If you’ve not heard of the Cabot Watch Company (CWC) before now, you really owe it to yourself to check out their lineup. Especially if you’re a fan of military timepieces, the way the British pull a watch together… or both.
To be sure, CWC is indeed a British company, located in London, and they’ve been producing watches for Great Britain’s military for over 30 years. This means you’ve got one of two ways to obtain a CWC timepiece – join the military, or go though their one and only authorized reseller (more on that in a bit).
So, what do you get with their lineup? It consists of thirteen wristwatches (in quartz or automatic), and one lone pocket watch. They all share a sort of no-nonsense design, and all come with steel cases and black dials. The one I’d like to focus in on is actually a reissue, their 1970 Chronograph Mechanical.
This particular watch spoke out to me the most, even over their newer chronograph styles. It features a 29 jewel hand-wind Valjoux 7760. With the two sub-dials, you’ve got a 30 minute chrono register at 3 o’clock, and the running seconds at 9 o’clock.
The 41mm stainless steel case (14mm thick) is polished, and holds the solid strap bars and acrylic crystal in place. Wrapping up the whole piece is a military-issue strap, which just absolutely fits well to the aesthetic of the watch. The other added benefit is that NATO straps are simple to change, and quite affordable, meaning you can change the look of the watch quite simply.
In the end, there’s a lot that I like about this piece. It just comes together, and it is truly vintage military, even with being a reissue. Short of what the folks at CountyComm are putting out, I don’t know where you’ll get this taste of authenticity. Now for the bad news. At current exchange rates, picking one of these up from Silvermans will set you back almost $1400. Of course, if you like the style, you can get the quartz chrono for a hair under $500, or many of the other styles for less yet.
