The USG Finds An Unlikely Culprit That “Prevents Time Travel” - In the W.O.E. world, we focus on watches used as tools to get the job done. But in one fascinating historical instance, a watch was part of the problem rather than the solution. According to CIA, a simple wristwatch may have prevented some test subjects from traveling through time and space, by grounding them in the present.

US Navy-Issued Doxas, Rolex, & A Complete Surprise By Benjamin Lowry The US Navy’s SEALAB experiments of the 1960s were pioneering attempts to prove man’s ability to live and work on the sea floor for an extended period, supported by a specialized underwater habitat. The techniques and equipment developed for SEALAB I, II, and III would later be used in shadowy underwater espionage targeting the Soviet Union, but SEALAB is better remembered to watch enthusiasts for some of the legendary watches used by some of history’s boldest divers. In this Dispatch, I’ll share how a chance encounter with a piece of handwritten history forever alters our understanding of the watches of the Navy’s final SEALAB project. __ For someone like me, the Man In The Sea Museum in Panama City Beach is something akin to paradise, providing one of the world’s most impressive collections of vintage military diving memorabilia, much of it related to SEALAB. Given the timing, SEALAB is associated with some of history’s great tool dive watches and played a key role in the development of the Rolex Sea-Dweller. Artist’s rendering of SEALAB III, the Navy’s final experiment to prove men could live and work on the sea floor. (Photo Credit: US Navy) But, despite what the internet may say, Rolex isn’t the only name in the SEALAB game. Thumbing through old binders while volunteering in the museum’s library, I came across an issue log for dive watches hand-written in 1968 by a SEALAB legend. The usual suspects including Rolex were there, but the log also illuminated the outsized role played by Doxa as well as another Swiss brand I would argue no one would ever guess. In this Dispatch, we’ll look to archival evidence, interviews with surviving Aquanauts, and a few educated guesses to provide the most complete picture ever assembled of the watches of SEALAB III. Man In The Sea Museum, Panama City Beach - 2022 My dad and I were hard at work cataloging and organizing the library in the Man in the Sea Museum when we came across a document that stopped us in our tracks. In this increasingly digitized world, there are still a few horological secrets lost to history waiting to be uncovered, the type of secrets that haven’t been converted to PDF. The same watch stories make the rounds again and again, some amazing discoveries are put forth by genuine horological enthusiasts, and some stories are haphazardly cobbled together by brands to help push more watches. Searching for dive watches in vintage photographs at the Man in the Sea Museum is the stuff of legend. (Photo Credit: Man in the Sea Museum) Most are somewhere in between. Watches have never received the amount of attention they do today. Record-keeping for the sake of enthusiasm or posterity was not common practice. This is also true in the arena of dive watches, fostering a healthy debate about the actual timeline of the introduction of the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, Zodiac Sea Wolf, and Rolex Submariner, in particular. Except when it comes to the military. In military settings and especially diving, recording every bit of minutiae is an occupational necessity, a matter of life and death in certain cases. Luckily, as a Coast Guard veteran turned commercial diver, it happens to be my area of interest, which is how I found myself volunteering to help organize the Man in the Sea Museum’s stacked but admittedly disheveled library a couple of years ago. The Man In The Sea Museum is home to the original SEALAB habitat as well as an incredible library full of old US Navy records. Leafing through records from the SEALAB programs, I came across a few scribbled lines on notebook paper that validated my years-long horological quest to understand the role of tool watches in the United States military, particularly in underwater applications. Along with these handwritten records, I uncovered hundreds of photographs from SEALAB that had yet to be digitized, and therefore, had yet to be seen by the watch community, until now. A dive watch enthusiast’s dream. An archival photo from the SEALAB program shows Dr. George “Papa Topside” Bond (left), Captain William Nicholson (center), and Commander Jack Tomsky (right). Tomsky is wearing a Doxa Sub. (Photo Credit: Man in the Sea Museum) I went through binder after binder of records from all three of the Navy’s SEALAB experiments. I was looking for something that clued me into what equipment was used, particularly what watches were used. These aquanauts recorded everything. It was part of their job, of course, but the level of detail was staggering. A detailed record of saturation dives undertaken in a chamber at the Navy Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) preceding SEALAB III. (Source: US Navy) Finally, after hours spent carefully flipping through delicate aged paper and deciphering faded handwriting from the ‘60s, my efforts paid off. A list of the exact watches that were used on SEALAB III. And when I say exact, I mean it—right down to the serial numbers. And it came directly from one of the aquanauts, meticulously detailed like everything else about the mission. While several watchmakers have established SEALAB connections—including an excellent article by Justin Couture detailing the role potentially played by Aquastar—some of the brands mentioned in the log had never really been in the SEALAB conversation before, let alone with hard evidence of being officially issued by the US Navy. If I could, with the help of friends and former Aquanauts, prove the veracity of this hastily written log, our understanding of military dive watches would be forever altered. Here is the handwritten log that sent me so deeply down the rabbit hole. The original handwritten log was reportedly penned by none other than Bob Barth, the only aquanaut to serve on all three SEALAB missions. For the sake of legibility and to aid in deciphering the shorthand, I have—with help from surviving aquanauts—added some context to the list to help give us a better picture of who these watches were issued to. Watches Issued On 03 Sep 1968 SEALAB III Rolex, 25 jewels Cyril Tuckfield, Chief Petty Officer, USN     Rolex, serial 1478174 Derek J. Clark, Petty Officer First Class, Royal Navy    Jaquet Droz Keith H. Moore, Machinist’s Mate Second Class, USN Doxa William P. Lukeman, Leading Seaman, Royal Canadian Navy Doxas Issued To Aquanauts On 23 Sep & 27 Sep 1968 SEALAB III Doxa 6665358 Keith H. Moore, Machinist’s Mate Second Class, USN Doxa 6665354 Cyril F. Lafferty, Lieutenant Royal Navy, Team Leader Doxa 6665425 James H. Osborn, Lieutenant Commander, Civil Engineer Corps, USN Doxa 6665416 Leo Gies Lieutenant Commander, USN Doxa 6665364 Richard M. Blackburn, Aviation Ordnanceman First Class, USN Doxa 6665367 Mark E. Bradley, Lieutenant Commander, Medical Corps, USN Doxa 6665417 Robert A. Bornholdt, Lieutenant, USN, Team Leader   Aquanaut Bob Barth’s Rolex Submariner Ref. 5512. (Photo Credit: Hodinkee) Unsurprisingly, we see the usual suspects on the wrists of the aquanauts, starting with Rolex, although it’s important to note that what was sometimes recorded as Rolex was sometimes actually a Tudor Submariner, as Rolex took care of distribution and delivery. In ‘69, the US Navy had a contract with Tudor that had already begun in the late ‘50s, so there’s a chance these watches came from that procurement arrangement. A brand associated with anything but diving in 2024, I was surprised to see Jaquet Droz mentioned in the issue log from SEALAB III. Looking through the list, something else stood out immediately. “JK Droz” was listed in the records as having been issued to an aquanaut. Surely not the Swatch-owned atelier producing automatons that cost six figures and watches with all sorts of crazy enameling and decorations. Jaquet Droz isn’t a name you hear in the W.O.E. sphere often. The brand has never once been mentioned on this site before, and they certainly don’t fit in with the “Watches of Espionage” crop of brands. As usual, there are layers to the story. But first, let’s look at the watches from brands we do know something about: Doxa and Rolex. While Doxa has been loosely associated with SEALAB and Navy Divers in the past, the discovery of this document adds clarity to the brand’s official position as a US Navy-issued watch during the SEALAB experiments. Digging deeper into the Doxa watches on the list, the brand’s serial numbering convention has been well documented by MKWS, a Doxa expert on Watchuseek. MKWS posits that Doxa introduced a 7-digit system where the first two numbers correspond to the year of production. In the case of all the models issued to SEALAB, that number is 66, which would suggest they were produced in ‘66, at least in theory. Officially released in 1967, there are only a few other examples of Doxa Sub 300 models from 1966, meaning the US Navy was among the earliest adopters of the brand. If that’s not an endorsement for a new-to-market dive watch, especially when Navy Divers already had access to Rolex and Tudor Submariners, I’m not sure what is. A Doxa Sub 300 from 1967. (Photo Credit: Analog:Shift) Interestingly, the only Rolex serial number listed also registers as being produced in ‘66 (Rolex serial numbers of that era aren’t an exact science, but can be traced to an approximate year of production). This all checks out, as the gearing up for SEALAB III would have taken place during this time. SEALAB II had been a successful mission in ‘65, and SEALAB III took some time due to engineering requirements and modifications that allowed the habitat to go significantly deeper than the previous two missions, 610 feet as opposed to 205 feet for SEALAB II and 192 feet for SEALAB I. The Vietnam War also put pressure on budgets for such a novel and costly project. Bob Barth (right) wearing his Rolex Submariner 5512, one of many Rolex Submariners used on the SEALAB missions. Much of the equipment and material—including watches—for the final SEALAB program was likely carried over from SEALAB I and II. After Doxa, the second most present brand appearing in the logs was Rolex, and the Crown had certainly been ever-present in underwater exploration for nearly a decade at the commencement of SEALAB III. Bob Barth, the only aquanaut to have dived on all three SEALAB missions, was reportedly instrumental in developing the Rolex Sea Dweller. This SEALAB III Rolex Submariner is not on our list but was owned by Leo Gies and sold by Bonhams in 2015. (Photo Credit: Bonhams) Barth dove with his Rolex Submariner on SEALAB I and II, so it’s no surprise to see several Submariners listed in the SEALAB III records. Another Rolex Submariner was issued to Leo Gies who is recorded on our list as having received a Doxa. Gies’s Submariner—which was sold by Bonhams on behalf of the Gies family in 2015—was engraved “SEALAB III” on the back, which makes its absence from our list all the more interesting. Maybe there is another handwritten log out there. Our research continues. We’ll do another Dispatch on the role of Rolex in US Navy Undersea Research, but for now, let’s continue by discussing the role played by Doxa in the dive watch landscape of the late 1960s. Doxa & Diving In The 1960s Georges Ducommun founded Doxa in 1899, and the company quickly developed a reputation for producing a broad range of dress and sport watches—but the brand will always be best remembered for its contributions to the world of undersea timekeeping. In the 1960s, Doxa was one of the front-runners when it came to producing watches specifically for professional diving applications. The “skin diver” category of watches was well established, with sporty watches suitable for recreational water activity. These came out of the recreational diving boom of the late ‘50s, but as diving equipment became more technologically advanced, so did the need for a watch that could handle significant depth and pressure, but more importantly, remain legible in murky water. This is where Doxa’s signature design element surfaced; the company found that a specific hue of orange was most visible underwater. The bright orange “Professional” dial became their calling card. Legendary oceanographer and filmmaker Jacques Cousteau wearing a Doxa Sub 300T “Sharkhunter”. The Sub 300 and later 300T models emerged from Doxa’s design and field studies and quickly became a popular diving watch for professionals—the intended target segment, and the military alike. The Swiss Armed Forces purchased and issued this model to Swiss combat divers in approximately 1970. Bolstered by its inclusion in Clive Cussler’s thriller novels, the orange dial and “beads-of-rice” bracelet have become a common sight in recreational and military dive communities ever since. The model also became popular because it was championed by none other than French oceanographer Jacques Costeau. Doxa & The US Navy A Navy Experimental Diving Unit photo from the early 1970s shows a Doxa Sub 300T Professional in use. (Photo Credit: Richard Blackburn) With a better grasp of the brands and watches on the list, our next step was