Intelligence
Istanbul: Shopping For Vintage Watches, Spy Cam...
Istanbul is one of the espionage capitals of the world, so it’s no surprise you can find spy artifacts for sale in the world's most famous bazaar. It’s difficult to...
Istanbul: Shopping For Vintage Watches, Spy Cameras, & Cold War Artifacts
Istanbul is one of the espionage capitals of the world, so it’s no surprise you can find spy artifacts for sale in the world's most famous bazaar. It’s difficult to write about Istanbul without falling into cliches, but there is a palpable romantic mystique and energy in the city on...
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The Murky World Of Counterfeit Rolex
Fake Watch Shopping In Istanbul - A Case Study As a CIA Case Officer operating overseas, you are exposed to the dark side of humanity. It is not a career...
The Murky World Of Counterfeit Rolex
Fake Watch Shopping In Istanbul - A Case Study As a CIA Case Officer operating overseas, you are exposed to the dark side of humanity. It is not a career for the faint-hearted and you learn some things they don’t teach in school. He who fights monsters should see to...
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Bribes & Operational Gifts - The Role Of Timep...
Using Watches To Make Friends, Exert Influence, & Recruit Spies The job of a CIA Case Officer (C/O), or Operations Officer, is to recruit spies and steal secrets. The core...
Bribes & Operational Gifts - The Role Of Timepieces In Clandestine Operations
Using Watches To Make Friends, Exert Influence, & Recruit Spies The job of a CIA Case Officer (C/O), or Operations Officer, is to recruit spies and steal secrets. The core competency of a C/O is building relationships with individuals (targets) and ultimately recruiting them to provide Foreign Intelligence on their...
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Sketchy Dudes Wear Breitling - We Don’t Make Th...
Watches of Espionage is vehemently brand agnostic. The watches we cover are dictated by the community and one brand that consistently pops up is Breitling. There are few truths in...
Sketchy Dudes Wear Breitling - We Don’t Make The Rules
Watches of Espionage is vehemently brand agnostic. The watches we cover are dictated by the community and one brand that consistently pops up is Breitling. There are few truths in the world of intelligence, but one of them is Sketchy Dudes Wear Breitling. Before the Breitling fan clubs take out...
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The Seiko Found In The Wreckage Of A Spy Ship A...
A Seiko Dive Watch 7548 - 7000 was recovered from the wreckage of a North Korean Spy Ship after the Battle of Amami-Ōshima. Where did it come from and what...
The Seiko Found In The Wreckage Of A Spy Ship And North Korean Covert Operations
A Seiko Dive Watch 7548 - 7000 was recovered from the wreckage of a North Korean Spy Ship after the Battle of Amami-Ōshima. Where did it come from and what does it tell us about North Korean Covert Action? At CIA, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is known...
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Inside The Watch Culture Of CIA Paramilitary Of...
A Watch Given To A CIA Paramilitary Officer After a successful joint operation in the late 2010s, a European intelligence service presented a CIA Paramilitary Officer with a gift, a...
Inside The Watch Culture Of CIA Paramilitary Officers
A Watch Given To A CIA Paramilitary Officer After a successful joint operation in the late 2010s, a European intelligence service presented a CIA Paramilitary Officer with a gift, a U-Boat timepiece to commemorate operational success. Like most accomplishments in the world of espionage, the ceremony (if you can call...
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Living In Zulu Time - Why GMT Watches Are Impor...
Tracking Multiple Time Zones In Austere Circumstances By J.R. Seeger, former CIA SIS Greenwich Mean Time or “GMT” is an internationally accepted timing standard by which all other time zones...
Living In Zulu Time - Why GMT Watches Are Important to Special Operations & Intelligence Officers
Tracking Multiple Time Zones In Austere Circumstances By J.R. Seeger, former CIA SIS Greenwich Mean Time or “GMT” is an internationally accepted timing standard by which all other time zones are defined. A GMT watch tracks one or two additional time zones by way of a fourth hand, a bezel...
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The W.O.E. Tudor PVD Pelagos FXD
Customizing my dream watch, the W.O.E. PVD Pelagos FXD - When Tudor released the Black Pelagos FXD last year, I instantly knew I wanted one to land in my collection....
The W.O.E. Tudor PVD Pelagos FXD
Customizing my dream watch, the W.O.E. PVD Pelagos FXD - When Tudor released the Black Pelagos FXD last year, I instantly knew I wanted one to land in my collection.
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A Mystery Death in Oslo, an Intelligence Op Gon...
An unidentified woman was found dead in a luxury Oslo hotel. Was “Jennifer Fairgate” an assassin, spy or a troubled woman looking to disappear? Her timepiece is a clue to...
A Mystery Death in Oslo, an Intelligence Op Gone Wrong?
An unidentified woman was found dead in a luxury Oslo hotel. Was “Jennifer Fairgate” an assassin, spy or a troubled woman looking to disappear? Her timepiece is a clue to solving a complex puzzle that reads like a Hollywood thriller. 3 June 1995, Oslo Plaza Hotel, Room 2805 The woman’s...
