Modern Era Military Watches
Discussion
mel said:
Foliage said:
ecain63 said:
The SBS are getting a Rolex issue soon. I think the Seamaster batch is nearly all used up and other than the uber rare SRR Subs no other unit currently gets a Rolex issue. When my old unit gets it's arse in gear and orders some Surveillance and Reconnaissance Squadron badged Subs or Seamasters i'll get in there asap.
This is completely contrary to my knowledge of the current issue watches to UKSF.. (unless your talking about 'NAAFI merchandise' of course) I'll give you the benefit of the doubt though..As far as im aware SBS are issued the same watch as divers ie the citizen eco drive, and the rest get either the standard issue watch or Traser dependant on role and need,
Most use either the cheap casio/g-shocks or suunto's etc
Edited by Foliage on Tuesday 2nd December 12:32
The days of the "issue rolex" are long gone, I completed my divers course early nineties and got a Citizen Automatic which was alright, functional and I've still got (still going strong keeps better time than my own Seamaster and has never even had the back off in 25 years!). I did have a couple of Rolex's on my PLR as Ship Divers loan kit on board before they did away with SD's and they all got sent back with the rest of the kit. I know that just under a hundred of these came back to the stores at Gunwharf shortly before we moved to Horsea Island. At the time it was only the old and bold S/R CD's that generally had them and the rest of us weren't actually that bothered as it was "just a watch" I know as a fact that the SA's had hundreds of the bloody things in the stores and if you really wanted a watch on your PLR (none of us bothered as we used our own) they were easier to get hold of than socks!
At the time it just wasn't important and if I'm honest a battered Rolex held little interest when you were signing for hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of Kirby Morgan gear and couple RCMDS submersibles. (oh how I kick myself now!)
The whole folklore that Bootneck SC's used to get some mythical SF superdooper Rolex as an operational working watch is frankly b
ks, at that time the Casio G shock was the weapon of choice, now superseded by the various offerings from Suunto. The Rolex didn't even tell the day or date FFS and lets face it in that line of work you often don't have clue what day of the week it is so it's a pretty important function.As i said, when the run of (i think there were 500) Seamasters runs out, Rolex have agreed to commission the next run of investment pieces. They won't be issue items, but will be offered to serving ranks and those joining the unit on completion of selection.
N
ecain63 said:
They are not NAAFI stock. The unit orders an allocation and then as people get badged / join the unit / etc they get the option to purchase. To complete the purchase you have to submit your service number to the CO / OC / troop boss / SSM so can only have one if you are a genuine candidate. Hereford did back in the day did have access to mil spec Subs (no date). Poole didn't as far as i know. Submarine captains also had a Mil Sub at their disposal which they could sign out when taking command of the boat. At the end of the command it would be handed back.
As i said, when the run of (i think there were 500) Seamasters runs out, Rolex have agreed to commission the next run of investment pieces. They won't be issue items, but will be offered to serving ranks and those joining the unit on completion of selection.
Previous CO SBS wears a Seamaster. I was ogling it in the mess last year.As i said, when the run of (i think there were 500) Seamasters runs out, Rolex have agreed to commission the next run of investment pieces. They won't be issue items, but will be offered to serving ranks and those joining the unit on completion of selection.
ecain63 said:
Hereford did back in the day did have access to mil spec Subs (no date). Poole didn't as far as i know. Submarine captains also had a Mil Sub at their disposal which they could sign out when taking command of the boat. At the end of the command it would be handed back.
FFS man, please believe me there was nothing mythical about the milsub in the 70's/80's, Every single ship in the fleet would have had at least two on the permanent loan of the senior rate diving supervisor for ships divers, this could have been a branch steward/chef/stoker any branch but having done an additional qualification as a ships diver. Not "Special Forces" nor a "Submarine Captains" yes just a chef and not even a Steven Seagel chef!, no big deal. These watches were bought under contract by the crown and issued to blokes who got wet every now and again, most were actually cable tied onto swim boards and very few ever went in the water as blokes used their own. Every Branch Diver also got one on loan (as a junior rate it would have been on the loan record of your boss) We didn't really care or take any notice what make they were and as I said earlier I got a Citizen Automatic as that was the current new stock when I qualified, 5 years before the guys got Omega, 10 years before the guys got Rolex, shortly after they got CWC. Historically they weren't bought to be bling, they had a military spec' and the tender went out commercially, in the 70's it just happened that Rolex could meet the requirements of the spec' cheapest by supplying a standard watch with a few tweaks such as a nato strap, engraved stocknumber and crowsfoot stamped face, when that stock was used up it went out to tender again and by this time Omega were cheapest for the equivalent spec' and so on, and so on. Back then the spec' meant that the watch had to be suitable for saturation diving which only Navy Diving Branch did (they lost this requirement when HMS Challenger was sold around 1990) so any watch used by any other branch including Royal Marine SBS etc was simply a variation on the real thing, after 1990 with the need for saturation diving gone all the spec's went downhill and the issue stuff today is frankly s
te.As for all your other "unit specific" stuff, these are not crown issue, never have been, never will be. They won't carry a stock number and will not have been purchased by MoD procurement and issued. They will be unit specific vanity items, bought using unit or mess funds and then sold on to members, manufactured by the makers as a concession. AKA "NAAFI Specials" admittedly nice, yes some are desirable. I remember the first batch of RN CD Branch Seamasters being ordered in the early 90's, at the time a chit went on the notice board in Gunwharf and you simply added your name if you wanted one then when they arrived had to part with a large chunk of money, most blokes told their wives they were either cheap or issued and the single blokes blinged it up with them down the pub then telling every skimmer they could find that you had to be a diver to be able to afford one
Edited by mel on Wednesday 3rd December 12:02
Foliage said:
Joey Ramone said:
Previous CO SBS wears a Seamaster. I was ogling it in the mess last year.
