What Watch Are You Wearing Today?

Aliexpress summer sale so ordered a couple of watches to try out...

First to arrive was this Militado ML05:

View attachment 122105


Sandblasted stainless steel case & single dome sapphire crystal... All for £34 delivered.

A Chinese production Vietnam era style US military issued field watch, still produced by Hamilton and Benrus today but neither of them own the actual design... Much like the "dirty dozen" watches of WW2 the design was drawn up and issued by the US military for watchmakers to produce so it's out there for anyone to use.

I've had a hand wind Khaki and would say this is superior, yeah really... Especially for the money. Visual differences are minimal, the sandblasted finish on the ML05 is satin rather than the rough matte finish of the Khaki, the ML05 has a screw down crown so 100m water resistance and also has drilled lug holes. The catch? That Seiko quartz movement. Yeah that modified ETA2824 in the Khaki is cool but c'mon this is £30! At least is a mechaquartz so it ticks 4 times per second which does a very good job of emulating a low beat mechanical of 60 years ago.

I've also gone with a field watch today

20240628_081649.jpg

20240628_081748.jpg
 
Picked up an original Benrus DTU-2AP field watch as issued to US troops from 1968 and notably immortalised in celluloid by Steve McQeen in the film Bullitt.

This is a modern 2021 production example... Parkerized monocoque case, Swiss Sellita movement, assembled in USA and it even came with a little compass. Photographed on tiger stripe for added larp points.

1000005032.jpg1000005033.jpg1000005038.jpg
 
Back
Top Bottom