WOE Dispatch
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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Sangin Instruments - The Marine Owned “Raider R...
Sangin Instruments - The Marine Owned “Raider Rolex” I first heard of Sangin Instruments during TDY travel to a WarZone while at CIA. At the time I was responsible for...
Sangin Instruments - The Marine Owned “Raider Rolex”
Sangin Instruments - The Marine Owned “Raider Rolex” I first heard of Sangin Instruments during TDY travel to a WarZone while at CIA. At the time I was responsible for a counterterrorism Covert Action program in the Middle East and I was traveling to visit the program on a flight...
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Omega's Modern Unit Watch Program - Frogmen, SE...
Omega has a long history of producing watches for the military, most notably the classic Seamaster 300 made for the British Royal Navy. Today the company is continuing that history...
Omega's Modern Unit Watch Program - Frogmen, SEALs and the Secret Service
Omega has a long history of producing watches for the military, most notably the classic Seamaster 300 made for the British Royal Navy. Today the company is continuing that history with special production “unit watches,” and appears to have standardized its program, offering a unique Seamaster Diver 300M solely to...
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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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Top Dispatch Articles of 2023 - Watches of Espi...
Top Dispatch Articles of 2023 - Watches of Espionage As 2023 comes to a close, we take a look at the top Dispatch articles from the year. Thank you for...
Top Dispatch Articles of 2023 - Watches of Espionage
Top Dispatch Articles of 2023 - Watches of Espionage As 2023 comes to a close, we take a look at the top Dispatch articles from the year. Thank you for all of your support, we look forward to a great year in 2024. -W.O.E. 10. Hollywood Watches of Espionage Mercenaries,...
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Tactical Watches & Christmas Films - Die Hard, ...
Movie Watches To Watch For This Christmas Season: Watches of Espionage Edition Like we’ve always said here at W.O.E., tradition matters. It’s what builds culture and forms the pillars of...
Tactical Watches & Christmas Films - Die Hard, Lethal Weapon & Home Alone
Movie Watches To Watch For This Christmas Season: Watches of Espionage Edition Like we’ve always said here at W.O.E., tradition matters. It’s what builds culture and forms the pillars of our community. And during the Holiday season, tradition means appreciating the cinematic masterpiece that is Die Hard. As usual, we’ll...
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W.O.E. 2023 Holiday Gift Guide
In preparation for the holidays, we provide the W.O.E. stamp of approval on the following products. We have closed up “shop” for the year but will be back next year...
W.O.E. 2023 Holiday Gift Guide
In preparation for the holidays, we provide the W.O.E. stamp of approval on the following products. We have closed up “shop” for the year but will be back next year with some exciting tools for our community. Please sign up for “Notify Me When Available” for anything that interests you. ...
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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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A Brief History Of The Dive Watch - How The Mil...
Benjamin Lowry - If you’re new here, you’ll want to go back and read part one (HERE) of this two-part series where we detail the history of the earliest diving-specific...
A Brief History Of The Dive Watch - How The Military Helped To Shape History’s Greatest Tool Watch (Part Two)
Benjamin Lowry - If you’re new here, you’ll want to go back and read part one (HERE) of this two-part series where we detail the history of the earliest diving-specific watches and their crucial links to military organizations including Italy’s Decima Flottiglia MAS, the US Navy’s Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT
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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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Advice for Buying a Watch
The Watches of Espionage community can be broken down into two segments: professional watch nerds tired of the traditional watch media; and complete newbies, those initially attracted by Military and...
Advice for Buying a Watch
The Watches of Espionage community can be broken down into two segments: professional watch nerds tired of the traditional watch media; and complete newbies, those initially attracted by Military and Intelligence content but with little interest in watches. Over time, the latter group usually develops an interest in watches and...
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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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What Watch Pairs With What Military Aircraft?
Honoring an age-old tradition of matching watches up with heavy-hitting machinery. At W.O.E., we cover all sorts of subjects relevant to our community, ranging from in-depth profiles of impactful Intelligence...
What Watch Pairs With What Military Aircraft?
Honoring an age-old tradition of matching watches up with heavy-hitting machinery. At W.O.E., we cover all sorts of subjects relevant to our community, ranging from in-depth profiles of impactful Intelligence Community and military practitioners to breaking down geopolitical conflicts through the lens of watches. Today, however, we figured we’d go...
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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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Double Wristing Stormin' Norman
No, General Schwarzkopf did not double wrist a Rolex and Seiko Despite What You’ve Read. Pictured is General H. Norman Schwarzkopf wearing two watches. Read any story on Schwarzkopf and...
Double Wristing Stormin' Norman
No, General Schwarzkopf did not double wrist a Rolex and Seiko Despite What You’ve Read. Pictured is General H. Norman Schwarzkopf wearing two watches. Read any story on Schwarzkopf and watches and you’ll learn that it’s a Rolex Day-Date and a Seiko diver. There’s just one problem–he didn’t wear a...
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The Dive Watch - How The Military Helped To Sha...
by Benjamin Lowry On a moonless night, gently rolling waves reflect only the faintest shimmer of starlight. Fully submerged well up the beach by way of a spring tide, a team...
The Dive Watch - How The Military Helped To Shape History’s Greatest Tool Watch
by Benjamin Lowry On a moonless night, gently rolling waves reflect only the faintest shimmer of starlight. Fully submerged well up the beach by way of a spring tide, a team of commandos peer down at their synchronized mechanical dive watches, counting down the seconds before their waterside assault will begin...
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