Inside a CIA Officer's Watch Collection

Four Watches, Four Stories - Something Old, Something New, Something Unworn, & Something Special 

I’m not a watch collector. Over the past few decades, I have amassed more watches than any rational person should own, but I’m not the type of person to obsess over details or scrutinize mechanical features, and I can’t recite obscure references. I have deep respect for collectors, and I am a consumer of their writing, but that’s just not me.

As I discussed in a recent piece on what it means to “Use Your Tools,” for me, a watch’s value isn’t derived from the brand name on the dial or the resale price, but for the experiences and memories watches embody, the intangibles that can’t be captured on a spec sheet or a product listing. This is why I have so many watches: I can’t bring myself to sell one. They have too much meaning.

People often ask for pictures of my entire collection or more information on specific watches, so I am going to try to do just that. I have selected four watches with meaning, and I am going to do a semi-deep dive into my history with them. If you like this format, let me know, and I can make it a regular series.

The W.O.E. Collection

I have a type, and it's relatively simple: steel sports watches from brands like Rolex, Tudor, Breitling, Seiko, and others. Most of the watches I wear daily were originally developed as tools. Despite my extensive “collection,” give me essentially any steel/titanium tool watch with a workable bezel, and I am happy.  

Something Special: Panerai Luminor Marina 8 Days Titanio PAM 564 - 8 Day

Arguably, the most important brand in the evolution of my interest in watches is Officine Panerai. This may come as a surprise, as I rarely post pictures of my Panerais, and I haven't worn either of them in nearly two years.

Over a decade ago, I was living in an African capital and co-located with a small contingent of Naval Special Warfare (NSW). One evening, while sitting in an expat bar having drinks with a SEAL colleague, I asked him about the watch on his wrist. My friend explained that Panerai had a strong following in NSW due to the brand's lineage that can be traced to the Italian Frogmen of WWII. Like many others, he bought his first Panerai to commemorate a deployment, and the Luminor Marina was a nod to those who came before him. In our community, history is everything. Tradition matters. 

I was hooked. Over the next year, I visited boutiques in London, Istanbul, and Johannesburg to try on some Panerais before ultimately making a purchase: a tobacco dial titanium Luminor Marina 8 Days PAM 00564. I wore it throughout the next overseas tour as a CIA Case Officer for countless operations, including during the chaotic events of an African coup, and it can be seen on my wrist in the delivery room for the birth of my second child. During that tour, I also purchased a second Panerai, a black Radiomir Ceramica PAM 00643.

But my interests have changed over time. When I put on a Panerai now, they feel massive, because they are in contrast to the Tudors and Rolexes I wear regularly today. The big cases just don’t do it for me anymore, and I would be lying if I didn’t say the recent marketing initiatives have been a turn-off for me. I’m far from a hater, but when you get into this passion, interests evolve.

That said, I will never sell this watch. It has been through too much with me, and it isn't just a watch anymore. Maybe one day, my kids will appreciate them after I’m long gone. 

Something I Don’t Wear: Rolex Cellini

It will probably come as no surprise to you that I am not a dress watch guy.  While I appreciate haute horology, “Use Your Tools” isn’t quite the same with a yellow gold Patek Philippe Calatrava.  

But there are exceptions to every rule, and one of my most prized possessions is a white gold Rolex Cellini, a gift from Mrs. W.O.E. before our wedding, over ten years ago. Like many at CIA, my wife and I had a semi-shotgun wedding. We had been dating for years, and after I graduated from The Farm, I was assigned to Africa Division with orders to PCS to an African capital a few months later. To bring her along with me, we had to be officially married. One afternoon, we went to a Virginia courthouse and unceremoniously held a Justice of the Peace (JP) civil marriage in the basement. To celebrate, I went back to work, and she went to a Capitals hockey game with a friend.

A year later, we held a “real” wedding with friends and family during our first R&R back in our hometown. It was a traditional wedding, and prior to the ceremony, my mother handed me a handwritten note and a wrapped box containing the Cellini. A simple engraving reads the date of our wedding, “Love Always”, and my wife’s name, (REDACTED).

Taken after the OSS Society Dinner, the William J. Donovan Award Dinner is an annual gathering of the US intelligence and special operations communities.

