Yet another (strange) military watch

peasant

Just fell over this by sheer accident (yes the weather is still bad and I'm still bored )

apologies in advance for the big pics, but they are the only ones I found




Basically what it is is a stainless steel watch, 45 x 15 mm, with sapphire crystal, tritium hands and hour markers, 200 m water resistant, with a Citizen automatic movement and a 10 year warranty !

All for 250 Euro HERE

The strange bit is the maker. This NFD crowd, from what I can gather, are the owners of this "ranger shop" (main clientele are German soldiers) that get certain products made and re-branded with their NFD logo.

Ten browny points to who can tell me who made this watch. I honestly don't know ...but doesn't it look just a bit "Marathon"?. The "T25" on the other hand would hint at the "Deep Blue" T25, but that has different hands and should be 300 m water resistant
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RxFeoJZ7Zo

Interesting watch nonetheless

Wibbs

It looks very Marathon(or Stocker and Yale). With it's tritium vials and overall look. At 250 quid it's a bloody steal. :eek: Half the price(at least) of a Marathon GSAR and has the tritium second hand which the GSAR doesn't.

It's not "officially" a mil watch for the purists as the purists insist it was issued by and to a military arm or unit and would have mil spec stamps on the back. That's all very well, but when the majority of soldiers nowadays wear G shocks and the like they get from the PX that's a bit anal for me. They still do this, even when they can get issued watches like the American armed forces can.

Monty Burnz

Thanks for sharing the find

They also have a mechanical chrono for only €150 -



- which, at that price can only mean a Russian or more likely a Chinese movement. I don't have any Chinese chronos yet... :pac:


http://www.ranger-shop.de/products/Ausruestung/Technik/Uhren/Chronograph-Automatik-Mechanik1.html

Monty Burnz

Peasant, I just remembered a thread on TZ-UK where someone (Eddie, the proprietor?) mentioned some problem with trying to use tritium vials in a watch he was making, and it turned out that the makers of the particular vials he was after do not sell to watch makers, but will make branded watches for the watch makers instead (so they would have made PRS or whatever branded watches for Eddie Platt). So he dropped the idea.

Anyway, I only know of two makers of the vials, MB Microtec and SRB, so there's a good chance the watch was made by one of them. If you can find the thread on TZ-UK it might be more coherent than my 'explanation'.

Some mention of it here, but I don't think it's the post I'm referring to...

Ah, here it is I think.

peasant

Here is the watch again ...this time from this Mil-Tec crowd (a wholesaler in military surplus goods), same as the chrono above

Only this time the face & bezel is different and the movement is quartz ...and no price either.

http://www.sturm-miltec.de/de/Ausr%C3%BCstung/2000/Messger%C3%A4te/2130/ARMY%20UHR%20TRITIUM/15752200/ARMY%20UHR%20TRITIUM.htm



Can anyone identify the makers logo, conveniently obscured by the watermark?

Looks like it says "Swiss Made" at the bottom

peasant

Ok ... five out of ten browny points go to myself.

Apparently this watch is pretty common, sold under all sorts of names, Praetorian or Royal Swiss being examples.

See here: http://forums.watchuseek.com/f74/any-first-hand-info-praetorian-signifer-241374.html

So now we know who re-brands these watches ...we still don't know who makes them.:D

Still ...by the sum of its parts ...auto, sapphire, tritium....the watch in the OP is still a good price and the tactical sign of the German paratroopers gives it some more cred then "Praetorian" or "Royal Swiss" (since when is Switzerland a kingdom? )