Can one buy a legitimate vintage military watch from a place like eBay? Sure. But be careful — especially as it concerns vintage watches. The watch community is (perhaps overly) obsessed with “originality” and “correctness” — two distinct concepts, to be sure — and replacing a part in a watch can seriously affect its value, if that sort of thing concerns you. If we’re talking about anything more valuable than a simple field watch from the Vietnam War, it pays, IMHO, to buy through a dealer, such as Analog:Shift or Wind Vintage. These guys can help verify a piece’s legitimacy, as they have both the personal experience handling such watches and the connections at brands to check on details. If you’re buying a seriously valuable piece via an auction house, you can be (reasonably) assured that the house has done its research via the brand in question to verify authenticity. Buying directly from a veteran is, of course, perhaps the ultimate route to legitimacy — especially if said vet can provide pictures of the watch worn during service. 

Military watches are slightly different than other types of watches in that, given their intended purpose — to aid soldiers in making war — the primary concern of a watchmaker during conflict was to get a piece back into working condition. Any part that would fit the watch and help it to continue doing its job would be fair game, meaning that not every “Frankenwatch” is necessarily “incorrect” with respect to its provenance. For example, an A-11, a watch that was produced in myriad configurations by multiple brands, might have a handset that seems “incorrect” given its particular reference number. But would a watchmaker in 1944 have cared that the parts he or she used to repair any given watch weren’t necessarily meant for that particular watch? Absolutely not. So take “correctness” with a grain of salt.

Prices are given as bases to indicate the lowest reasonable price one might expect to pay if searching through an auction site such as eBay. While certain of these watches can be successfully sourced in “correct” condition on eBay, for others, it’s better to pay more money to source one through a dealer or using a dedicated site such as Chrono24 or WatchRecon. Expect to pay more — sometimes multiples more — but to find many more trustworthy sellers.

In 1939, the British were caught somewhat with their pants down, and quickly needed to procure a large number of pocket watches for military use. Many of these “General Service, Trade Pattern” watches were purchased from Swiss manufacturers and from retail channels, and thus different dial configurations and specs exist. For the most part, these are black or white-dialed timepieces with Arabic numerals, lumed 5-minute markers, an outer “railroad” minute track, and a large sub-seconds display above 6 o’clock. Casebacks are marked with the “broad arrow” symbol indicating Crown property. Excellent examples from notable marques such as Jaeger-LeCoultre can be found fairly easily, while examples from less prominent brands can be had at a relative bargain. Type: Pocket watch
Diameter: ~52mm
Lug Width: N/A
Winding: Hand-wound

Here’s an example of a contemporary military dive watch that one could both buy new and as an issued example — if one could convince a serviceman to part with his! Made by Canadian company Marathon, which has been producing mil-spec watches for several generations, the TSAR, GSAR, and MSAR lines constitute a series of robust, automatic and quartz-powered divers that use tritium tubes for the ultimate in luminescent dials. Chunky, handsome, readily available, and approved for use by the U.S. military, these watches have been worn downrange in places like Iraq and Afghanistan for years. There are even special editions with dials signed by various outfits, such as Israel’s YAMAM counter-terror unit. 

A highly specific dive watch to collect, the Eterna Kon-Tiki Super — in various iterations — was issued to various units within the Israeli Navy. Though it’s commonly assumed that all of these watches were issued to Shayetet 13 — the IDF’s equivalent of the Navy SEALs — “shayetet” means “flotilla,” and there are other “shayetet” units. It’s thought that perhaps those marked only “M” with a numerical designation are S13 watches, as they’re largely “sterile,” and that others with more Hebrew on the caseback were perhaps for submariners and other units. No matter what, be very careful when buying one of these, and try to buy one with good provenance, preferably from the original owner, if that person will part with it! 

Often simply referred to as an “Asymmetric Chronograph” by CWC collectors, this unique, dual-register chrono was issued to Royal Navy pilots in the 1980s. Housed in an asymmetric case with a 30-minute counter beneath 12 o’clock, a running seconds counter at 9 o’clock, tritium lume, an acrylic crystal, and a hand-wound Valjoux movement ticking away inside, its cool looks, comfortable 39mm sizing and inscribed caseback make it a compelling military timepiece. Unfortunately only vintage examples are available, but it seems like only a matter of time before CWC retools this beauty into a contemporary reissue. (There was a time when one could buy a NOS version of this watch directly from CWC for about $900 — alas, those days are long gone.) This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.