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CIA Timepiece Analysis: President Putin and Tuc...
Last week, former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson interviewed former KGB officer and current Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. While much of the coverage surrounded the controversy...
CIA Timepiece Analysis: President Putin and Tucker Carlson
Last week, former Fox News talk show host Tucker Carlson interviewed former KGB officer and current Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. While much of the coverage surrounded the controversy of Tucker himself, we will focus on what we know best: the watches present at the meeting in the Kremlin. ...
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The Real Spy Gadget Watches of the CIA, KGB, MI...
The Real Spy (Gadget) Watches of the CIA, Soviet KGB, Turkish MIT and German Intelligence While Hollywood's depiction of lasers, knockout gas, and grappling hooks disguised as Rolex Submariners and...
The Real Spy Gadget Watches of the CIA, KGB, MIT and German Intelligence
The Real Spy (Gadget) Watches of the CIA, Soviet KGB, Turkish MIT and German Intelligence While Hollywood's depiction of lasers, knockout gas, and grappling hooks disguised as Rolex Submariners and Omega Seamasters is entertaining, it’s largely all a fantastical product of a screenwriter's imagination. In fact, at CIA I was...
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Watches as Tools of Money Laundering and Illici...
Luxury timepieces are one of the most effective mediums to move illicit funds around the globe and a tool to integrate those ill-gotten gains into the financial system. Transnational criminal...
Watches as Tools of Money Laundering and Illicit Finance
Luxury timepieces are one of the most effective mediums to move illicit funds around the globe and a tool to integrate those ill-gotten gains into the financial system. Transnational criminal networks, terrorists, narcotraffickers and corrupt politicians have used watches to launder money as a part of global illicit finance. The...
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A Question of Time: The Time Pencil Explosive F...
In intelligence operations, time matters. While our Dispatch articles traditionally focus on watches, today we look at another tool to measure time, the time pencil. It’s a short time fuze...
A Question of Time: The Time Pencil Explosive Fuze in World War II
In intelligence operations, time matters. While our Dispatch articles traditionally focus on watches, today we look at another tool to measure time, the time pencil. It’s a short time fuze detonator used for explosive charges in covert operations in World War II. We have profiled watches of the Glorious Amateurs...
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Moscow Rules: Watches of the Widow Spy
Spy Watches, Women and Espionage - At the height of the Cold War, a female CIA officer operated with impunity on the streets of Moscow, free from the ever-present KGB...
Moscow Rules: Watches of the Widow Spy
Spy Watches, Women and Espionage - At the height of the Cold War, a female CIA officer operated with impunity on the streets of Moscow, free from the ever-present KGB surveillance. But it all changed one warm summer night when she was ambushed while servicing a dead drop for a...
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Watches of the Middle East and the Israeli - Pa...
The latest Israel-Hamas war began one month ago with the October 7 terrorist attacks. It’s another conflict that will have significant impacts on the future of the region and potentially...
Watches of the Middle East and the Israeli - Palestinian Conflict
The latest Israel-Hamas war began one month ago with the October 7 terrorist attacks. It’s another conflict that will have significant impacts on the future of the region and potentially the world. While the nature of a conflict changes over time, one constant is the presence of timepieces on the...
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Esquire Profile: The Mysterious Story Behind 'W...
Watches of Espionage was recently profiled by Andrew Harrison for Esquire's "The Big Watch Book." The Mysterious Story Behind 'Watches of Espionage' The Instagram account and website has become a...
Esquire Profile: The Mysterious Story Behind 'Watches of Espionage' - W.O.E.
Watches of Espionage was recently profiled by Andrew Harrison for Esquire's "The Big Watch Book." The Mysterious Story Behind 'Watches of Espionage' The Instagram account and website has become a runaway hit by revealing the surprising links between luxury timepieces and spycraft. One detail remains classified. The identity of the...
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Israeli Spy Eli Cohen’s Eterna-Matic Centenaire...
By Toby Harnden The announcement in July 2018 of a successful “special Mossad operation” to recover a watch came more than 53 years after its owner had been publicly hanged...
Israeli Spy Eli Cohen’s Eterna-Matic Centenaire Recovered by Mossad
By Toby Harnden The announcement in July 2018 of a successful “special Mossad operation” to recover a watch came more than 53 years after its owner had been publicly hanged in Damascus, Syria. The Eterna-Matic Centenaire 61 had been purchased in Geneva in 1961 by a Syrian called Kamel Amin...
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DARPA’s Take on the Next Generation of Military...
How Has DARPA Imagined the Future of Wristwatches? The unquantifiable nature of watches is that these little mechanical objects can be imbued with stories of service, sacrifice, and relationships. When...
DARPA’s Take on the Next Generation of Military Watches
How Has DARPA Imagined the Future of Wristwatches? The unquantifiable nature of watches is that these little mechanical objects can be imbued with stories of service, sacrifice, and relationships. When W.O.E. covers watches, we often shy away from product reviews and instead look at the human element that makes watches...
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