I wear a seamaster on occasion, currently wearing my traser...
Coincidentally(?), this broad topic was the subject of a Lazarus like resurrection on Prune last week.
http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/272891-sqn...
http://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/272891-sqn...
I just got my genuine CWC G10 watch back from the menders 
0552/6645-99-541-5317 from 1988!! It hadn't worked in about a bajillion years, when I found it in a box of trinkets and keepsakes from my service years, so I whacked a new battery in it, but it wouldn't keep time. I've now spent £72 on new contacts, a full service/overhaul, and they even polished the scratches out of the acrylic 'glass' for me.
I [ahem] acquired it when I was working as a QM's storeman. It may well have been u/s when I found it, off the books, serial number "not on strength" in the back of a locker I was clearing out. But it works again now, and is my new favourite watch. Although I ditched the gouting grey nylon G10 strap for a more modern black velcro number I used to have as a spare for my (certified dead) G-Shock.
As a store-wallah, I was one of relatively few squaddies who actually had an issued watch. Unit stockholding was limited (scaled), and seeing as we (or our bosses) controlled them, we got 'first dibs' on any that were ordered in, and if we didn't have stock, we'd call them all back in from loan for some spurious reason to "redistribute" them. Plenty went missing though, people going 'diffy' and paying for a replacement (cheaper than outside prices, because of 'write-down'). But I didn't keep the one I had that worked, as the serial numbers didn't match. I'd forgotten I even had one, to be honest. It's a very discrete watch, small, yet clear and easy to read. The tritium dials don't illuminate too well, and it still has a couple of chips in the acrylic 'glass' and a lifetime of scrapes on the metal case, but I far prefer it to the 'Next' digital 'sports watch' that I was mostly wearing day-to-day. It's lovely to have a practical analogue watch on my wrist again. I'm not a collector by any means. Four watches in total, the (almost disposable at £12.50) digital from the 'Next' sale, a similarly cheap rectangular faced analogue with fake crocskin strap that I bought when I left mine at home, and a stainless steel Pulsar that was the first present my wife bought me when we started going out.
Over the years I had a Citizen watch that I wore to the Gulf War in '91, but that died a few years later when it fell into a bath and it turned out that the last battery replacement had left it vulnerable to water ingress
Then I had a G-Shock, one that stored data, phone numbers, etc, but that died too. So I stopped spending money on watches that I only kept killing. I'm happy that I spent some cash repairing this CWC watch though.
0552/6645-99-541-5317 from 1988!! It hadn't worked in about a bajillion years, when I found it in a box of trinkets and keepsakes from my service years, so I whacked a new battery in it, but it wouldn't keep time. I've now spent £72 on new contacts, a full service/overhaul, and they even polished the scratches out of the acrylic 'glass' for me.
I [ahem] acquired it when I was working as a QM's storeman. It may well have been u/s when I found it, off the books, serial number "not on strength" in the back of a locker I was clearing out. But it works again now, and is my new favourite watch. Although I ditched the gouting grey nylon G10 strap for a more modern black velcro number I used to have as a spare for my (certified dead) G-Shock.
As a store-wallah, I was one of relatively few squaddies who actually had an issued watch. Unit stockholding was limited (scaled), and seeing as we (or our bosses) controlled them, we got 'first dibs' on any that were ordered in, and if we didn't have stock, we'd call them all back in from loan for some spurious reason to "redistribute" them. Plenty went missing though, people going 'diffy' and paying for a replacement (cheaper than outside prices, because of 'write-down'). But I didn't keep the one I had that worked, as the serial numbers didn't match. I'd forgotten I even had one, to be honest. It's a very discrete watch, small, yet clear and easy to read. The tritium dials don't illuminate too well, and it still has a couple of chips in the acrylic 'glass' and a lifetime of scrapes on the metal case, but I far prefer it to the 'Next' digital 'sports watch' that I was mostly wearing day-to-day. It's lovely to have a practical analogue watch on my wrist again. I'm not a collector by any means. Four watches in total, the (almost disposable at £12.50) digital from the 'Next' sale, a similarly cheap rectangular faced analogue with fake crocskin strap that I bought when I left mine at home, and a stainless steel Pulsar that was the first present my wife bought me when we started going out.
Over the years I had a Citizen watch that I wore to the Gulf War in '91, but that died a few years later when it fell into a bath and it turned out that the last battery replacement had left it vulnerable to water ingress
Then I had a G-Shock, one that stored data, phone numbers, etc, but that died too. So I stopped spending money on watches that I only kept killing. I'm happy that I spent some cash repairing this CWC watch though.dai1983 said:
dai1983 said:
I'd say the most used watch in the British armed forces is the Casio Foxtrot 91 Whisky. Not issued but also available with an LED backlight if you want to splash out.
I wore one for years but my mrs hated it and bought me a G shock.
I wore one for years but my mrs hated it and bought me a G shock.
bloody Guardsmen... G Shock for me and most of my mates as well.
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