to track down and speak with the surviving aquanauts, one of whom provided a bombshell about the written log’s author. When we reached out to aquanaut Richard “Blackie” Blackburn, he took one look at the log and confirmed that it was the handwriting of none other than Bob Barth, the Bob Barth who helped create the Sea-Dweller, pioneering the use of a helium escape valve in watches in the process. Barth was also, according to Blackburn, the man who kept track of where all the Navy’s Doxa Sub models and other watches were going. Unfortunately, Barth passed in 2020, so we weren’t going to be able to ask him directly about the log, but our research carried on. It’s also important to note there is no mention of the Doxa Conquistador in our log, which is a specific version of the 300T equipped with a helium escape valve. For more on the rarest Doxa Sub variant, check out Perezcope’s research on Doxa’s role in developing the helium escape valve. Given SEALAB was a saturation diving experiment—the one environment where you need the valve—it would have made sense for Doxa to have sent over the Conquistador, but we found no definitive evidence of this being the case. There are numerous examples of Doxa Sub models being used by Navy Divers, but their role in SEALAB hasn’t been confirmed until now. (Photo Credit: Man in the Sea Museum) The next step was taking stock of exactly what was issued using the records and then matching those serial numbers with the watches on the wrists of aquanauts, if possible. It was time for the detective work. While many have passed—SEALAB III took place 55 years ago—five of the aquanauts listed in the log as the recipients of Doxa watches are still alive today. We started by tracking down their contact info and cold-sending emails to these legends of undersea exploration. Doxa 6665364 Richard M. Blackburn, Aviation Ordnanceman First Class, USN Taken while working on an oil spill in California after leaving the Navy, this photo shows Richard Blackburn’s Rolex GMT-Master, a gift from Bob Barth upon his retirement. Whether or not Blackburn ever received a Doxa remains a mystery. (Photo Credit: Richard Blackburn) When I sent an email to Richard “Blackie” Blackburn with my number in the signature, my phone rang about two minutes later. After identifying the handwriting on the log as that of Bob Barth, Blackie informed me he had no recollection of ever being issued a Doxa. But, he said it wasn’t that unusual to see his name on the log, describing Barth’s issue process for watches as being as casual as “trading a cup of coffee” for a watch in certain instances before noting the transaction in his log with whatever name and number moved him at the time. Years later, Barth made up for it, gifting Blackburn a Rolex GMT-Master with his name and “SEALAB III” engraved on the caseback, a watch that he lost to a shady watch repairman years later. Doxa 6665354 Cyril F. Lafferty, Lieutenant Royal Navy, Team Leader Cyril Lafferty during SEALAB III. (Photo Credit: Shared By Perezcope) Because of a photo circulating the web showing the former Royal Navy officer wearing a Doxa, I felt confident Cyril Lafferty, who was loaned to the US Navy SEALAB project by Her Majesty’s Royal Navy, might have the goods. While Mr. Lafferty confirmed he is the man in the photo wearing a Doxa, he said he had no recollection of being issued a Doxa watch or any other by the US Navy. He did remember being issued a Rolex or Omega by the Royal Navy, however. Later serving as the captain of the Royal Navy’s only deep-diving research vessel, HMS Reclaim, Lafferty went on to pioneer hyperbaric treatment techniques for multiple sclerosis. Doxa 6665425 James H. Osborn, Lieutenant Commander, Civil Engineer Corps, USN Then-LCDR Osborn preparing for a dive in 1968. (Photo Credit: Jim Osborn) In an email exchange with retired Captain Osborn, he confirmed he was issued a Doxa watch and wore it for all of the years he was an active Navy Diver before making the change to a Seiko in 1983, a gift from his wife when he retired from the Navy. Years later, Osborn sold the Doxa and a personal Rolex to a jeweler, saying, “The cash went into my pocket and I never gave it a second thought.” We may not have the watch or its serial number, but this is a second piece of evidence—after the Laffery photo—supporting the issue log we found. Doxa 6665416 Leo Gies, Lieutenant Commander, USN While I failed to contact LCDR Gies via email, the salty old Naval officer was kind enough to give me a call one Friday morning. Despite the passing of some five and half decades, Gies is razor sharp and remembered being issued a Rolex dive watch before receiving the Doxa when he joined the SEALAB III program. Sadly, the Doxa is no longer in his possession. After leaving the Doxa with a watchmaker in the 1970s, Mr. Gies explained he never saw it again, thinking it was perhaps sold under dubious circumstances. It’s the kind of thing that could break a watch enthusiast’s heart, but for Gies, another lost diving tool wasn’t a huge deal then or now. In any case, Gies’s recollection serves as another hard firsthand link confirming the US Navy’s issue of Doxa watches during SEALAB III. Doxa 6665358 Keith H. Moore, Machinist’s Mate Second Class, USN I met Omar Moore in 2022 at a SEALAB reunion. He was wearing a Navy-issued Doxa T-graph, the stuff of legend. The hardest to track down was ironically the only aquanaut from the list I have met in person, Keith “Omar” Moore. On the very trip where I discovered the issue log in question, I also attended 2022’s SEALAB reunion. Moore attended wearing the impeccable example of a Doxa T-Graph photographed above, a watch he says was also issued to him by the Navy in 1968, before its commercial introduction in 1969. Could one of the serial numbers on this list belong to Moore’s T-Graph? After several unanswered emails, I asked a couple of the other aquanauts I connected with to vouch for me to Moore. 1968 photo of Omar Moore showing the incredible amount of gear worn by divers training for SEALAB III. (Photo Credit: US Navy) It did the trick. One morning a few days later, the phone rang. Moore informed me he was indeed issued a Doxa on one of the days listed in our note. He remembered Bob Barth setting up a small folding table not unlike a bake sale where SEALAB III divers and support staff could go and make an argument for why they should be issued a watch. Moore’s rapport with Barth was good, and Moore distinctly remembered Barth throwing him his brand new Searambler dial Doxa in its box from “across the room”. Where Barth got the watches from is unclear, but it is at least possible Doxa sent the watches to Barth directly or in the care of Barth because of his status as one of the “celebrity” aquanauts along with Mercury 7 astronaut Scott Carpenter. In any case, a few months later, Barth gave Moore another Doxa, this time the then-pre-production T-Graph chronograph. Moore remembered using both extensively in training dives and while supporting the construction and installation of the SEALAB III at no less than 610 feet of seawater off the coast of California’s San Clemente Island. “Mr. Moore, can I take a photo of your watch?” “Sure, man, whatever”. Unfortunately, when I was finally able to confirm the serial numbers of  Moore’s Doxa, both of which he still has, neither matched the handwritten log. Here are the numbers as read (and confirmed) from Moore’s Doxa watches: Doxa Sub 200 T-Graph - Serial: 6675653 Doxa Sub 300 Searambler - Serial: 717923 How the documented serial numbers manage to differ from Moore’s actual watches is anyone’s guess. Perhaps the recordkeeping on Barth’s part was simply not great—a theory Moore seconded—or the names and numbers had become mixed up as could easily happen with any piece of diving equipment. The idea that the first two numbers of a Doxa serial number indicate the year is also not watertight at this point as we are pretty sure the T-Graph wasn’t around in 1966 when the Doxa Sub itself was in its infancy. There are other examples of vintage T-Graphs with “66” as the beginning of the serial number, so I believe Moore’s example to be correct. Omar Moore’s incredible Doxa Sub 200 T-Graph. While it isn’t the smoking gun I was hoping for—a perfect match between the serial numbers on the handwritten log and the caseback of a Doxa Sub owned by a surviving Aquanaut—we’ve done more than enough to prove the role played by Doxa during SEALAB III and after, serving as an intriguing addition to the annals of dive and military watch history. Of course, the mission to record these stories for posterity is never over, so let’s finish with a closer look at the role played potentially by Jaquet Droz during SEALAB III. Though the log lists Moore as the recipient of a “JK Droz”, he has no memory of the watch. The plot thickens… An Unexpected Contender Jaquet Droz produced dozens of dive watches during the 1960s and 70s. Could some of them have been used on SEALAB III? The records indicate that several “JK Droz” watches were also issued alongside the Doxa models. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it sounds like the modern luxury brand “Jaquet Droz” that produces intricate automaton watches. And there is indeed a connection—but let’s get it straight—aquanauts were not wearing complicated watches featuring mechanical butterflies and singing birds worth tens of thousands of dollars during SEALAB III. Pierre Jaquet-Droz was a prolific watchmaker and automaton producer in the 1700s based in the Swiss city of Neuchatel. His name looms large in the Swiss Jura watchmaking region, and that makes it the perfect borrowed name for a brand—or many. Throughout the years, a few brands have resurrected the Jaquet Droz name to capitalize on his fame and imply a quality product, but many of these have a tenuous connection at best. They all originated in the same area of Switzerland, but that’s about it. It’s next to impossible to know for sure, but there are a few watch sightings in SEALAB archives that could be Jaquet Droz. The "JK Droz" watches that were issued have yet to be spotted. They could well be one of the ones pictured above or below, but we have no conclusive evidence. Given the timeframe and the role of the watch, it makes sense that the watch came from Jaquet Droz SA registered by Dr. Charles-Edouard Virchaux in 1964. The name was used to brand watches in the “Coopérative” that he ran. The Coopérative was essentially an OEM manufacturer that produced what were known as “catalog watches” that could be branded by any number of clients. (Photo Credit: Naval Undersea Museum) His in-house brand became known as Jaquet Droz, and they produced watches that looked similar to watches from a number of popular tool watch brands at the time. In the photo above, the “C” case might appear at first glance to be an Aquastar—and it may well be—but indeed Jaquet Droz also produced models resembling this design. Since the logs indicate that a few “JK Droz” watches were issued, this may be one, possibly even a standard skin diver whose bezel fell off. We may never know, but with period ads boasting that there were 1000 distinct models available, the possibility is there. Jaquet Droz might not get named along with the usual undersea living and exploration watches of the ‘60s and ‘70s, but that’s just it—the story is constantly being written. With these documents, two new brands are imbued with the lore of the United States Navy’s SEALAB program. If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE. Read Next: The Dive Watch - How The Military Helped To Shape History’s Greatest Tool Watch  

