# A Military Type Watch Design



## DR_Dreadlocks

Here is a very simple design I did some days ago, a military type watch, I had so much fun doing it, already thinking about my next project:

The original post with full size pictures, just click on them: http://owdb.blogspot.com/2008/11/military-issue-type-concept-watch.html

Any thoughts and feedback are welcome! :-!


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## scuttle

It looks like the bezel would be especially easy to manipulate, even if you had gloves on, which is definitely an advantage for a military watch and an Example Of Smartness. Going forward from there, maybe it would make sense to add a tactile marker to the 60 position on the bezel - ie to make it feel different to the others?

My one worry would be that the hands, which are otherwise *superb*, might not differentiate enough at night, especially for fast readability.

Anyway, seeing you seem to have a bias - and talent - for ergnomics in your designs, you might want to read "The Design Of Everday Things".

My other suggestions are -

- A miltary watch should have ideally have two illumination systems - regular lume for night adapated vision, and a good backlight for gun flash blinded sight. (Tritium would be ok for both, but the watch has to kept under a cover when absolute stealth is important - which admittedly isn't much of the time for most soldiers, even in combat.)

- An ideal military watch might be equipped with a powerful silent alarm.


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## DR_Dreadlocks

scuttle said:


> It looks like the bezel would be especially easy to manipulate, even if you had gloves on, which is definitely an advantage for a military watch and an Example Of Smartness. Going forward from there, maybe it would make sense to add a tactile marker to the 60 position on the bezel - ie to make it feel different to the others?
> 
> My one worry would be that the hands, which are otherwise *superb*, might not differentiate enough at night, especially for fast readability.
> 
> Anyway, seeing you seem to have a bias - and talent - for ergnomics in your designs, you might want to read "The Design Of Everday Things".
> 
> My other suggestions are -
> 
> - A miltary watch should have ideally have two illumination systems - regular lume for night adapated vision, and a good backlight for gun flash blinded sight. (Tritium would be ok for both, but the watch has to kept under a cover when absolute stealth is important - which admittedly isn't much of the time for most soldiers, even in combat.)
> 
> - An ideal military watch might be equipped with a powerful silent alarm.


Thank you for the feedback, scuttle. 

I think that the tactile marker on 60' in the bezel is a great idea, never saw it implemented on a watch, or at least I don't remember. I have seen substantial tactile markers at every 15' on divers and alike, but only at 60' is innovative.

You are right about the hands, needs another shape and/or size to really differentiate them. Maybe Plongeur or MoD like hands would be the best for the job, personally I like MoD hands more.

About Illumination, It would be fine to have lume on the dot markers and hands for night adapted vision, and a electroluminescense backlight for the numbers at dial, that would be fancy and useful. But probably just tritium vials at markers and hands would be the choice if it would get "issued", that's the trend.

I agree with you about that an ideal military watch should have a silent alarm, IMHO sometimes I think that a watch without alarm it's just half a watch. Bezel comes near that but needs attention from time to time, but having something "to wake you up" in a silent way would be an advantage. ;-)

I'm not really getting into the "internals" of the watch, just focusing on the look, shape and some functionality.

Many people thinks that a quartz watch is not reliable enough for combat because of the power source, and viceversa, many people thinks that anything besides a digital display G-shock is pretty delicate for combat situations. I like both paradigms, they have their own flaws and assets.

I think this watch designing stuff is like writing an screenplay, it's pretty open to modifications. At the end, the movie had been so heavily modified by director, actors, producer, FX guys, etc, that it only resembles the original idea in it's shape and function. So maybe the screenwriter wants Keanu for a character, but producer hires Jack black. LOL :-d

Cheers! :-!


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## scuttle

DR_Dreadlocks said:


> Thank you for the feedback, scuttle.
> 
> I think that the tactile marker on 60' in the bezel is a great idea, never saw it implemented on a watch, or at least I don't remember. I have seen substantial tactile markers at every 15' on divers and alike, but only at 60' is innovative.


It seemed obvious looking at your design - just a matter of making it more-so...



> You are right about the hands, needs another shape and/or size to really differentiate them. Maybe Plongeur or MoD like hands would be the best for the job, personally I like MoD hands more.


