Military watches

“I brought something for you. This watch was bought by your great-grandfather during the first world war. He bought them from a small shop in Knoxwell, Tennessee. It was the first wristwatch, back then. This is your great-grandfather's watch. He always carried them with him, guarded in battle. When he got home to your great-grandmother, he took them off and put them in the coffee pot. There they lay. Until your grandfather, Jack, went to fight for his country, with the enemy ... "

K / f "Pulp Fiction", 1994

Fans of the work of the American director, screenwriter and US People's Artist Quentin Tarantino know very well where THEN the family heirloom was kept. The rest, perhaps, can only guess, but ... "be silent, Lieutenant!". The question is - how does a military watch stand up to war and time? And can modern military-style chronometers match the quality of military watches?

To begin with, let's clarify that the great-grandfather of the movie hero hardly even understood what value he got. Firstly, in the First World War, watches had just migrated from pockets to hands. And secondly, what value can we talk about for an inexperienced person if these trench watches were all the same - an enamel dial, white numbers and no brand on visible details? Meanwhile, the mechanisms of the 90s of the XIX century already hid the laconic "Swiss"!

Yes, Switzerland was the first to set the tone for military watches and does not lower the bar to this day .

Tarantino experts diligently fuel the myth that in the famous crime drama, all the clocks in all the novellas always show the same time: 4:20.

This could be true, at least for boxer Butch Coolidge's watch. After all, a luminous arrow, a gold / steel / silver case, little functionality and very approximate accuracy were attached to the military of the 19th century.

In the 21st century, more than 250 requirements for parameter and accuracy are imposed on such watches! Only after passing two hundred tests, the watch receives the MIL-PRF-4637 certification. For curious warriors, even a special document “Watch, wrist: general purpose” has been drawn up, in which all the conditions for certification are set out in detail.

Such watches of the military standard are appropriate on the hand of an officer of the Foreign Legion, but stylized as military ones are good both on the hand of an athlete and under the cuff with a cufflink on the boss. And there are no less requirements for them, but I’ll get sick of design bells and whistles

Judge for yourself, military watch from Invicta :

• They have decent water resistance.
• They are impact resistant
• Backlight available
• They are repairable
• They have magnetism - magnetic fields do not affect the accuracy of such watches.

By the way, the first magnetic watch in 1888 was placed for a quarter of an hour at the mouth of Major King's giant "gun-magnet", the range of which is 10 km!!!

• In the same military clip - increased requirements for metals, straps and glass.

The cases are made mainly of titanium and carbon, and the glass is made of hardened minerals (priority) or sapphire and coated with an anti-reflective coating. As a result, we have strength and secrecy.

The dial is no longer necessarily white, as at the dawn of military watchmaking, but, on the contrary, more often black with white divisions and Arabic numerals. But this is not a prerequisite.

It so happened that military watches have evolved from aggressive mythology to practical ideology, and style fans appreciate such watches because they make life easier and more convenient .

And they are just beautiful.

“If the main thing is the clock, I should have said. You're not a telepath, are you? »

K / f "Pulp Fiction", 1994 I'm not repeating myself, repeating myself?

Author: Natalia Korskova