Timepieces Recovered From The Rubble Serve As Reminders Of The 2,977 Victims Of The Terrorist Attacks On 9/11 The world changed forever on September 11th, 2001. For my generation, this day would change our life trajectory, launching us on a path to seek retribution for those who attacked us. Following the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, the United States Military and numerous three-letter intelligence agencies served in the Global War On Terror, a new kind of conflict conducted in a novel digital age. But before the US found itself embroiled in a war that would stretch across two decades, September 11th saw a massive loss of life among civilians and first responders, creating secondary and tertiary ripple effects that will affect generations to come. Many of the victims wore watches on the last day of their lives which were later recovered during the unprecedented forensic effort in the weeks following 9/11. As is often the case on W.O.E., the watches worn by the people killed on 9/11 are insignificant in comparison to the magnitude of the events. This isn't about watches, it's about people. The watches are simply the medium through which we experience the human element, physical representations of the lives lost that day. In this Dispatch, we’ll discuss the watches worn by some of the survivors as well as the 2,977 victims who died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Our thanks go out to the 9/11 Memorial Museum which provided the majority of images and information included in this Dispatch. If you’ve never had the chance to visit the museum, it is a moving and special place every American should visit at least once. Thomas Canavan’s Quartz Milan Field Watch Canavan and his quartz Milan Field Watch, which is forever frozen at 8:49 AM on the 11th. (Photo Credit: Hodinkee & 9/11 Memorial Museum) Covered in greater detail in a beautifully written story on Hodinkee, Thomas Canavan is a 9/11 survivor who was on the 47th floor of the North Tower at the World Trade Center when it was struck by American Airlines Flight 11. Making his way down an interior stairwell as smoke filled the building, Canavan was assisting an elderly couple when the building collapsed around him, burying him in the rubble. Tunneling his way some 40 feet across and four stories up, Canavan reached the surface with a host of injuries, totally unaware the quartz Milan watch on his wrist had stopped ticking. Months later, he picked up the watch he wore that day, its hands frozen in time at 8:49 AM—three minutes after Flight 11 plowed into the North Tower. The date was also stuck on 11. Later, Canavan donated the watch to the 9/11 Memorial Museum where he has also worked as a volunteer, telling his harrowing story firsthand to thousands of visitors. Todd Beamer’s Rolex Datejust Turn-O-Graph (Watch Photo Credit: 9/11 Memorial Museum) On the morning of September 11th, Todd Beamer, a 32-year-old Account Manager at Oracle, rose early to catch United Airlines Flight 93, leaving his pregnant wife, Lisa, and their two children at home. After the plane was hijacked, Beamer acted quickly, placing a call to authorities: "If I don't make it, please call my family and let them know how much I love them… Are you ready? Okay, Let's roll." Beamer then led other passengers in a charge on the cockpit, causing the plane to crash in rural Pennsylvania and thwarting the terrorists’ plans. Incredibly, Beamer’s gold and steel Rolex Datejust Turn-O-Graph was found among the debris from Flight 93. While the hands are disfigured and the sapphire crystal is gone, the date window—frozen in time—still reads “11”, a solemn reminder of the heroic actions of Todd Beamer and the other passengers onboard Flight 93 on 9/11. Beamer is survived by his wife Lisa and their three children. For more on Todd Beamer’s Rolex and his heroic actions on 9/11 check out our new YouTube video HERE. FDNY Lieutenant Michael T. Quilty’s Casio 3298 W-86 (Watch Photo Credit: 9/11 Memorial Museum) Lieutenant Michael T. Quilty was 42 years old and had just celebrated his 20th anniversary working for the Fire Department of the City of New York (FDNY) on September 5th when he responded to the Twin Towers on 9/11. An avid pilot, carpenter, and recreational scuba diver, Quilty wore a simple black Casio digital watch on his wrist when on duty, including on 9/11 when he lost his life in the line of service. Later recovered in the wreckage, Quilty’s Casio 3298 W-86 Alarm watch was in decent condition but the strap was shredded to pieces, a demonstration of the force of the falling skyscrapers. While we are quick to romanticize the use of luxury mechanical watches among military and first responders, the truth is that most in these austere lines of work trust inexpensive digital watches as timekeeping tools. Quilty is remembered by his wife Susan, their two children, and by his brothers and sisters in the FDNY. Calvin J. Gooding’s Pulsar (Watch Photo Credit: 9/11 Memorial Museum) A stock trader working in the North Tower, Calvin Joseph Gooding slept on the floor of his baby daughter’s room the night before the morning of September 11th to help his wife, LaChanze, a Tony Award-winning actress who was also pregnant, get some sleep. Gooding earned an MBA from New York University and was on the 104th floor of the North Tower when it fell. His watch, a quartz Pulsar with day and date sub-registers, was later recovered from the wreckage at Ground Zero. Gooding is remembered by his wife, who has spoken at numerous 9/11 memorial events, and his two daughters, one of whom he never got to meet. Lourdes J. Galletti’s Bulova (Watch Photo Credit: 9/11 Memorial Museum) Lourdes Galletti lived in the Bronx and was working as an executive secretary for Cantor Fitzgerald’s vice chairman, Stuart Fraser, on the 105th floor of the North Tower on the morning of 9/11. According to the 9/11 Memorial Museum, those who knew her said Galletti’s determination and character helped her overcome a tough childhood, earn a high school equivalency degree, and ultimately earn a position working with a prestigious firm in the World Trade Center. In the rubble, authorities discovered Galletti’s vintage mechanical ladies Bulova, a watch that was likely older than she was. 33 years old at the time of her death, Galletti is remembered by her mother, friends, and siblings. Yamel J. Merino’s Quartz Field Watch (Watch Photo Credit: 9/11 Memorial Museum) Another young victim, Yamel Josefina Merino was only 24 years old and was working as an emergency medical technician when the call came in that aircraft were flying into the World Trade Center. Merino was among the first EMS responders providing medical assistance to evacuees outside the South Tower when it collapsed at 9:59 AM. Having risen from the transport division to become an EMT at MetroCare and even being named the company’s EMT of the Year in 1999, Merino aspired to one day become a nurse to better support her eight-year-old son Kevin. Merino’s son, Kevin, cries over his mother’s casket at her funeral, a solemn reminder of the last impact for those who lost their loved ones on September 11th. Her watch is a straightforward quartz-powered field watch that either is or is meant to resemble a Victorinox, a subsidiary of the Swiss Army brand so often associated with pocket knives. Like many field watches, the watch has secondary 24-hour markings which are useful in medical settings. Merino is remembered by her son, Kevin, as well as her parents and siblings. Rosemary A. Smith’s Quartz Dress Watch (Watch Photo Credit: 9/11 Memorial Museum) A survivor of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, Rosemary A. Smith was a switchboard operator for Sidley, Austin, Brown, and Wood on the 57th floor of the North Tower. Beyond her job, Smith was a passionate chocolate maker who was often asked by friends, family, and coworkers to provide custom chocolates for events. Considered among the missing, Smith’s generic quartz dress watch, which has a light blue dial and strap, was recovered among the rubble. 61 years old at the time of her death on 9/11, Smith is remembered by her daughter who said: “I lost my heart when I lost my mother. She was very happy, very happy with her life, adored her grandchildren, and always wanted to be with them." A US Navy Skilcraft Clock From The Pentagon (Clock Photo Credit: 9/11 Memorial Museum) Often overshadowed by the events at Ground Zero and the heroic efforts of the passengers onboard United Flight 93, the Pentagon was also attacked on 9/11 when it was struck by American Airlines Flight 77. This Skilcraft clock from the US Navy’s Command Center inside the Pentagon was—like some of the watches mentioned previously—frozen in time at 9:37, the precise moment of impact. Skilcraft clocks are manufactured in the United States by Chicago Lighthouse Industries by workers who are legally blind. Anyone who has served in the military or worked in government recognizes this humble quartz-powered clock that now serves as a lasting reminder of a day that would change the course of American and world history. It’s Never “Just A Watch” Watches as physical objects offer little meaning in their own right. However, as a timekeeping tool that is often thoughtfully selected by an individual and then worn throughout a lifetime, watches take on a sort of emotional resonance, transcending their physical value to represent their wearers long after they are gone. On 9/11, a day where so many were killed often without a trace of their physical being to bury and mourn, watches and other personal belongings are more than the sum of their components, carrying forward a solemn reminder of those we lost as well as the incredible sacrifices of EMS and first responders on that Tuesday in September.     If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE.  For additional reading on the US response to the September 2001 attacks, check out the following articles: Digital Watches of Espionage, The Role Watches Played in the Early Days of the CIA's War in Afghanistan CIA’s JAWBREAKER Team and a Rolex Submariner A Navy SEAL’s Rolex Submariner on the Osama Bin Laden Raid

How A Spiritual Leader Became A Watch-Collecting Icon - It All Started With The Office Of Strategic Services We have discussed the operational role of timepieces in espionage and how they can be tools in the agent recruitment cycle—the transition of an individual from a target to a recruited asset (aka spy). Espionage is a human business and watches are transferable stores of value that have personal meaning, traits that make them effective tools of intelligence tradecraft. One of the earliest documented examples of this is with an unlikely figure, His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama.  While there is no indication that the Dalai Lama was a recruited asset of the OSS or CIA, he was provided a watch as a tool to build a relationship and gain influence.  OSS Officers Ilia Tolstoy and Brooke Dolan may have inadvertently spurred the Dalai Lama's love of watches. In 1943, Ilia Tolstoy and Brooke Dolan, both members of CIA’s predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), presented the Dalai Lama with a Patek Philippe reference 658 on behalf of US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Reportedly, the purpose of the gift was to win the Dalai Lama’s support for a potential road through Tibet into China to assist the Chinese in fighting the Japanese. The watch clearly had meaning for the Dalai Lama and is something he still carries today. In contrast to the agent recruitment cycle, this operational gift was more of a rapport builder between “liaison,” a colloquial term to capture third-country intelligence services that work jointly with CIA. The Dalai Lama’s Patek Philippe reference 658, gifted to him by FDR via a pair of OSS officers during WWII. (Photo Credit: Hodinkee) Tenzin Gyatso was born in 1935, ascending to his position as the Dalai Lama when he was only four years old. Having served as the Dalai Lama—the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism—for 84 years, the 14th Dalai Lama has lived what would by any standard be called an interesting life, with a common thread being his continued advocacy for the welfare and autonomy of Tibetan citizens. Part of a global effort to undermine communism, the US Government reportedly had a close relationship with the Dalai Lama and his brothers since the days of the OSS, providing a whole lot of money in return for the Dalai Lama’s continued maintenance of at least the idea of Tibetan sovereignty. Despite the covert influence of the United States on the region, Tibet’s whole sovereignty thing didn’t work out, and the Dalai Lama was ultimately exiled by the Chinese government in 1959 to India, where he still lives today and continues to serve as a seminal figure for Buddhists around the world. In more recent years, the Dalai Lama has also become a person of interest for watch enthusiasts, boasting a small but intriguing collection including some of the most storied names in Swiss watchmaking. In this Dispatch, we’ll take a closer look at the Dalai Lama’s history with horology including a watch closely tied to the world of international espionage. You can’t make this stuff up. A Rare Patek Philippe Reference & The OSS The Dalai Lama with his Patek Philippe 658 at an event in Washington, DC in 2016. (Photo Credit: Hodinkee) Presented in greater detail by Eric Wind over on Hodinkee, the abridged version of the story of the Dalai Lama receiving a rare Patek Philippe goes that a pair of Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Officers, Captain Brooke Dolan and Major Ilia Tolstoy, trekked across India, China, and Tibet on a diplomatic mission to meet the Dalai Lama and present him with gifts in an apparent effort to recognize Tibet’s autonomy within the region. OSS Officers Captain Brooke Dolan and Major Ilia Tolstoy during their 100-day trek to Lhasa, Tibet’s capital city. (Photo Credit: US National Archives) The impetus behind the mission was more complicated than simply meeting the Dalai Lama. The United States, embroiled in World War II, was also desperate to create an overland route connecting China and India to outfit the Chinese in their war against Japan. This path would have no choice but to pass through Tibet, and so Captain Brooke Dolan II, a soldier and explorer, and Major Ilya Tolstoy, a naturalist, explorer, and the grandson of Leo Tolstoy, ventured some 100 days by horseback through rugged terrain to Lhasa, Tibet’s remote capital. The Dalai Lama’s Patek Philippe Reference 658 is one of only 15 ever made. (Photo Credit: Hodinkee) When the OSS officers finally reached the spiritual leader, among their gifts was a Patek Philippe reference 658, one of only 15 ever made, and including a perpetual calendar chronograph, a minute repeater, and a split-seconds chronograph. What led FDR to select such an expensive Swiss watch remains a mystery, but what is certain is that the overly complicated gold pocket watch was intended to win favor with the Dalai Lama and receive his blessing for a road through the region. It was a tool of diplomacy and espionage. While there are numerous examples of intelligence officers using