Yes: MOD hands do seem to have the combination of distinctiveness and intuitive reading in the dark.



> I agree with you about that an ideal military watch should have a silent alarm, IMHO sometimes I think that a watch without alarm it's just half a watch. Bezel comes near that but needs attention from time to time, but having something "to wake you up" in a silent way would be an advantage. ;-)


Plus a vibe time pulse function would be useful - adrenalin can do funny things to time, and it might be very psychologically useful to get a pulse every five or ten minutes in some circumstances.



> I'm not really getting into the "internals" of the watch, just focusing on the look, shape and some functionality.


I think even a "cosmetic" design has to take account of the functions a watch is supposed to carry - once you commit to an alarm you need a way of setting it, and the buttons (?) have to be made accessible but also protected from shock.



> Many people thinks that a quartz watch is not reliable enough for combat because of the power source


I think those people are just mechanical watch nuts finding excuses. Virtually all modern combat watches are quartz - their power sources don't need changing nearly as often as image intensifiers, and you can trust troops to notice low battery warnings. Otherwise you shouldn't trust them with guns.



> , and viceversa, many people thinks that anything besides a digital display G-shock is pretty delicate for combat situations.


My own ideal watch would be a G-Shock with an Omega X33 like face, with trits on the hands... I think anything that would kill one of the existing handed G-Shock would probably have killed the owner. It's a pity that Casio won't use trits on Gs, or even MOD hands or the equivalent.

Actually, I do have a watch that looks a bit like yours - an Uzi protector. If the dial was tastefully sterilized, and the bezel was changed, it'd be close. Hell of a good beater watch - probably the best deal you can get in tritium.


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## DR_Dreadlocks

scuttle said:


> Plus a vibe time pulse function would be useful - adrenalin can do funny things to time, and it might be very psychologically useful to get a pulse every five or ten minutes in some circumstances.


A vibe function like that on a watch is the way to go, not only useful for "operators", but from comercial pilots to zen monks or just the average joe too. It's a pity only Timex and Casio are interested in making such watches, and IMHO any black faced el-cheapo Timex watch Expedition is more "this kind of watch" than anything from brands like MTM special ops or Right move's Spetsnaz.



scuttle said:


> I think even a "cosmetic" design has to take account of the functions a watch is supposed to carry - once you commit to an alarm you need a way of setting it, and the buttons (?) have to be made accessible but also protected from shock.


Well, when designed the watch, just wanted a non-dated straight time piece, B-uhr and the A-11 were just that. So if it will be Quartz would be a 1 jeweled movement, even miyota would fit on specs, or if it would be a mechanical an ETA 2824 should do the job, nothing fancy at all, just a reliable wrist watch.



scuttle said:


> I think those people are just mechanical watch nuts finding excuses. Virtually all modern combat watches are quartz - their power sources don't need changing nearly as often as image intensifiers, and you can trust troops to notice low battery warnings. Otherwise you shouldn't trust them with guns.


Well, it's not a fanboy's opinion at all, look at Marathon's watches, they are the official de facto issued US Military watches, they are the only watches on earth that could get "U.S. Goverment" writen on it's dial, actually they have only few Quartz models in comparison with their mechanical ones, and there is only one with digital display(depends if you count "Adanac" as a Marathon branch or not), and I'm talking about actual 2008 contracts on modern combat watches from a major Military Super Power. If Stocker & Yale watches would never went the way of the dodo, I'm sure they'll be into the same trend.



scuttle said:


> My own ideal watch would be a G-Shock with an Omega X33 like face, with trits on the hands... I think anything that would kill one of the existing handed G-Shock would probably have killed the owner. It's a pity that Casio won't use trits on Gs, or even MOD hands or the equivalent.


Yes, it's a pity that Japanese laws forbide the use of radioactive elements on watches, a G-Shock with mb-microtech tritium would be the bomb, not pun intended. But that's not excuse, Casio should learn some tricks from Seiko or Citizen about lume. ;-)



scuttle said:


> Actually, I do have a watch that looks a bit like yours - an Uzi protector. If the dial was tastefully sterilized, and the bezel was changed, it'd be close. Hell of a good beater watch - probably the best deal you can get in tritium.


Cool watch, I should get one soon! So many on my wishlist by now, LOL.


