The Last Military-Issued Analog Watches

From Swiss Luxury to Utilitarian Independent Brands, A Few Analog Watches Are Still in Official Military Service  

By Benjamin Lowry 

While analog watches from brands like Rolex, Seiko, and Tudor are backed by unquestionable military history, the vast majority of military members today trust their personal and operational timing needs to straightforward Digital Tool Watches from brands like Casio, Garmin, and Suunto. Viewed from a utilitarian perspective, digital watches make a ton of sense. A $40 G-Shock does everything a $5,000 Tudor Pelagos can and a whole lot more, while also being infinitely more durable and, perhaps more importantly, one hell of a lot cheaper. 

The Rolex MilSub represents the golden age of military-issue analog tool watches. (Photo Credit: Bonhams (left) & diving-watch.net) 

Of course, this wasn’t always the case. In the 1960s, 70s, and into the 80s, there was a golden age of analog tool watches. For decades, end users and military supply officers reached for analog tool watches because they were, at the time, the best and most capable tools for the job. Take, for example, the Rolex “MilSub” fielded by British Royal Navy Divers and the Special Boat Service (SBS), the Marine Nationale’s storied relationship with Tudor, or Seiko’s history with MACV-SOG and the SEAL Teams. Many modern icons even owe aspects of their designs to input from military end users. 

The End Of Analog? 

Starting in 1969, the popularization of quartz timekeeping and the advent of digital watches, as well as the first G-Shock in 1983, all contributed to the gradual decline of analog watches in military service, especially in official military supply channels. By the Global War on Terror, analog watches were admittedly scarce, but does that mean the analog watch in military service is dead? 

Digital watches, including the G-Shock DW9052-1V worn by this Navy SEAL, are commonplace today, but that doesn’t mean the analog watch is dead. (Photo Credit: US Navy)

Our entire platform is evidence that countless modern-day operators and regular service members appreciate the blend of utility and heritage presented by analog watches, using their hard-earned cash to purchase and use “real” timepieces even under austere conditions. The Use Your Tools ethos is alive and well, but what about when the governments themselves are footing the bill? The list isn’t as long as we might like, but there are still a few analog and even mechanical watches being purchased by military organizations for issue to troops around the world. 

Marathon - United States & Canada 

A Marathon TSAR/GSAR in use by a US Air Force Pararescueman in 2024. (Photo Credit: US Air Force) 

A supplier to the US and Canadian militaries since the Second World War, Marathon is a family-run business that is likely the most prolific supplier of analog military-issue watches in the world today. Like most military-issued gear, each of Marathon’s models has its own NSN or NATO Stock Number, allowing the watches to be easily ordered by military supply personnel using government funds. Marathon’s collection is also broad, encompassing watches designed for ground-based infantry, amphibious personnel and special operations, and pilots and aviators, all of which are commonly ordered by units in the United States, Canada, and elsewhere. 

The Marathon “Arctic” GSAR. (Photo Credit: Brock Stevens)

While Marathon’s General Purpose Mechanical and Navigator series are also broadly issued, the W.O.E. Community has long favored the GSAR, an automatic 300-meter dive watch with tritium tube illumination, as well as its quartz sibling, the TSAR, both of which are descended from the original SAR series developed for Royal Canadian Air Force Search and Rescue Technicians or SAR Techs. In the past couple of years, the Marathon GSAR has been widely ordered by units within Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) and Naval Special Warfare (NSW). If legitimacy in official military service is something you value, Marathon should be one of the first places you look.  

CWC - Great Britain 

A Royal Navy Clearance Diver (left) and legendary SBS Sergeant Paul “Scruff” McGough (right) wear the CWC SBS during active service.

For the British Ministry of Defence, the most important name in military-issued watches has long been CWC or Cabot Watch Company, a business set up in 1972 exclusively to supply military contracts. Like Marathon in the United States, CWC spent most of its existence producing general service watches, chronographs, stopwatches, pocketwatches, and dive watches, purely for issue to the British military. For decades, CWC’s contracts were huge, delivering some 40,000 watches to the MoD in the 1970s alone. Today, the brand continues to provide the blacked-out SBS, albeit on a smaller scale, to specialist diving units, including the Royal Marines and Royal Navy Clearance Divers. 

The modern CWC SBS is still issued to specialist diving units within the MoD. (Photo Credit: W.O.E./James Rupley)

With many of its quartz watches priced well under $1000, CWC is an excellent choice for anyone who values the British Military’s significant contributions to military watch history. The SBS, in particular, is one of W.O.E.’s favorites, in part because of a single photograph of SBS Sergeant Paul “Scruff” McGough, who fought in the battle for Qala-I Jangi Prison on 27 November 2001, in Afghanistan. Seeing an analog watch with design language dating back to 1980, worn by a modern-day special operator fighting in the Global War on Terror in 2001, is what we like to call “the good stuff” around here. CWC’s laurels are earned. 

Elliot Brown - Great Britain 

The Holton Professional is standard kit for the Special Boat Service. (Photo Credit: Elliot Brown)

Elliot Brown was founded in 2013 by Ian Elliot and Alex Brown. At its outset, the brand’s goal was to produce durable, relatively inexpensive watches designed around the founders’ collective experience in outdoor sports, watch enthusiasm, and engineering. Headquartered in a working boat yard near Poole Harbour on England’s south coast, Elliot Brown neighbors RM Poole, the home of the Special Boat Service. In this case, proximity was key, and SBS members soon approached Elliot Brown looking to produce a limited edition watch to raise funds for the Special Boat Service Association (SBSA).

