Here's some
background info. It appears that the watch may have been
designed in the Vietnam era, but was not
produced until 1982. That said, it was only produced for a couple of months, so it may indeed be quite rare.
Thank you for that!
I always get a little chuffed when I see sellers (or collectors, or both) beating the “military” drum just because it has a black dial and lume. If it was not issued by a government for service members, it IS NOT military!
“Mil-spec” is another bugaboo. Timex was never a contractor for the US military, Benrus and Hamilton were during the Vietnam era (and it was not a war, it was a conflict, or police action- war has only been declared twice in the US on a foreign government - and it requires an act of Congress- literally).
Companies like Marathon can claim “Mil-spec” for their civilian watches as they were designed for military use and their watches have actually been used by the military inboth the US and Canada
Even the historically in accurate Benrus D-day watch is more of a “military” watch than a timex ever would be- a reissue made by an official government contractor….they just cited the wrong watch for the wrong war- oops.
There were also civilian watches that were adopted as military pieces in the early days of wrist watches due to their designs meeting the needs of military personnel- but never officially “issued”
Although this Mido is the civilian model of the Royal Marine version which was identical but marked “R M” on the dial above the sub-second.
“Trench” watches are another issue- only a handful were actually “issued” to officers, most were purchased by servicemen- and many were marketed for the purpose of military field duty- but many consider any wire lug watch a “trench watch” which is a misnomer. Unless you can show Provence of the watch being used by a serviceman (some were thankfully engraved which gives us some sense of their history), then it just a wire lugged watch.
Elgin, Waltham and Bulova were military contractors in the previous military eras.
Anything purchased at a PX like Helbros divers, Zodiac Seawolfs, Rolex GMT’s (mostly by pilots who were in a higher pay scale and they were fashionable among the flyboys) or Timex’s- if even available at a PX) were NOT military issue, just worn by GI’s during conflict and purchased on base.
Sorry for the long winded rant. Those of us who spend the time and effort to collect military pieces take offense at anything being considered “military” as a marketing ploy.