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## scuttle

DR_Dreadlocks said:


> Well, it's not a fanboy's opinion at all [that mech are tougher than quartz] look at Marathon's watches, they are the official de facto issued US Military watches, they are the only watches on earth that could get "U.S. Goverment" writen on it's dial, actually they have only few Quartz models in comparison with their mechanical ones, and there is only one with digital display(depends if you count "Adanac" as a Marathon branch or not), and I'm talking about actual 2008 contracts on modern combat watches from a major Military Super Power.


Sorry - that's wrong in just about every way.

While Marathon doesn't produce a digital, that's because G-Shocks are *THE* most commonly issued US military watch - and the design is about impossible to beat, to the extent that the company that designed the Marathon SAR, County Comm, also created the "Mil Shock" adaptation of the G, which sort of lives on those NATO adaptors you can fit to most G's now.

There's a lot of BS from companies selling Mall Ninja toys about US military watches, but the way the system works with many items of small equipment is that units have their own budget and order what they want.

As for the Marathons that get issued and carried - yes, they're mostly quartz. Really, ask on a military forum if you don't believe me or think the PilMil thread is too small a sample.

Oh, and if you go to Marathon's wristwatch page and count by model, you'll find that offer 8 military quartz watches, compared to two or three military mechanicals - but its watches *issued* that matters.

The toughest $2000 mech wrist watch in the world is a fragile inaccurate mainstenance queen compared to a $100 G. Yes, it can take a 7500g acceleration if it's a fluid filled Bell Hydro Engineer - but that's only what a watch gets at the end of 1m drop on to a steel deck, and a G can take **10 times** that punishment. If you're going to fire guns and be near explosives, then wearing the tougher watch is a good idea.



> Yes, it's a pity that Japanese laws forbide the use of radioactive elements on watches, a G-Shock with mb-microtech tritium would be the bomb, not pun intended. But that's not excuse, Casio should learn some tricks from Seiko or Citizen about lume.


Big hands with bright lume would be a help, yes. Otoh, they might actually lose military sales for the G - one of the soldiers explaining why the G is the most popular choice in a current PilMil thread emphasized the G's non-emitting nature when turned off.


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## DR_Dreadlocks

Ok b-)


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## RODJER007

just a quick bit of food for thourt. When a us navy pilot finishes his training they are either given or offerd to purchase the limited edition BREMONT USNTPS ALT1-Z (nothing like a brief name.) looks like the ALT1-Z but has the pilot school logo on the dial.


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## sgtslice

It looks like a Luminox Navy Seal watch to me!


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## Barry H

That's a great design. Well done!

Just a couple of things which in no way detract from your work, just personal thoughts...

1 Lose the 24 hour markers. I hate 'em! I can't tell you how many watches I haven't bought because the design is otherwise cluttered up and spoiled by their inclusion. Why do watch designers included them? Who needs them anyway? You could then use a slightly larger font for the hour numerals.

2 Would prefer a tail on the second hand.

3 Love the minute hand, but agree a different hour hand is needed.

4 Glad to see you haven't included a date window. You might include one between the four and the five (Bell & Ross?) if you must, but much prefer the design without.

Good stuff. Let's see some variations!


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## DR_Dreadlocks

Thanks for the feedback, guys. :-! I made some variations based on your ideas.










About the 24 hrs markers, I think they are on milspec for the clueless 18 year olds that doesn't know what time is 1900 and had been using his/her cellphone/ipod as a timepiece in the last 5 years. I know about it, I was into that category. :-d

The last variation has a kind of british diver dial, sterile chapter ring and plongeur-like hands. Forgot to put it, but a quite protuding lume dot on the bezel would be a nice tactile marker. Here's a quick 3D mock up:


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## Barry H

Aha! Almost there! Definitely No 2. Just need to add an arrowhead to the point of the second hand instead of the box (nit picking, but God is in the details - so someone once said). And the bezel from No 3 and size of the numerals from No 1. Then you'd have a watch that's the dog's bollocks (as we say here in the UK).

Good stuff!


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## larsy

In the last design the minute hand could nearly fully cover the hour hand.
I think the hour hand needs to be larger so it remains visible underneath.
I agree that the seconds hand doesn't fit the style of the other hands,
moreover it shouldn't have two lumes on it.