SBS operators are required to wear an analog watch while diving. Today, that watch is the Holton Professional. (Photo Credit: Brock Stevens)

Soon after, in 2015, active duty operators asked Elliot Brown to develop a new watch from the ground up, intended for use on actual operations. Founders Alex and Ian worked closely with the unit, producing multiple rounds of prototypes that were each individually tested by various SBS squadrons. By 2017, the first batch of a new watch called the Holton Professional was delivered to the SBS, and the watch has been standard issue for Britain’s Tier One maritime special operations unit ever since. Priced around $600, complete with its own NSN, and proven by the Special Boat Service, the Holton Professional is as legit as it comes and, we would argue, a hot deal. 

Sinn - Germany 

If you’ve yet to discover the emerging theme, the military diving community is one of the few areas where the analog tool dive watch continues to thrive, with yet another example coming from Germany’s KSM or Kommando Spezialkräfte Marine, a unit comprised of individual operators known as Kampfschwimmer, or “combat swimmers”, Germany’s equivalent to our SEALs. Historically associated with special versions of the IWC Porsche Design Ocean 2000, which collectors simply call the “Bund”, modern Kampfschwimmer trust their underwater timing to a unique German dive watch. 

A German operator’s Sinn UX S pictured alongside our friend Dave Hall’s own Sinn U2. (Photo Credit: Dave Hall)

Starting in 2016, German watch brand Sinn announced its partnership with the KSM with a special version of the oil-filled UX produced exclusively for the unit. Measuring 44mm in diameter, the Kampfschwimmer version of the UX has a crown at ten o’clock as opposed to the traditional four to make the watch easier on the back of a diver’s hand during extended combat dives. Powered by a quartz caliber, the civilian version of the watch will set you back over $3,000, but for a uniquely over-engineered diver proven by an elite German special operations unit, it’s an interesting pick that can handle all you can throw at it and a whole lot more. 

Citizen - Denmark 

We recently called the Citizen Aqualand one of history’s most underrated military watches, having been used as a tool by the Royal Australian Navy, British Clearance Divers, and the Royal Danish Navy. The Frogman Corps or Frømandskorpset is Denmark’s maritime SOF unit, which has issued the Aqualand to its combat divers from the watch’s earliest days until modern times. Rather than following the evolution of the Aqualand model family, evidence suggests the Frogman Corps pivoted from the C022/C023 to the JP2000-08E, essentially an updated recreation of the original, when it was released around the year 2000, continuing its use to this day. 

For combat divers like the men of the Frogman Corps, most of whom utilize pure oxygen rebreathers limited in their depth to around 10 meters or 30 feet, the Aqualand makes even more sense, as the more complicated decompression calculations facilitated by a diving computer simply aren’t necessary. Like the Elliot Brown Holton Professional, the JP2000-08E is inexpensive at around $500 but adds rudimentary diving-specific functions, including a surprisingly accurate depth gauge. 

Honorable Mention: Tudor - France

A Commando Hubert Combat Swimmer wears the “two-liner” Pelagos FXD during training with US Navy SEALs. (Photo Credit: US Navy)

Tudor’s history with military organizations goes back seven decades, having been issued to US Navy Frogmen and SEALs, the French Marine Nationale, and the South African Navy, among others. With that being said, while modern Tudor has an active unit watch program, most of the brand’s watches are simply too expensive to be considered for official military issue. That said, in 2021, Tudor unveiled the Pelagos FXD Marine Nationale, a watch developed in collaboration with the Commando Hubert Combat Swimmers, France’s SEAL equivalent. 

At least one example of an MN-issued Pelagos FXD has made it to auction. (Photo Credit: Monaco Legend Group)

Since then, as the FXD collection has expanded to include numerous civilian versions and additional unit watches, Commando Hubert's combat swimmers have continued to utilize the original, which differs from civilian models with a specialized diving strap, a simplified military caseback engraving, a special order “destro” option, and a dial with only two lines of text at six o’clock as opposed to four. While not technically an issued watch, the FXD is more than just a unit watch. Given its widespread use during training and operations, the purpose-built OG Pelagos FXD deserves an honorable mention on this list.

Final Thoughts

Timekeeping in modern warfare may be dominated by GPS-enabled smartwatches and inexpensive digital tool watches, but in specific niches, especially maritime and diving operations, clarity, reliability, and simplicity still matter. Whether it’s a Marathon GSAR utilized by Pararescuemen or a Holton Professional worn by the British SBS, these watches are tools first, chosen not for nostalgia’s sake but because they work when it counts.

The list of officially issued analog watches may be shorter than it once was, but the perseverance of a few key models tells us something important: analog timekeeping isn’t obsolete, it’s specialized. These watches represent the final evolution of a lineage that stretches back to frogmen, clearance divers, and special operators who needed nothing more than elapsed time and absolute trust in their equipment. For collectors and military end users alike, these last military-issued analog watches aren’t relics of a bygone era; they’re proof that even in a digital world, the right tool for the job endures. 

If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE.

Read Next: Citizen Aqualand - An Underrated Legend In Military Service