watches to influence or recruit sources, FDR’s gift of a Patek Philippe to the Dalai Lama has to be among the most high profile. It’s unclear whether the Patek Philippe served to foster the Dalai Lama’s well-established love of horology, but it probably didn’t hurt. Even more surprisingly, the Dalai Lama has been seen carrying the watch as recently as 2016, which is a flex of the highest level. The Dalai Lama & The Crown His Holiness wearing a Rolex Day-Date Ref. 18038 on an elastic metal strap. In addition to his celebrated Patek Philippe, the Dalai Lama also has several Rolex models in his collection with a tendency to wear them on simple elastic metal bracelets like many other men in their 80s tended to do. One of His Holiness’s most worn Rolex models appears to be his Rolex Day-Date Ref. 18038, a watch we are also willing to go out on a limb and say was probably a gift. Given the oversized elasticated metal bracelet and the Dalai Lama’s slender wrists, the watch almost always sits inside his wrist, making the otherwise ostentatious look of the gold Rolex more subtle. It’s less often seen, but there is also photographic evidence to suggest the Dalai Lama owns at least one other Rolex, a two-tone Datejust on its signature Jubilee bracelet. In Tibetan Buddhism, letting go of material possessions and excess in a quest for spiritual enlightenment is a core tenet, making the Dalai Lama’s penchant for luxury watches from Switzerland a bit surprising (contradictory?). However, considering the high probability His Holiness was gifted the watches, we are prepared to let it slide. Further, the Dalai Lama’s interest in watches appears to be deeper than the trappings of European luxury as His Holiness is also known to tinker with and repair watches for personal enjoyment. It’s hard to know the specific reference without a better shot of the dial, but the Dalai Lama’s other Rolex appears to be a two-tone Datejust. His Holiness The Watchmaker Various unconfirmed sources claim the Dalai Lama owns as many as 15 watches, with many of them products of his love for mechanical tinkering and watchmaking in particular. Despite his interest, the Dalai Lama does not appear to be an expert, however. In his book, Ethics for the New Millennium, His Holiness says: “I have always enjoyed repairing watches. But I can remember a number of occasions as a boy when, completely losing my patience with those tiny, intricate parts, I picked up the mechanism and smashed it down on the table. Of course, later I felt very sorry and ashamed of my behavior—especially when, as on one occasion, I had to return the watch to its owner in a condition worse than it was before!" An as-yet unidentified Valjoux 7751-powered chronograph on the Dalai Lama’s wrist. In addition to the Patek Philippe and Rolex models we mentioned, the Dalai Lama has also been spotted wearing a couple of different chronographs that appear to be powered by the Valjoux 7751 and therefore could have come from a variety of different brands. It could be this is a caliber he enjoys tinkering with, but that is pure speculation. A Love Of Watches Spawned By The OSS? It would be a leap to argue that the gift of a rare Patek Philippe reference to the young Dalai Lama in 1943 galvanized his apparent lifelong love of watches, but we'd like to believe the OSS played a role in creating one of history's most unexpected watch enthusiasts. In any case, the tie-in between His Holiness, horology, and espionage is intriguing, showing once again that no matter where you go, whether we’re talking about an elite special operator, a politician, an intelligence officer, or the leader of Tibetan Buddhism, passion for timepieces runs deep and across virtually all demographic qualifiers. It’s unclear whether the Dalai Lama reads the Dispatch or subscribes to the “Use Your Tools” ethos, but his enthusiasm for watchmaking is real. If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE. Read Next: CIA Analysis of Foreign Leaders’ Timepieces

As a CIA Case Officer, one of my go-to watches was an IWC Mark XVII. It’s a great and versatile watch that can fit in with a suit and tie at a diplomatic function in Europe or jeans and a dirty t-shirt in the African bush. Notably, IWC also has a strong squadron watch program and a significant following in the aviation community around the world.  To document a first-hand perspective, we asked Nic Barnes, an Australian military pilot, to write a Dispatch on the history of the brand and his experience using IWC watches as a military aviator. This piece is co-written with Henry Black, a previous W.O.E. contributor and full-time journalist based in Australia. As always, this content is not sponsored and the views and perspectives are of the authors. At W.O.E., we are brand agnostic but do support any brand that supports our community. Precision In Flight: IWC’s Historical & Enduring Bond With Military Aviation IWC’s Special Pilot’s Watch Ref. IW436. (Photo Credit: IWC) International Watch Company (IWC) Schaffhausen is a watchmaker steeped in history. Their modern line of luxury tool watches are direct descendants of the company’s military aviation watches of the mid-20th Century.  IWC Schaffhausen’s history with pilot’s watches predates World War II. In 1936, the company was owned by Ernst Homberger who had two sons that were keen amateur pilots. The boys helped to produce the Special Pilot’s Watch (Ref. IW436) using their flying experience to dictate the specifications and requirements of the timepiece. The design established the foundational DNA for IWC’s future pilot’s watches with an emphasis on legibility and durability that would in time lead to two distinct watch families - the ‘Big Pilot’ and ‘Mark’ series. Watches Of War During WWII, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) identified a requirement to replace the aging Army Trade Pattern (ATP) watches that had adorned the wrists of their troops since 1939. These new timepieces needed to be waterproof, shockproof, and highly accurate with a black dial, legible Arabic numerals, and the ability to read the watch at night. Twelve Swiss watchmakers took on the task of manufacturing these W.W.W. (‘Wrist Watch Waterproof’) specification watches. As one of the 12 makers, IWC provided an estimated 5,000 – 6,000 ‘Dirty Dozen’ timepieces to the MoD. The design would later evolve into the IWC Mark 11 – introduced after the war in the late 1940s.  IWC’s W.W.W. is one of the rarer ‘Dirty Dozen’ watches in circulation today. (Photo Credit: Watch-Site x Steltman Watches) Interestingly, while IWC was supplying W.W.W. watches to Commonwealth forces, it was concurrently supplying the German Luftwaffe (Air Force) with ‘B-Uhr’ timepieces. These onion-crowned watches were over 50mm in size and featured sword hands along with a prominent triangle and paired dots marking the 12 o’clock position. Much of the design DNA in today’s IWC Pilot’s line-up can be seen in these oversized pilot’s watches for the Luftwaffe with IWC’s modern Big Pilot’s watches drawing their aesthetics directly from the Luftwaffe B-Uhrs. Of note, IWC supplied watches to both the Axis and the Allies during WWII. IWC produced approximately 1,000 B-Uhr models for the Luftwaffe (Photo Credit: SJX) War Reaches Schaffhausen WWII did not leave IWC’s hometown of Schaffhausen unscathed. In April 1944 a disorientated U.S. Air Force bomber group of 15 B-24 Liberators mistook the Swiss town for a German target. Dropping as many as 371 high explosive bombs and incendiary munitions on the town, the resulting carnage killed 40 people (including members of author Henry’s own family) and caused widespread damage. One bomb dropped through the roof of the IWC factory but luckily did not explode.  A B-24 Liberator of the 392nd Bomb Group that accidentally bombed Schaffhausen in 1944. (Photo Credit: United States Army Air Force) Interestingly, declassified correspondence from November 1944 gives further insight into such incidents. Director of Office of Strategic Services (OSS), William J. Donovan describes to Commander of the United States Army Air Forces, General Henry H. Arnold that the accidental American bombing of Swiss towns was deeply disturbing the Chief of Staff of the Swiss Army and increasing ‘the difficulty in obtaining Swiss cooperation in our present task of penetrating Germany’. Mark 11 – A New Standard in Military Aviation Timepieces After the war, IWC introduced their navigator's wristwatch Mk.11 - Stores Ref. 6B/346 (Mark 11), taking the basic principles of the tough tool watch that was the W.W.W. and upping the ante. The Mark 11 removed the sub-seconds and utilized an IWC Calibre 89 manual wind movement with a central seconds. It featured a Faraday cage to resist magnetic interference and proved to be immensely capable as a timepiece for military aviators. These watches were issued to Commonwealth Air Forces, including the Royal Air Forces of Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the South African Air Force, and the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). IWC Mark 11 for the Royal Australian Air Force circa 1957 (Photo Credit: IWC) Neo-Classic IWC Military-Inspired Models The design of the Mark 11 (which was in production from 1949-1953 with a second iteration for the civilian market from 1973-1984) went on to influence the ‘Mark’ timepieces that followed, specifically the Mark XII (introduced in 1994) and Mark XV (introduced in 1999). These subsequent iterations utilized a similar handset design including the iconic ‘block’ hour hand and classical sizing – the Mark XII was 36mm, and the Mark XV was 38mm. The Mark XII used a Jaeger Le-Coultre calibre while the Mark XV used a heavily modified ETA 2892-A2. The Mark XV was the last of the Mark series to feature the ‘block’ hour hand (Photo Credit: Henry Black) The Mark XVI represented a turning point in IWC’s modern pilot designs – one that has continued to the current Mark XX. While retaining their commitment to solid specifications, the numeral font, dotted triangle marker at 12, and use of flieger sword hands have far more in common with the Luftwaffe B-Uhr watches than the MoD Mark 11s that share the Mark name. This flieger design is reflected across other modern IWC pilots including the Big Pilot and Pilot Chronograph, unfortunately leaving the original Mark 11 with no aesthetic successor in the brand’s current catalogue. IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic Edition ‘RAAF’ (Photo Credit: @timepoor) Modern Military Connections In 2007, IWC entered a commercial relationship with the US Navy, becoming an official licensee and beginning their line of TOP GUN watches. Featuring the logo of the 1980s hit movie of the same name, the series of watches became a stable of IWC’s offerings with licensing fees directly funding morale, welfare, and recreation programs for US sailors, retirees, and their families. TOPGUN & Other "Unit Watches" The IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition 'SFTI' features the school’s patch on the dial (Photo Credit: @h.m.uhren) This prepared the foundation of a more organic relationship – IWC’s foray into custom squadron watches. Having seen watches from the TOP GUN line, pilots from the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School (the real TOPGUN) reached out to IWC to investigate the feasibility of making their own piece for the Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor (SFTI) program. The result was the 2018 release of the IWC’s first custom military piece – the Edition ‘SFTI’ in both a Pilot’s Watch Mark XVIII and a Pilot’s Watch Chronograph. These exclusive watches continue to be made today but can only be purchased by TOPGUN graduates. The IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic Edition 'SFTI' worn by Monica Barbaro on the set of Top Gun: Maverick  (Photo Credit: Paramount) The SFTI connection paid dividends for IWC when filming began for Top Gun: Maverick. The film crew noticed the Navy pilots wearing their custom IWCs and, in pursuit of authenticity, ended up being introduced by the pilots to IWC CEO Chris Grainger-Herr, resulting in almost every character in the film wearing IWCs.  Since the first SFTI watches, exclusive squadron collaborations have continued at a small scale and considered pace. This means IWC is very particular about the projects the brand approves, with limited production slots available. Falling under the Richemont group, IWC is generally hesitant to publicly elaborate on their military collaborations although Watches and Wonders 2022 marked a departure from this discretion. The IWC booth featured an exhibit of the brand’s military projects to date – with a total of 18 on display IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph ‘APACHE AH-64E’ (Photo Credit: @chrisgraingerherr) While predominantly working with US Navy fighter squadrons, other military editions were shown including watches for Swiss Air Force Staffel 11, French Aeronavale, No. 663 Squadron Army Air Corps (British AH-64 Apache attack helicopters), and a very special homage to the IWC Mark 11 issued to Royal Australian Air Force aircrew in the 1950s. Notably, all known custom military projects have strict and tangible ties to professional military aviation. IWC Big Pilot’s Watch ‘TYPHOON DRIVER’ (Photo Credit: @blackseries_driver) The Future of Aviation Horology  Beyond atmospheric flight, IWC was recently involved with the Inspiration4 private space program. Commanded by the billionaire owner of the world’s largest private air force, Jared Isaacman (under usual W.O.E. criteria you’d expect him to be a Breitling guy), Each of the four astronauts of this first all-civilian mission to orbit wore a custom Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition ‘Inspiration4’. After the mission each watch was auctioned, raising a total of $405,000 USD for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Collaborations with Isaacman’s space endeavors are forecast to continue with the launch of the Polaris Dawn mission later this year. This mission is scheduled to include the first private spacewalk and result in another auction of new special edition IWCs to be worn during the flight.  