The Rolex hands on a Sub are one of the best designs in my opinion.
When the minute hand covers the hour hand, the hour hand's ball is still
clearly visible underneath. And the seconds hand with it's own smaller ball
on the side of the second hand's tip also helps readability.

With a diver it might be acceptable to have the ball of the seconds hand
opposite of the tip as it only needs to indicate the watch is still moving.



In addition to that I think the bezel needs to be redesigned because it
seems to me it could be turned too easily by accident.
The hooks or teeth will snag on anything.
And, with time, also destroy your sleeves.

The crown should also be better protected so no part is exposed
beyond the flanks or shoulders of the case.

E.g. the MKII Blackwater has a very good case design.
While it's not a beauty it is very practical.
It has very few sharp edges or corners where dirt, oil, chemicals residue etc. accumulate.

Any sharp edge with a 90° or less angle is a pain in the ass to clean.
And dirt that stays in contact with your skin for a longer time becomes a problem.


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## DR_Dreadlocks

Another update, now with more Helvetica for that lovely "design by committee" feeling that I like so much 










Thanks for the feedback, guys. Cheers :-!


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## Barry H

That's it, Doc! A few nitpicking things - 
1 I'd make the crown chunkier 
2 I might make the minute hand a weeny bit broader 
3 I'd make the crown guards a weeny bit wider
4 Round off the corners of the case. 

Otherwise, congratulations! That's really a great effort - if one of these was within my budget I'd be reaching for my credit card! Now let's see it for real -stainless with an automatic or resin with quartz - both would be cool. Also white face, black numerals would be good, too (maybe with dark blue or dark red on the hands instead of orange). As for case diatmeter - well, we could argue about that till hell freezes over...


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## goddino371

Definitely like the Feb 15th version. The orange minute hand was confusing to my brain in the previous renditions. My brain kept telling me it was the hour hand!


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## escapementz

I like them all! Nice work!


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## Beau8

The rotating bezel has sharp burrs which could be a problem when it comes in contact with clothing or equipment~Cheers! ;-)


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## capt_RENGT

hedgehog watch


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## spain72

Beau8 said:


> The rotating bezel has sharp burrs which could be a problem when it comes in contact with clothing or equipment~Cheers! ;-)


I agree with Beau8...that bezel is REALLY what a military DOES NOT NEED... can be dangerous! For a Commando as for a Technician or a Pilot! (believe me...20 years in the Air Force!) :think:


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## sierra11b

Beau8 said:


> The rotating bezel has sharp burrs which could be a problem when it comes in contact with clothing or equipment~Cheers! ;-)


Agreed. Your Feb 14th rendition looks great but try it with the other bezel you have with the longer "teeth". I can think of a thousand things "joe" could get them snagged on, plus I think the other bezel teeth will wear more uniformly over time and give you a more positive grip.

Personally, I like Benrus-style typeII dial with the military time but the one you have now is fine. The one you have now is a cleaner, minimalist look that looks like it means business. I'm no longer active duty and no longer use military time, but recall when I was active and automatically translated the time in my head, so the dial print is irrelevant for military-types.

On a side note and I know it's waaaay beyond where you are in the design stages, but I really wish someone would offer a watch like this with quartz and a 200WR rating. We see all these "tacticool" watches that are way out of the price range of the enlisted man. I will admit that I am part of this group now. I recall when Suunto was just becoming popular and considered a very hefty purchase for most soldiers and only few had them. Of course, marketing a watch to soldiers that would rather buy beer and playstation games is never an easy sell (especially when Timex and G-shocks can be purchased at the BX), but it would be nice if it was at a reasonable price range that a discerning member of our armed forces could realistically acquire if he decided to set aside some beer money. Maybe that's just not possible in a custom design when there's already so many options available from large manufacturers?


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## tomkent45

I have realised that you don't necessarily have to spend a fortune for a military watch.


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## Zagato

About the 24 hrs markers, I think they are on milspec for the clueless 18 year olds that doesn't know what time is 1900 and had been using his/her cellphone/ipod as a timepiece in the last 5 years. I know about it, I was into that category. :-d

In my experience, the average 18 year old is well used to the 24 hour concept by the time they graduate AIT.


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