Hi Folks,
I've been reading with interest your thread on military watches. I'm the owner of
http://www.broadarrow.net (The Military Watch Resource). I'm also a knife collector, but my site takes so much time and energy that I rarely have much time to come here other than to lurk.
Anyways, I notice that some of you dislike the acrylic crystals found on many military issue watches. I used to also, but I found out just how easy they are to polish with a little Flitz or Simichrome. (Besides, don't soldiers spend half their time either polishing or painting stuff). In my opinion, acrylic beats mineral glass. Mineral glass is harder and won't scratch as easily, but once it does, you can't buff it. You have to replace it. Probably the best and most expensive crystal material is synthetic sapphire. Sapphire is really difficult to scratch. I've never been able to scratch one myself. However, sapphire is so hard it will chip or even shatter. It's interesting to note that the latest Marathon SAR Dive watch has a thick 2.8mm sapphire crystal. Sapphire was chosen for the dive watch because sand is a really abrasive substance and will make short work of a plastic crystal. On the other hand, it's interesting to note that the official NASA watch approved for EVA activity is stil the Omega Speedmaster Pro, which has an acrylic crystal. There's not much sand in a spaceship, but one sharp rap against a bulkhead could shatter the crystal, sending thousands of tiny projectiles hurling throughout the spacecraft to be ingested by the crew (not good). Selecting crystals is always a trade-off between resiliance and ability to resist scratches. (Probably similiar to choosing a knife blade's hardness).
A word about Luminox vs. Marathon. Luminox hands are formulated brighter and also have an illuminated seconds hand. This is for commercial reasons. (Brighter lures attract the big fish). A Marathon doesn't need to be flashy. Their customers are built in and come with the military contract. Marathon watches only need to be bright enough to be legible in total darkness without unduly compromising light discipline. By the way, I have a pair of Traser tritium hands that are going on 20 years old. They are still bright enough to see in the dark. The half-life of tritium is 12.3 years, but that doesn't mean they will die out in that time. They will only be half as bright. I expect tritium hands to last upwards of 25 years until they are too dim to see well.
Stocker and Yale quit making military watches last year. Cammenga bought the rights to manufacture watches under the S&Y name. S&Y continues to manufacture other military products, they've just moved away from watches. Cammenga is not now, nor have they ever been an actual military contractor of watches. (They don't have the NRC license-They do sell compasses to the military). At this point, Marathon stands alone as the sole provider of military watches for the Government QPL.
Hope that helps,
Bob