The IWC Pilot’s Watch Chronograph Edition ‘Inspiration4’ (Image credit: IWC) Final Thoughts While the role of wristwatches in aviation has changed over the last century, IWC’s commitment to aviation ‘use-your-tools’ wristwatches remains. From the humble beginnings of IWC’s Special Pilot’s Watch in 1936 to their custom pieces for private space exploration, IWC has firmly and legitimately positioned itself as a brand for professional aviators, synonymous with the frank design purpose of the pilot’s watch. IWC Pilot’s Chronograph ‘Death Rattlers’ (Photo Credit: @wingwatches) Their commitment to legibility, durability, and continuous technical improvement, along with their lasting ties to military aviation resonates with the W.O.E. community, creating unique watches to be cherished and used by generations to come. If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE. Read Next: Watches Of The War In Ukraine   About The Authors: Nic is an Australian military pilot who has been a follower of W.O.E. since the early days. He has a particular interest in custom military watch projects having designed and produced timepieces with multiple brands Henry is a journalist based in Australia who writes about watches in his spare time. He’s worked around the world including in conflict zones. He’s passionate about watches and how the hobby brings people together. Cover Photo Credit: IWC Pilot’s Watch Automatic Edition ‘AÉRONAVALE’ (Photo Credit: @etienne_b___r)

A Seiko Dive Watch 7548 - 7000 was recovered from the wreckage of a North Korean Spy Ship after the Battle of Amami-Ōshima. Where did it come from and what does it tell us about North Korean Covert Action? At CIA, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is known as one of the “big four,” along with Russia, China, and Iran. The big four (five with Cuba sometimes included) are “hard target” countries that represent a particular challenge for traditional intelligence collection. Kim Jong Un wearing an IWC Portofino. (Photo Credit: Unknown) Hollywood will often relegate North Korean intelligence officers, primarily the Reconnaissance Bureau of the General Staff Department (RGB), as comedic bumbling amateurs, but we learned to never underestimate our adversaries. The Hermit Kingdom has been successful in projecting power well beyond its borders, including the 1987 bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 killing 115 people with a bomb in the overhead bin, the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures in response to the upcoming film The Interview, kidnapping dozens of Japanese citizens off the beach, and notably the 2017 assassination of Kim Jong Nam with a VX nerve agent in the Kuala Lumpur airport. Operatives have been particularly effective at conducting covert action and subversion activities in neighboring waters surrounding Japan and South Korea. A Seiko In A North Korean Spy Ship The Seiko 7548 - 7000 recovered from the Changyu 3705. (Photo Credit: Instagram: @thewristplorer & Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama)  A Seiko on display in a museum located in Japan is nothing out of the ordinary. Seiko itself even maintains a public museum in Tokyo’s shopping district, Ginza, where notable watches from the brand are on display. These watches are part of the larger story of Japanese horology, otaku culture, and all that comes with it.  Drive 30 minutes by car to the south, just outside the metropolis of Tokyo, there’s a Seiko diver sitting in a glass case at the Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama. It’s crusted in sea salt and flotsam-filled grime, and its bezel insert is nowhere to be found. This watch, in particular, a ref. 7548 - 7000, while horologically interesting, is part of a much different story, the story of relations between the nations of Japan and North Korea, often characterized by hostility and tension. Sometimes a watch has multiple stories to tell — be it of horological significance, the course of nations, or in this case, both. December 21st, 2001 - The Waters Of Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan The Changyu 3705 shortly before being fired upon by the Japan Coast Guard. (Photo Credit: Japan Coast Guard) The Japanese Defense Intelligence Headquarters was picking up unusual signals from a communication station in Kikaijima, a small island in the Amami archipelago, far away from any major metropolitan area of Japan. The subtropical archipelago sits about 130 miles north of Okinawa. The communications caused what looked like a fishing trawler to come under investigation by the Japan Coast Guard. Four vessels were deployed to ascertain the ship’s intentions — benign or nefarious. The ship was issued a warning to halt. It did not comply. It resembled a fishing vessel, common in these waters. But breaking an official order certainly was uncommon. This was a fushin-sen, or “suspicious ship”, after all. Following established escalation procedures, the Japan Coast Guard fired 25 warning shots across the bow of the boat. Normally that would be enough to persuade even the most recalcitrant fishing trawler — possibly using illegal techniques to harvest fish — to cut its engine and allow the Coast Guard to board for inspection. Instead, the ship in question started performing evasive maneuvers and increasing its speed to 33 knots — staggeringly fast for a trawler. Japan’s Special Boarding Unit was established as a response to repeated spy ship incursions into Japanese waters. (Photo Credit: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force) Meanwhile, the Japan Coast Guard had readied its Special Boarding Unit, known as the Tokubetsukeibitai, in case the situation reached a point where it would be needed. Instead of heeding the warning shots, the trawler fired back and a firefight ensued. It was equipped with light and heavy machine guns and the occupants of the ship utilized rocket-propelled grenades (RPG) to return fire to the Japan Coast Guard vessel. Later, Man-Portable Air Defense Systems (MANPADS) and a double-barrel ZPU-2 anti-aircraft weapons system would be found aboard. Bullet holes on the recovered wreck of the Changyu 3705, now on display at the Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama. (Photo Credit: Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama) The ship was no ordinary fishing vessel, it was a North Korean spy ship, later identified as the Changyu 3705. It was meticulously disguised as a fishing trawler with Chinese characters painted on its hull. Everyone aboard the North Korean vessel perished when the ship sank; a few bodies were recovered, while the majority went missing. It was unclear if it was Japanese rounds that sent it to the bottom of the East China Sea or if the crew scuttled it, but roughly six hours after warning shots were fired, the North Korean vessel became a shipwreck. September 2002 - The Site Of The Changyu 3705 Wreck A massive ship equipped with a crane was chartered by the Japan Coast Guard to raise the wreck of the 98-foot Changyu 3705. Once on dry land, the Japanese government discovered the boat had been specially modified with concealed compartments for the deployment of landing craft. There was also a system of armament on rails so a recoilless rifle could be moved out of sight. It turns out the ship had a self-destruction system too. Small arms recovered from the wreck of the Changyu 3705 in 2002. (Photo Credit: Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama) After inspecting the hull, the government took an inventory of everything onboard. Weapons, communication equipment, DPRK propaganda documents (including a portrait of Kim Jong Il), nautical charts of their area of operations, and something rather curious — a Japanese-made Seiko 7548 - 7000. North Korea & Seiko Watches Why would a North Korean spy have a Japanese watch in his possession? Japan is a sworn enemy of the North Korean state. Surely they wouldn't be supporting a capitalistic Japanese juggernaut like Seiko. A Seiko 7548 recovered from a captured North Korean frogman on Dadaepo Beach in 1983. (Photo Credit: KTV, via Ryan's Blog) We’ve covered how a watch can be used in an operational capacity, perhaps to support a cover. But the answer in this case is probably a simple one: intelligence practitioners need tools that work. And Seikos just work when you need them to and are particularly well suited for the maritime environment. It’s not the first instance of a known North Korean operator wearing a Seiko dive watch, either. An unconfirmed image of the North Korean spies captured on South Korea’s South Korea’s Dadaepo Beach in 1983. One was captured wearing a Seiko 6309 - 7040 and the other a 7548 - 7000. According to Ryan's Blog, in a separate incident on December 3, 1983, two North Korean frogmen were intercepted and captured while infiltrating South Korea’s Dadaepo Beach located in Busan. They would eventually defect to South Korea, but not before being processed by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. They were stripped of their equipment, including the Type SP-10 semi-submersible they used to get onshore. A Seiko 6309 - 7040 taken from one of the North Korean frogmen following their capture in 1983 on Dadaepo Beach. (Photo Credit: The War Museum Of Korea, via Ryan's Blog) Strapped to their wrists? On one, a Seiko 6309 - 7040. On the other, a 7548 - 7000.  Many forces, historically, have issued Seikos to their operators. This probably isn’t the case in North Korea, however. The prevalent use of Seikos by North Korean operators stems from the reliability of the watches and their relative ubiquity and affordability around the globe.  Luxury Watches, American Vehicles, & Superdollars A 1970s Omega bearing Kim Il-Sung’s signature, further evidence of illegally imported luxury goods in the DPRK. (Photo Credit: Omega Forums) We’ve looked at a mysterious Omega bearing the signature of Kim Il-Sung on the dial, specially produced by Omega in the late ‘70s for the regime. Where there’s a dictatorship, luxury goods — illegally and legally imported — usually aren’t far away. It’s safe to say that the North Korean military didn’t put in an order with Seiko HQ in Japan to obtain these dive watches that seem to be used by North Korean spies and operators. In fact, it’s unlikely that there’s an official retail presence and distribution model for Seiko in the “Hermit Kingdom”. Even the neutral Swiss government banned the export of all Swiss watches to the DPRK in 2016 due to its ongoing research with nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles. Often coming from China, black-market luxury goods including Swiss watches and even American cars make their way into the DPRK. (Photo Credit: CNN) But that doesn’t stop goods from flowing into the country on the black market. Most luxury goods and dual-use military equipment are imported through the grey market via neighboring China. You’ll even find American automobiles, like the Hummer H1, cruising the streets of Pyongyang. It’s reported that Illicit goods are often purchased with Superdollars, a counterfeit US currency produced by North Korea. An American-made Hummer H1 cruising the streets of Pyongyang. (Photo Credit: Thaddeus Stapleton) This all points to the tangled web of the black market that would allow Seikos to end up in the hands of North Korean operators and spies. North Korea has a network of undeclared intelligence officers around the world and legitimate diplomatic missions to allied states. The watches could be purchased abroad and brought back to North Korea in any number of ways. What’s left of the Changyu 3705 is on display along with the Seiko 7548 at the Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama. (Photo Credit: Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama) We’ll never know the exact origins of the Seiko found at the bottom of the sea aboard the Changyu 3705, or the models involved in the Dadaepo Beach incident. It’s all conjecture at best. The world of covert action and subversion is murky. Whether it's the Navy-issued 6309 on the wrist of a Navy SEAL in the mountains of Afghanistan or the 7548 - 7000 used by a North Korean spy, we can glean that spies and operators tend to gravitate towards the same timekeeping tools. The ones they can rely on. -- If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE.  This Dispatch has been reviewed by the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information. Read Next: CIA Case Officer’s Everyday Carry - EDC Thanks to @thewristplorer on Instagram for providing several photos of the North Korean Seiko 7548 from the Japan Coast Guard Museum Yokohama.

