What Are Army Watches?

Modern society has developed a taste for manufacturing products which suit every single occasion in people’s lives. If we were to attend a sophisticated ball, for instance, we would wear an elegant tuxedo or gown rather than vividly colored shorts. And although the list of such examples is practically inexhaustible, we will focus our attention on some very popular and thus fashionable accessories: watches.

Following the trend in all other industries, top watch manufacturers are more than eager to satisfy all their customers’ needs. The result is that they put on the market a huge range of products thoughtfully designed so as to meet all kinds of expectations, from the simplest to the more specialized uses.

Among the wide selection of time keepers present on the market, army or military watches are some interesting items. The special purpose they are intended for is suggested by their name itself and defines them as watches specially developed for the armed forces. The first army watches were mainly naval items such as chronometers and served quite well the purposes they were intended too.

But around the time of the Second World War, when time became even more precious, other branches of military, and aviation in particular, were witnessing a period of great technological advances. These new developments made it possible for the birth of the first Navigator or Pilot watches. Yet, nowadays the term is a generic one because as it is not only soldiers who wear them, but also civilians. In the case of the latter though, it is the design that attracts them rather than the features they are equipped with.

Manufacturers produce various models of army watches, but essentially they all display the same main characteristics. They are all large items, with a diameter of up to 40 mm and easy-to-read hands and dials, and colored in dark or camouflage olive-drab. No shiny surfaces are to be seen on such items as the sun reflection can indicate the soldier’s positions to his enemies, thus stainless steel is preferred for the watch body whereas the strap and buckle can be anything else but metal or reflective plastic.

Other army watches features include an illuminated 24-hour display, a dual-zone and a day/date display. Simple as they may seem, these characteristics prove to be extremely important when soldiers are engaged in military operations in the furthest corners of the world. With no television or internet of their disposal, it is easy to lose track of time or get lost in the wilderness.

Optional, but not at all compulsory, a stopwatch, alarms and countdown timers can also be counted the features an army watch may have. Still, when we say alarms, we actually mean silent vibration alarms, as it would not desirable for a forgotten alarm to go off right in the middle of an important secret military operation.

As we can see, many of the features army watches have are not special at all, and yet they can prove vital for soldiers engaged in missions in various places around the world. As for the civilians wearing them, it is not really that important what characteristics their watches display as for them it is all about following a trend and being as cool as the other guys in the gang.

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