I wear this watch a couple of times a year at most. When I was at CIA, that one time a year was the Marine Corps Ball, the annual black tie event held at diplomatic outposts and military bases around the globe. I don’t remember any specific cool spy stories with this watch, but that doesn’t mean there weren't any. The reality is that a CIA Case Officer is always working. Now I will periodically wear the watch for formal events, including the annual OSS Society dinner in Washington, DC, and most recently, Mother's Day brunch.

Some watch “experts” have criticized the Cellini, a line that has now been discontinued and largely replaced by the 1908. I hear the haters, but I don’t listen. For me, this watch isn’t important because it has the Rolex crown on the dial or because it is made of precious metal; it's important because it is a physical representation of my marriage to the woman I love. 

While I am still not a dress watch guy, I do think it is important for every man to have some sort of formal watch in their collection. That said, I have been known to wear a Submariner on a Five Eye strap with a tux, something the fashion police say isn’t allowed. 

Something New: CWC TGN Crew Watch

The watch media space is crowded, and there is a lot of noise. But one beacon of light is The Grey NA To (TGN), run by our friends James Stacey and Jason Heaton. It may come as a surprise to learn that I do not consume much watch content, which I believe is actually one of the reasons the W.O.E. platform has done so well; I keep my eyes on my own paper.

But the one exception is TGN. Not only do I listen to their podcast religiously, but I have also tried to emulate their community approach and passion for using timepieces as intended. When they sent out an email for an exclusive CWC for their subscribers, I purchased it without hesitation.

Cabot Watch Company (CWC) is arguably one of the most iconic “military watch” brands still around today. CWC has supplied the UK Ministry of Defence, including the elite Special Boat Service (SBS), with practical and affordable tool watches for decades. It’s one of the few analog issued brands still in circulation, along with Marathon.

But one challenge a brand like CWC has is innovating without cannibalizing its iconic designs like the CWC SBS and the CWC Royal Navy. The TGN Crew Watch walks the fine line of honoring that heritage, with modern updates including a Grade 5 titanium case with integrated fixed strap bars a la Tudor’s Pelagos FXD. Paired with a Glomar Explorer hook and loop strap, you can barely tell this watch is on your wrist, and I am confident it will be my summer watch of 2025.

With the TGN CWC and SAS legend Christian Craighead’s “Black Flag,” CWC has knocked it out of the park with collaborations recently, and I am excited to see what they come up with in the future.

Something Old: Breitling Aerospace – Jordan  

It’s no secret that W.O.E. is a fan of Breitling and particularly fond of 1990s and 2000s models when the brand was at the height of its sketchiness. Prior to joining CIA, I was given a Breitling Aerospace by King Abdullah II bin Al-Hussein, which I documented in a past Dispatch article. Last year, I came across an eBay listing for a similar, but earlier version of the same watch; however, this one has a blue-ish dial and the crest is that of King Abdullah’s father, Hussein bin Talal, who ruled Jordan until his passing on 07 February 1999. It was an impulse buy.

The watch shipped from the UK, and I would love to know its journey. At some point, the watch was (presumably) given by the King of Jordan to someone, for what I can only speculate.
  
A keen observer will notice that the hands of the watch are in the same place in these photos, and that is because the battery is dead. I haven’t worn this watch, and you could argue that this purchase was made with more of a “collector’s mindset.” I view this watch as a piece of history and a complement to the one that I received from His Majesty. Now that I write this, it has motivated me to get it up and running and back on the wrist. Stay tuned.

Final Thoughts

Every watch I own has a story. In fact, every watch you own has a story.  Some are Dispatch-worthy, tales of meetings in dark alleys in far-flung capitals, operations in expeditionary war zones, and scratches on the bracelet from typing out countless intelligence reports.  Others are more mundane, but no less important. If you are still reading, then you understand that this is where the real value of a watch is created.

Please let me know if you enjoy these types of pieces, and if so I will do it again. I enjoy writing these as it forces me to process and document why these seemingly inanimate objects have so much meaning. If nothing else, my children will be able to read this one day to further understand why these seemingly inanimate objects have meaning.

Thank you for the support, more to come.

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