Tracking Multiple Time Zones In Austere Circumstances By J.R. Seeger, former CIA SIS Greenwich Mean Time or “GMT” is an internationally accepted timing standard by which all other time zones are defined. A GMT watch tracks one or two additional time zones by way of a fourth hand, a bezel or chapter ring with 24-hour markings, or some combination of the two. Revered by enthusiasts for invoking a sense of nostalgia, GMT watches serve as a throwback to the golden age of travel before cell phones. But for those at the tip of the spear living in Zulu Time, the GMT has a more practical function. Living In Zulu Time While there were earlier attempts at tracking multiple timezones, like the watches US Navy officer Philip Van Horn Weems developed with Longines in the ‘20s, GMT watches as we know them today took off in the 1950s, first with the Glycine Airman in 1953 and followed by the Rolex GMT-Master in 1954. Robust and relatively attainable at the time, this burgeoning category of watches provided the ability to ascertain the time of day in two or even three time zones around the globe at a glance. The Tudor Black Bay GMT (Photo Credit: James Rupley)  For pilots or the then-novel community of international business travelers, watches like the GMT-Master were exceptionally helpful. But why are GMT watches important to the world of Watches of Espionage? In The Shadow World - Timing Is Everything We regularly point out that time is an essential factor in both espionage and special operations, sometimes acting as the difference between life and death if a case officer or agent is not at a given meeting place precisely on time. Lingering on “the X” invites scrutiny and, in the shadowy world of espionage, scrutiny can mean arrest, prison, or even execution. Special operations missions are also exceptionally choreographed, meaning every second counts when a team is linking up on the ground, at sea, or in the air. And this is where a GMT watch serves as an essential piece of kit. Rolex GMT Master Reference 1675 on Billy Waugh’s wrist in retirement. Waugh was a legendary Special Forces operator and CIA contractor. (Photo Credit, Recoil Magazine and Tom Marshall) This level of choreography across assets often involves traveling across multiple time zones. Coordinating a multifaceted mission based on various local timing standards invites uncertainty and risk, with the entire concept of local time potentially meaning different things to different people for any number of different units or assets involved. This is why case officers and special ops personnel live in what is known as Zulu Time. Being on Zulu Time ensures everyone is on time and minimizes the risk of operations failing due to timing errors. Utilized by the military, various government organizations, and the world of aviation, Zulu Time is so named for the Z timezone in the ACP 121 military timing standard of 25 letter-designated zones, with each zone referring to a longitudinal swath of the Earth. As you may have surmised, the Z, pronounced “Zulu” in NATO’s phonetic alphabet, indicates Greenwich Mean Time or GMT, which is also often referred to as UTC or Coordinated Universal Time. If everyone involved in a given mission is working in Zulu Time, no matter where they are in the world, everyone is on the same page. If your watch happens to display Zulu Time in addition to local time, all the better. Vintage Bulova advertisement for the Accutron Astronaut. The 1960s & 1970s: Traveling At The Edge Of Space In Zulu Time The most celebrated story in the history of GMT watches is the legendary affiliation between Pan American Airlines, the Boeing 707, and the aforementioned GMT-Master. While the pages of that story are well-worn, several other GMT watches deserve their place in history especially when being viewed through the lens of our community. In the late 1950s, the CIA and Lockheed’s Skunk Works were working on the Archangel program to produce a manned, aerial reconnaissance aircraft. That program produced the A-12, an aircraft that would fly at the edge of space at speeds greater than 2000 mph. Given the incredible speed, every piece of the aircraft, the cameras, the film, and even the pressure suits for the pilots had to be redesigned to handle the rigors of the mission.  Lockheed’s A-12 Reconnaissance Aircraft  Neither Lockheed nor the CIA were certain what would happen to a standard mechanical watch at the edge of space with the incredible g-forces caused by accelerating to such high speeds. At the same time, the Agency needed their pilots to have a watch that would track both local time at their base as well as Zulu Time, the basis for all of their communications. W.O.E.s Personal Vintage Bulova, Accutron (Photo Credit: James Rupley) Rather than a Glycine or a Rolex GMT-Master, both of which were popular with more conventional pilots of the day, early A-12 pilots were issued a Bulova Accutron Astronaut equipped with a GMT-hand as well as a friction-fit 24-hour bezel. At the A-12’s incredible speeds, a pilot traveled through various time zones in minutes, making the ability to easily track Zulu Time with their watch essential for coordinating and communicating with ground crews and higher levels of operational oversight. 1990-1991: Fighting A War In Two Time Zones In addition to the necessity of Zulu Time, there are examples of managing two critical time zones with two separate watches. Nearly every photo of General Norman Schwarzkopf, Commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) during the First Gulf War, shows the general wearing two watches. In a previous Dispatch, Stormin’ Norman explained that he needed to track the time in both Saudi Arabia and Washington, DC, balancing the needs of the Joint Chiefs, the Secretary of Defense, and the President, all of whom were operating on Eastern Standard Time (EST), with troops on the ground operating on Arabian Standard Time (AST).  Why the general opted for a pair of Seiko watches as opposed to any number of GMT watches available in the early 1990s is anyone’s guess, but it’s possible the general simply found two watches to be the easier, or perhaps more attainable, option.  CIA’s Team Alpha prior to Insertion into Afghanistan. Seeger Back Row, Third From Left. (Photo Credit: CIA) 2001: The Global War On Terror Fast forward to 2001 and post-9/11 conflicts in Southwest Asia and the Middle East. When I deployed to Afghanistan as a team leader of one of the CIA’s first teams to enter the country, the most common watches on the wrists of most Special Forces operators and specifically on my team were plastic digital watches from brands like G-Shock and Timex. While not often considered among the GMT category, these straightforward digital tool watches (D.T.W.) displayed a single time zone with another one available at the push of a button. What was the second time zone? Zulu Time or UTC was the most common option. Given the amount of military and government assets in the country at the time, Zulu Time was essential for coordinating complex operations in theater. When a Special Forces ODA in Afghanistan requested logistics support from TF Dagger at Karshi-Khanabad airfield in Southern Uzbekistan (with a half-hour time difference from Afghanistan) or close air support aka “steel on target” from a USAF aircraft based outside the theater or a US Navy fast mover from a carrier battle group in the Arabian Sea, all of the players could be working off of the same time “hack.” Similarly, when my team communicated with CIA headquarters, our satellite communication – whether data or voice – was keyed to Zulu Time so that all of the participants knew when that vital communication would take place. A trio of Rolex GMT Master II models. (Photo Credit: James Rupley) Today: An Abundance Of Choices While digital watches are exceptionally robust and in many cases offer convenient features such as solar charging, many do not provide an at-a-glance view of two time zones. Looking to the world of analog quartz and mechanical timekeeping, there are a number of options available today for GMT enthusiasts whether managing Zulu Time is at the top of your list of priorities or not. Starting with the most basic, certain watches including the Benrus Type I and II of the 1970s utilized a simple time-only movement and display in conjunction with a rotating bezel with 12-hour markings. By rotating the bezel to reflect a given time difference, an operator could relatively easily track another timezone including Zulu Time. Using a time-only caliber, the Mil-Spec Benrus Type I provided a measure of GMT functionality using nothing more than a rotating 12-hour bezel. (Photo Credit: Analog Shift) By a wide margin, the most common format for an analog GMT leans into a fourth hand used in coordination with either a chapter ring or bezel equipped with 24-hour markings. In many ways cemented by the GMT-Master and its modern descendant the GMT-Master II, which is still making its way beyond the boundaries of the Earth’s atmosphere on the wrist of a certain Saudi astronaut, the format can now be found in both quartz and automatic watches at a wide variety of price points. Though technology has drastically improved our operational capabilities when working across time zones, a straightforward and robust GMT watch still serves as a useful tool in any modern operator or case officer’s arsenal. No matter where they are based, and no matter what GMT watch they might use, today’s members of the WOE community will continue to live in Zulu Time. -- If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE.  This Dispatch has been reviewed by the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information.   READ NEXT: A Navy SEAL’s Rolex Submariner on the Osama Bin Laden Raid   About The Author: J.R. Seeger served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and as a CIA officer for a total of 27 years of federal service. He served 17 years in multiple field assignments focused on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and irregular warfare.  During his final, 3-year assignment in CIA Headquarters, he first served as a chief of operations for a geographic division in the Directorate of Operations and then served as a deputy director and deputy chief of the CIA Counterterrorism Center. His seven-part MIKE4 series is about a family who have served in the special operations and intelligence community from World War II to the present.

