Military personal- What watch are you wearing?

[mattjmcd]

First off, thanks to all of you who serve- and that includes allied forces too naturally! ( I am an American )

Second- do the combat arms types here actually wear tritium watches on operations? I always wondered if they'd cause a bit of bloom in NOD gear. I know it'd be less of an issue for pilots and support folks, but what about infantry etc?

[425Ranger]

First off, thanks to all of you who serve- and that includes allied forces too naturally! ( I am an American )

Second- do the combat arms types here actually wear tritium watches on operations? I always wondered if they'd cause a bit of bloom in NOD gear. I know it'd be less of an issue for pilots and support folks, but what about infantry etc?

yep, all the time.

[SquishyPanda]

Made it through basic and was issued a sandy for the Ranger train up and schools.....





THAT was a shitty watch. Wind up -20 sec a day. during a 250 foot night rappel I misjudged a crevice jump and slammed sideways on the watch against the cliff face. Hurt like a son of a ...... As I lay on my back on the floor of the mountain I raised my arm / hand to check for damage and niticed the watch "scooped" out from the front. Hit a rock just right and demolished it. I turned in the strap and case and told them to keep any others.

They still issue a plastic-bodied hand-wind watch? Are they just trying to burn through decades-old surplus or is there some operational advantage to a mechanical watch? Are they predicting you could possibly be lost in the woods or something long enough to run down a battery?

Looking forward to more input from our armed forces. Nice to see which "tactical" watches can handle real-world tactical environments. When a buddy of mine was getting ready for his first deployment from Camp Pendleton (he's out now, back in school on the GI bill) he asked me what kind of watch he should get within a reasonable Corporal's budget. I told him to just any G-Shock he liked from the PX. I think his family saw our conversation on FaceBook because a few days later they sent him one.

[SynixMan]

Newer guy here. Naval Aviator type. Definitely got the watch bug once I was in the pilot community and almost every has a Citizen at a minimum.

During OCS I had a POS $10 watch I got at Target. Never bring anything nice to OCS.

Got my first Omega, Seamaster Planet Ocean while I was in Primary flight training. Was a little worried about wearing it to work, but it's held up really well as a daily driver. Love the look and heft. My only complaint is the lack of GMT.



Had a chance to get in on an X-33 buy about a year ago and jumped on it. Just got it the other day. Can't believe it took this long to get, but it's pretty cool. Very light from the titanium, almost felt like a toy compared to the Planet Ocean. Not sure how I'm going to work between these two. Like the flying functions of the X-33 but like the look of the PO better. Terrible problem, right?

[Doug507]

SynixMan - welcome to the forum! That is an awful dilemma you have there. As a way to show my gratitude for your service to our country, you may send me either one of those beauties and ease your angst. I'm just glad to help.

[CCJ]

My first WUS post!
I wore a Citizen Navihawk on my recent deployment to Afghanistan flying as a land-based Navy navigator/WSO-type (my first deployment not flying off carriers). I was able to easily 'trick' the watch for Afghanistan's half time-zone, and display both local and Zulu at the same time. Dual time-zone was critical since flying is all off Zulu but everything on base ran on local. I wore mine on a gray NATO, very comfortable. (The pic is off google, looks like a kevlar strap: not a bad idea). Can't say enough how perfect the watch was for me, and I will wear it for the next trip, wherever that will be.
Side Note: I hit 2,000 hours in-type on that deployment and celebrated the occasion by ordering an Omega Speemaster Professional, which greeted me when I got home. It's not really suitable for my flying duties, but I love it for everything else.

[Crusader]

Welcome to the forum, CCJ !

[Rusty_Shakleford]

First off, thanks to all of you who serve- and that includes allied forces too naturally! ( I am an American )

Second- do the combat arms types here actually wear tritium watches on operations? I always wondered if they'd cause a bit of bloom in NOD gear. I know it'd be less of an issue for pilots and support folks, but what about infantry etc?

The tritium in my Luminox is not bright enough to cause any issues. It's blurry to look at but is not a problem. Now the backlight on my Pathfinder feels like it is melting your eyeballs through NODs if it turns on. Made that mistake one time just to see how it looked. I won't be doing that again.

RS

[Rusty_Shakleford]

Already posted but pertains to this thread. I've been wearing this almost daily since I go it...

[tcps760]

My brother was a Border Patrol Agent for a few years, and is now currently a US Marshall SRT team member out of the LA office. He is a Sgt in the USMC Reserves. He religiously wears his simple, black, plastic Luminox on a zulu strap for all exercises and operations that he conducts. I wanted to get him the Luminox chrono with alarm, etc, but he's perfectly content with his light, uncluttered watch.

I am a USMC Maj and have served in Iraq twice, and am just past the halfway point in my 1yr deployment in Afghanistan. I have served at within various support and ground combat units, to include a squadron support unit, infantry battalion, amtrac battalion, and at a Marine Special Operations Battalion (MARSOC). I currently ride a desk at HHQ. Throughout my career, I have worn the following watches, progressively through the ranks:

G-shock
G-shock Frogman (Thailand/S.Korea/Japan/OIF I, then stolen by some Army bunkmates while transitting out of theatre)
Suunto Vector (OIF 2, then retired it into a display case)
Luminox
Seiko 6306/9
Seiko SBBN007, Lum-Tec B8, G-shock gw-6900 (OEF, current)

If I were on a "real" combat deployment, instead of being tied down to a desk, my solar atomic G-shock gw-6900 would be the ONLY watch that I would wear. Alas, it is my gym watch/back up watch for when my pretty analog watches fail. Also, I will never take an automatic watch into the field with me. I don't trust mechanical movements, and "+ or - 10 to 15 seconds a day" will add up and cause disastrous effects...for either your career or other people's lives.