ defense departments have actually commissioned their own models from top brands based on their exact specifications which has led to some truly iconic pieces in horology’s annals. Others have repurposed already existing watches, elevating them to greater heights of popularity with the general public.

Whichever it is, the military-inspired model has remained a keen favorite amongst civilians, and below we pick out some of the best.

The Rolex Explorer II

Few manufactures have a more illustrious history with the military than Rolex. It is easy to forget that, while today they may be renowned as the pinnacle of luxuriousness, Rolex originally made their name as the makers of extremely tough timepieces fit for active service anywhere in the world.

You can take your pick from the many stories associated with the brand; the ‘Air’ collection made in commemoration of the Battle of Britain. The free replacements sent to captured WWII prisoners used to help coordinate escape attempts. The lusted-after MilSubs created for the SAS from the ‘60s to the ‘80s, and so on and so on.

Over the years, Rolex’s reputation has led to them being first port of call for everyone from the U.S. Air Force’s Thunderbird aerobatic team which adopted the Turn-O-Graph as their official watch, the UAE Ministry of Defense which ordered a bespoke run of the GMT-Master and the Saudi Arabian MoD which gifted tailor-made Sea-Dwellers to British special forces who fought in the Dhofar rebellion.

More recently, the Rolex strategy has concentrated more on opulent lifestyle watches than tool models. But there is still one in the portfolio which has remained as tough and unforgiving as ever.

The Explorer II is and has always been a big brawler of a watch, carved out of a great hunk of steel and looking up for a fight at any moment. One of the very few Rolex pieces from the old days to have resisted any hint of gentrification—no gold, no platinum and sure as hell no diamond hour markers. You get a choice of black or white dial, and that’s it. 

It was then the perfect choice for a very special limited edition in 2012 when Rolex issued somewhere in the region of 100-150 units you could only buy from the brand’s London boutique if you were a serving member of the SAS. Each piece featured special engravings (a rarity on any Rolex), with the regiment’s motto of ‘Who Dares Wins’ along the case flank along with the fabled SAS dagger on the back together with each individual soldier’s initials and serial number. 

The watches—all the ref. 216570, the first generation to grow to 42mm—were issued mainly with the black dial, but a mere handful had Polar faces as well. One such came to auction in 2022, still with its hangtags on, and sold for £25,000.

The Tudor Black Bay P01

As the sister brand to Rolex, one initially created to offer a lower-priced alternative to the full fat option, Tudor has also graced the wrists of many international armed services.

However, just because they enjoyed considerable success with the likes of the Oyster Prince Submariner from the 1950s onward doesn’t mean everything they tried turned to gold.

In the ‘60s, an unofficial prototype for the U.S. Navy codenamed the ‘Commando’ failed to move past the experimental phase despite (or perhaps because of) its extremely complex bezel locking mechanism.

There are few components more important on a dive watch than the bezel. It offers an elegantly simple method of keeping track of elapsed time underwater, absolved from the worries of failing batteries in a modern dive computer. 

The one problem timing bezels have always had is the fear of being accidentally knocked and so overestimating the amount of time, and therefore air, you might have remaining. A bezel which locked in place so that can’t happen is an ideal solution and has been used in plenty of other watches, arguably the most famous being Omega’s Ploprof, designed for elite commercial operators, COMEX. 

However, where Omega’s system could not have been less complicated and featured little more than a big red button to unlock the bezel and which could be easily pressed even with thick gloves on, the Commando’s involved a claw-like mechanism at the 12 o’clock which had to be lifted up, the bezel rotated and then the claw clicked in again. It was all too fiddly for Navy divers and so the project was scrapped but, in 2019, Tudor rocked up to Baselworld with a new addition to their all-conquering Black Bay range called the P01.

This opinion-splitting piece was almost a carbon copy of the original, complete with the majority of its by no means unchallenging looks. 

The 42mm brushed steel case retained the strange locking claws at the top and bottom although the operation was reportedly easier than on the prototype. From them protruded prominent steel lugs running into a handsome rubber and leather hybrid strap, secured with Tudor’s excellent deployant clasp. 

The winding crown remained at the weird 4 o’clock position, and the date at the three. But, where the original was given Rolex-esque Mercedes hands, the 2019 version had Tudor’s signature Snowflakes. Power came from the in-house MT5612.

In truth, the P01 (standing for Prototype 01) confused a lot of people, with many wondering why the brand would bring out a reissue of a watch that never saw the light of day in the first place. It’s a reasonable question and some have speculated that the Black Bay range as a whole has simply been such an unqualified success that Tudor could afford to release something a little out of the ordinary to add a touch of eccentricity. And the P02 is certainly eccentric.

Nevertheless, while it hasn’t sold in massive quantities, the watch has gained a cult following from those who like to stand out from the crowd. 

The IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic Spitfire

Any history buffs among you, especially of the horology variety, will know all about the Dirty Dozen. No, not the awesome Lee Marvin/Charles Bronson testosteronea-polooza from 1967, but the custom-built watches ordered by the British MoD from 12 different manufacturers during the Second World War. 

Each had to be built to a very specific set of very military standards, with all required to have a black dial, Arabic numerals, luminous hands and hour markers, railroad minute track, steel case and shatterproof crystal. As a result, the models which came back from the companies involved; Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, JLC, Lemania, Longines, Omega, Record, Timor, Vertex and IWC, all looked pretty much of a type.

Today, these pieces are highly collectible in vintage watch circles, the level of demand for each manufacture’s individual interpretation dependent on how many were made.

IWC built around 6,000, which was one of the largest production runs. The textbook definition of the words ‘utilitarian’ and ‘functional’, the brand celebrates their Dirty Dozen contribution today with their ‘Pilot’s Watch Mark’ collection, the latest being the Mark XX.

But while Dirty Dozen is an evocative name in military history, there is another model in the Pilot’s Watch line with an even more poignant one; the Spitfire.

Christened after the reason I don’t speak German and the legendary RAF fighter, the IW326805X takes its styling cues from those long-ago MoD specifications, giving rise to a wonderfully efficient and extremely legible design as befits a professional aviator’s timepiece. 

At 39mm it is 1mm smaller than the Mark XX, lending a nice retro touch. The matte, non-reflective dial features Arabic numerals for every hour minus the 12 (triangle) and three (date window), with IWC’s broad hands holding plenty of lume. Above the 6 o’clock, the word ‘Spitfire’ is picked out in red.

It is driven by the brand’s own 32111 caliber which, like the watch itself, is a simple, no-nonsense machine running at 4 Hz and providing an impressive 120-hour reserve. 

There are two variants on offer. A perfectly understated brushed steel model on a green textile strap, and a slightly more flamboyant bronze piece with green dial on brown calfskin, with or without IWC’s EasX-Change system.  

As a manufacture, IWC has always excelled in the form-over-fashion space, offering an entire range of stunning watches for pilots. In my opinion, however, the Spitfire is the one which gets just about every element absolutely correct. 

A watch for those who know their watches, it is close to unbeatable. 

Featured Photo: BeckerTime’s Archive.