Allied Prisoners of War and Rolex Watch Co., a story of hope in the midst of a grim world conflict. As the war between Axis and Allied forces raged on, Hans Wilsdorf, the founder of the watch company named Montres Rolex SA, had a brilliant notion: Why not let these prisoners ‘purchase’ a new timepiece on the proviso

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.  In the meantime, check out the following items as gifts for loved ones, friends or yourself.  There are no affiliate links or discount codes.  We are highlighting these tools because we believe in them, not for financial gain.  None of these are sponsored products. Please highlight any other gift ideas in the comment section.  We are always in the market for new tools and specifically love support small businesses and people doing innovative things. Watches We chose three watches at different price points.  Check out our previous Dispatch on “Best Watches Under $1,000” for a more comprehensive list. Seiko: SEIKO 5 Sports- SRPG35 - $210 A simple field watch and perfect first mechanical watch for yourself or a friend.  Purchasing a watch for a father/son/daughter or nephew?  The Seiko 5 Sports line is a great place to start. Elliot Brown - HOLTON: 101-001  - $511 The Holton Professional was developed in response to a request from a specialist branch of the UK military who demanded a fit-for-purpose professional watch capable of a life in the field.  We will do a more thorough write up on EB at some point, lots of history here! Omega Seamaster Diver 300M - Green - $5,600 The Omega Seamaster has a long history with our community, as we have documented with the British Special Boat Service (SBS) Seamaster.  Since 1993, the Seamaster Professional Diver 300M has enjoyed a legendary following. Today’s modern collection has embraced that famous ocean heritage and updated it with OMEGA’s best innovation and design. This 42 mm model is crafted from stainless steel and includes a green ceramic bezel with a white enamel diving scale.  Gear and Community The Grey NA TO - Supporter Subscription  - $100 year TGN is a community of like-minded individuals who believe in using their tools.  Hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacey break down their love for adventure, their addiction to watches, and also discuss travel, diving, driving and gear.  A subscription to The Grey NA TO includes a NA TO strap (grey, of course), stickers and access to additional content.  At $100 a year, a unique gift for someone who has everything. Field Ethos - Magazine Subscription - $15.00 - quarterly  The premier lifestyle publication for the unapologetic man is here. Enjoy a mix of modern adventure, historical context, and perspectives forged through global travel while staying current with the latest products that elevate an unapologetic life. Eagles and Angels Ltd - Signature Hats & Tools - $39.00 and up We salvage the old uniforms of our brave men and women, transforming them into high-end accessories to be proudly worn by those who support our troops. Each piece is beautifully crafted in the US and carries the story of the soldier who wore it first. Each purchase helps support the families of fallen heroes. The Observer Collection - Piecekeeper - $30.00 The Piecekeeper is designed to halt hostilities between your watch and laptop. The same natural dyed Italian suede used in the Observer Collection bags creates a comfortable barrier between watch bracelet and workspace preventing scratches to both watch and laptop. Leather Works Minnesota - No. 9 Wallet - "Coral" Mahogany - $110 So named for the number of pockets this wallet has, the No. 9 boasts the most capacity out of any wallet in our line. It’s easy to see why it immediately became one of our best sellers. This is the wallet for the ultra-organized, the one who needs to keep it all with them, or the person who has a card for everything. Art Ad Patina - The best in the game when it comes to vintage watch advertisements.  Prices vary.  Bad Art Nice Watch - Custom Print Commission a piece on your favorite watch.  North Carolina artist, Bryan Braddy, combines his passion for watches with his love for art.  What started as a doodle at his kitchen table with his daughters has blossomed from a hobby into a business. Embracing the concepts of wabi-sabi, the acceptance, and contemplation of imperfection, guide the principles of his style. “I want you to see my artistic choices, good or bad, with the pen or the brush.” King Kennedy Rugs - Driver Rug-  prices vary We have no idea who runs this company, but his rugs are incredible. Check out these “Vintage Rolex Hand Woven Rugs” rugs from Pakistan. $325  Prairie Fire Art Company - "The Professional" Billy Waugh MACV-SOG Art Print - $65.00 Billy Waugh had a 50 year career in Army Special Forces and as a paramilitary officer.  He patrolled the jungles of Laos and Vietnam. He hunted down Carlos the Jackal. He was the first to put sights on UBL and he invaded Afghanistan when most said he was too old for the mission. "Beware of an old man in a profession where men usually die young". Knives Winkler Knives, WK Huntsman - $300.00 The Huntsman is an adaptation of a Small Hunting Knife I made back in the 1990’s. Perfect for hunting and everyday carry. This model is fast becoming one of our most recommended designs. Sangin Knives - Carbon Fiber Corsair - $699 Sangin is known for their watches, but they also recently stepped into the knife game with a premium blade, the Corsair.   The Corsair is a 9.0” blade, made from premium Crucible Metals CPM M4. The blade is finished in an ultra-corrosion resistant black KG Gunkote. The Corsair is fitted with premium Camo Carbon Fiber handles, giving it a unique design with a sturdy feel, ready to be used in any scenario. With precision-turned titanium tubing, we can hold incredibly tight tolerances which allow our handles to be press fitted and secured using friction. This is a significant upgrade, solving the issue of handle scale fracturing and separation from the steel. Half Face Blades, Brad Cavner signature series - $375 Half Face Blades was founded by Andrew Arrabito, Navy SEAL (ret.), to meet the need for high-quality, “go-to” knives and axes – usable, personalized, functional, versatile tools that work for every person in every walk of life.  Toor Knives - Field 2.0 - $295.00 Toor designed the Field 2.0 with every day use in mind and it has quickly become known as the workhorse of our Outdoor Series. Its small size allows for all day carry comfort, while having the capability to handle almost any task out on the trail. Tools Soturi - The ‘Diplomat’ Strap - $185 Our most refined Cordura strap, The Diplomat is a tailored addition to our lineup that is just at home in the field as it is the office. Featuring a fully rolled edge, tapered design, and supple nubuck leather lining; it’s built to suit your every endeavor. Bergeon - 7825 Spring Bar Tweezer Spring Bar Removal Fitting Tool - $170 Bergeon 7825 is a tweezers, special watchmaker tool for inserting and removing spring bars in difficult to access end links and the short spring bars in the inner link.  Jack Carr - Signature Whiskey Glass - $23.00 Handblown by Mexican Artisans and made from recycled glass Coca-Cola bottles.  Crossed Hawks etched emblem on front of glass. Ball and Buck - Arthur Zippo - Brushed Brass - $68.00 Originally made in 1941, Zippo served as an essential accessory to American soldiers fighting in World War II and on. Their heralded tradition continues wherever men roam, igniting in every condition it encounters; the lighter's metal ring sweetly sounding in an American echo. With The Arthur Zippo, you can proudly display your support of American quality and manufacturing. Whether you're enjoying a smoke or building a fire in the woods, the Ball and Buck Zippo lighter is sure to become a staple for your everyday carry. Books G-SHOCK 40th Anniversary Book - $65 Celebrating the story of G-SHOCK, a truly unique watch whose pioneering innovation, function, and versatile design has made it a cult-collectible worn by devoted fans across the globe as well as by cultural icons in the worlds of fashion, sports, music, and popular culture for the past forty years. The Billion Dollar Spy: A True Story of Cold War Espionage and Betrayal - $15.99 It was the height of the Cold War, and a dangerous time to be stationed in the Soviet Union. One evening, while the chief of the CIA’s Moscow station was filling his gas tank, a stranger approached and dropped a note into the car. In the years that followed, that man, Adolf Tolkachev, became one of the most valuable spies ever for the U.S. But these activities posed an enormous personal threat to Tolkachev and his American handlers.  Watchistry  - Marine Nationale Book - $77.00 An exploration of a collection of 34 watches and instruments issued to the French Navy. 224 pages of photos and text cover vintage military watches from Tudor, Omega, Longines, Breguet, Auricoste, Doxa, Triton and others are featured, along with detailed provenance and commentary. It represents an unprecedented look at the nuance and breadth of the pieces used by the Marine Nationale. A Die Hard Christmas - $19.99 True story.  All John McClane wants for Christmas is to reunite with his estranged family. But when his wife’s office holiday party turns into a deadly hostage situation, he has to save her life before he can get home in time for Christmas!  The unconventional fan-favorite movie Die Hard is now an illustrated storybook- complete with machine guns, European terrorists, and a cop who’s forced to rely on all his cunning and skills (and the help of a fellow officer) to save the day.  Small Arms of WWII: United States of America, James Rupley, Ian McCollum-  $98.00 The Second World War was a fascinating and dynamic time in the history of firearms – a period that began with revolvers and bolt-action weapons, and ended with the first generations of modern select-fire combat rifles. We detail these developments in Small Arms of WWII, discussing not just what the weapons were, but why they were developed and how they performed in the field. If you want to get a better understanding of how these weapons changed warfare and were in turn themselves changed by warfare, this is the book series for you!  A Man & His Watch: Iconic Watches and Stories from the Men Who Wore Them, Matt Hranek - $28.49 Paul Newman wore his Rolex Daytona every single day for 35 years until his death in 2008. The iconic timepiece, probably the single most sought-after watch in the world, is now in the possession of his daughter Clea, who wears it every day in his memory. Franklin Roosevelt wore an elegant gold Tiffany watch, gifted to him by a friend on his birthday, to the famous Yalta Conference where he shook the hands of Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. JFK's Omega worn to his presidential inauguration, Ralph Lauren's watch purchased from Andy Warhol's personal collection, Sir Edmund Hillary's Rolex worn during the first-ever summit of Mt. Everest . . . these and many more compose the stories of the world's most coveted watches captured in A Man and His Watch.  The Wrong Wolf, Chris Craighead and Matthew Klein $19.99 From the very start, the Wrong Wolf knew he was different. Over the course of a journey marked by loss, mercy, courage and self-sacrifice, he learns that where and how you are born does not always determine where you end up. Sweetwater - Jason Heaton - $14.99 With an American presidential election looming, a decades-old plane crash is once again thrust into the news. Old secrets threaten to expose dangerous truths and underwater archaeologist Julian "Tusker" Tusk finds himself at the center of a mystery with the highest of stakes. With time running out, Tusker is forced to come to terms with not only his own past, but that of his father, in an adventure that spans two generations and hits close to home in more ways than one.  Moscow X, David McCloskey - $25.49 CIA officers Sia and Max enter Russia under commercial cover to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London law firm that conceals the wealth of the superrich. Max’s family business in Mexico―a CIA front since the 1960s―is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple to target Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife, Anna, who―unbeknownst to CIA―is a Russian intelligence officer under deep cover at the bank. Clothes Relwen - Quilted Insulated Tanker Jacket - $318  This will be your go-to, so don’t fight it. Our Tanker is that one jacket that fills all the voids, whether tailgating, going out for dinner, or off to work. The soft peached nylon/cotton shell utilizes a water-resistant polyurethane coating, ideal for all weather conditions. Lightweight quilting provides warmth across temperate conditions making for highly pragmatic style. Clarks, Desert Boot Suede - $150 Cultural cachet and design DNA: no shoe is quite like the Clarks Originals Desert Boot. Nathan Clark’s 1950 design was inspired by a rough boot from Cairo’s Old Bazaar, and its minimal, progressive style sparked a worldwide footwear revolution GBRS Group - Set Point Flannel - $75.00 The Set Point by GBRS Group MD Approach Flannel is a multi-purpose flannel for everyday use. Combining the crisp look of a heavier flannel with the comfort of a lighter one makes this flannel resourceful on any occasion. Vuori- Strato Tech Tee - $54 The Strato Tech Tee is the softest piece of workout apparel on the planet, doubling as your go-to t-shirt. With next-level comfort, our softest performance knit is quick drying and moisture wicking. Goodr - Bosley's Basset Hound Dreams - $25 Tortoiseshell sunglasses? More like houndshell shades. These sunnies were named in honor of Bosley, king of the basset hounds. So every time you wear these no slip, no bounce brown frames with non-reflective polarized brown lenses, you’ll be in the presence of royalty. Hot sauce Tabasco: Priceless, available at your local convenience store, this delicious nectar of the gods.  Tabasco. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night.   -- *W.O.E. has received no financial compensation for the above products and these are NOT/NOT sponsored.  Please do your own research before making any purchases.

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 of the Office of Strategic Service (OSS) officers in World War II, this is another time measuring tool they used to accomplish their mission. By JR Seeger  The allied support to resistance operations in Occupied Europe focused on sabotage operations before D-Day and then more aggressive combat operations after the fact.  The challenge for sabotage operations was to conduct said operation but live to fight another day.  Some of the most effective sabotage operations took place inside factories where enslaved workers would periodically insure whatever came off the assembly line was not quite to specifications.  Still, the most dramatic of the resistance operations before D-Day focused on using explosives against roads, bridges, and railways.   In 1939, with the Nazi blitzkrieg closing in on Warsaw, Polish military intelligence officers provided the small British contingent with intelligence and technology to be taken to England. Officers from the Secret Intelligence Service and the military intelligence contingent, including Lieutenant Colonel Colin Gubbins, returned to England with a treasure trove of intelligence including prototypes of a chemical time delay fuze. The prototypes were shared between SIS Section D (D for destruction) and Gubbins unit military intelligence unit focused on resistance operations. In 1940, these two offices were combined to become a new, independent organization, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). British Irregular Warfare:  When the British SOE started their resistance training in England in 1940, explosives training was one of the primary classes.  The SOE training on demolitions in the first years of the war was based entirely on military demolitions techniques including the use of standard military blasting caps and fuzes lighted either by a match or a simple friction plunger system known as a fuze ignitor.  Based on this training, a resistance team had to emplace explosives and remain quite close to the actual blast – certainly no more than a few minutes away depending on the length of fuze used.  While this technique worked well for combat engineers supported by infantry, it was not designed for a resistance group that wished to conduct sabotage and avoid capture.   British scientists were already working on multiple time delay mechanisms, but their work focused on supporting other British irregular forces like the Commandos and other Small Scale Raiding Forces associated with the SOE.  The Polish design was modified to create “time pencils” that used a chemical process as a time delay.  Time pencils were used in the commando raid on the dry docks in St. Nazaire in March 1942.  However, the reality was that British scientists simply did not have the resources to create a standardized time delay device that could be used by resistance forces across Europe. British Commandos, 1942 (Wikipedia Commons) Enter the Americans:  After Pearl Harbor, William Donovan expanded the capabilities of his new office, the Coordinator of Information (COI), to include irregular warfare.  Donovan provided the President with an irregular warfare plan in the summer/fall of 1941, but the US was still neutral, and President Roosevelt was not about to approve Donovan’s plans for special operations.  By mid-December 1941, Roosevelt approved Donovan’s plans and he began to recruit America's counterpart to the SOE.  Sabotage and subversion were central to Donovan’s strategic plan. In the early months of 1942, the COI and its successor in June 1942, Office of Strategic Services (OSS), were criticized at the time by generals at the Pentagon as simply a gathering of Ivy League intellectuals with little or no understanding of modern warfare.  Donovan did gather some of the great minds of the American universities and industry and focused their skills on what he saw as a key part of modern war – irregular or partisan warfare.  One of the key individuals in this new type of warfare was Stanley Lovell.  Lovell was a successful industrial chemist and professor at Harvard when Donovan recruited him to use American technology in support of irregular warfare.  Lovell was the chief of the OSS unit known as Research and Development and R&D designed and produced dozens of special weapons and equipment for the OSS and the SOE.  One of the most useful and probably the smallest of Lovell’s devices was a modification of the British version of the “time pencil.” Lovell’s time pencil was an ingenious blend of chemistry and technology that could be mass produced and shared with resistance groups throughout Europe.  It was a combination of a standard fuze ignitor at one end and a corrosive chemical compound at the other.  When the corrosive compound was crushed inside the tube, it slowly eroded a fuze ignitor.  The amount of the chemical mix allowed for time pencils to be created that delayed ignition from a few minutes to up to 24 hours.  That meant that the saboteur could emplace the demolitions, lay out the camouflaged fuze, mix the chemicals by crushing one end of the time pencil and then leave.  At a precise time, the time pencil would ignite the fuze, and start the explosive chain that would end with an explosion of plastic explosives.  With the delivery of the time pencils, saboteurs and their resistance security partners could be miles away from the site when the explosion occurred and the inevitable Nazi investigation would begin.  They could even conduct multiple operations in the same night. Of course, time pencils were not foolproof, and the chemical reaction would be affected by ambient temperature and other environmental factors.  Still, the use of this new sabotage technique, coupled with an accurate wristwatch for keeping track of the time before the explosion made the resistance more effective.  The time pencil was another example of cooperation between the US and UK teams supporting special operations.  Like the easily ignored watch or the suitcase radio that made air and coastal delivery of resistance men and equipment possible, the time pencil was a small device with a big impact on special operations in World War II.  Magnetic charge with Time Pencil placed on a vehicle (Imperial War Museum) READ NEXT: The Pragmatic Journey of a SEAL Through Watch Collecting  -- J.R. Seeger served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne and as a CIA officer for a total of 27 years of federal service. He served 17 years in multiple field assignments focused on counterterrorism, counterintelligence and irregular warfare.  During his final, 3-year assignment in CIA Headquarters, he first served as a chief of operations for a geographic division in the Directorate of Operations and then served as a deputy director and deputy chief of the CIA Counterterrorism Center.  Seeger led multiple, small unit teams during his service, including leading one of the CIA teams that infiltrated into Afghanistan after 9/11. Since his retirement, J.R. has written articles and book reviews in the CIA professional journal “Studies in Intelligence” and the T.E. Lawrence Society newsletter. His eight-part MIKE4 series is about a family who have served in the special operations and intelligence community from World War II to the present.

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

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 meaningful. But to DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, a watch certainly isn’t a vessel for men and women who have served the nation to mark their achievements or service. It isn’t actually about the stories. A watch can only play one role: to provide the United States with a technological advantage against adversaries. DARPA’s mission is simple: To make pivotal investments in breakthrough technologies for national security. When it comes to modifying and creating watches for the purpose of gathering intelligence and performing counterintelligence operations, the Agency’s in-house Directorate of Science & Technology (DS&T) is responsible. More on that HERE. (The name of the Center/Directorate has changed over the years, but the mission remains the same). DARPA’s scope is much different. It spans the entire Department of Defense, meaning the projects they lead have a much broader national security application beyond intelligence collection. As an Agency solely dedicated to Defense, the mission of the organization is not linked to a single operational capability, instead it serves as a “technological engine” that supplies the entire DoD with advanced solutions to maintain US technological superiority. The lead picture of this article is RoboSimian during a DARPA robotics challenge, designed to advance the use of robots in disaster situations. In Hollywood, DARPA is often depicted as the secret underground laboratory that’s reverse engineering alien spacecraft or working on time travel machines. This isn’t an accurate portrayal, instead DARPA is headquartered in the DC burbs and works on sometimes-mundane projects that serve the entire DoD, not just the stuff having to do with propulsion systems borrowed from little green men and global weather modification platforms.  Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Headquarters  Arlington, Virginia, United States DARPA is credited with playing a pivotal role in creating the internet, providing the world with GPS technology, and even HAARP, a research station in Alaska that gathers data about the ionosphere. It’s also a popular subject of conspiracy theories, even more so today in the age of podcasts and social media. If there’s a piece of equipment the military uses, DARPA looks to optimize it and provide the United States with a competitive advantage when it comes to national security and defense, and that even means the humble wristwatch has been scrutinized by DARPA to maximize its role on the battlefield. The Atomic Clock–From Laboratory to Soldiers’ Wrists Patek Philippe & Hewlett Packard Atomic Clock (circa 1960s) (Image Credit: M.S. Rau Antiques  / @DrGarcia) Neophytes in the watch world often use accuracy and precision interchangeably. Accuracy in timekeeping is how close a clock or watch can come to a constant true and accepted value. Precision, on the other hand, is how much variance there is in measuring said time. Here’s where it gets interesting–both the most accurate and most precise clock is the atomic clock. An atomic clock works by taking cooling down cesium-133 atoms and then measuring the oscillations at the atomic level with specialized lasers. Cesium-133 “vibrates” at 9,192,631,770 times a second, providing a standardized unit to measure time. This produces the most accurate–and most precise clock in the world. A number of universities and research labs maintain atomic clocks around the world, like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Colorado and Maryland; and the National Physical Laboratory in the United Kingdom. Of course, Switzerland is home to one as well, at The Time and Frequency Laboratory at the University of Neuchâtel. NIST physicist Judah Levine with the NIST time scale that maintains official U.S. civilian time. NIST atomic clocks are used to calibrate the time scale. (Photo Credit: NIST) These laboratories occupy entire wings of campus buildings and research centers, but DARPA has the vision of using Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology to shrink down the system and install it on a single chip. A chip-scale atomic clock would benefit DoD by not only creating a near-perfect time reference across all military forces, but greatly reducing the footprint increases the mobility of military communication systems. Additionally, it’s impervious to jamming. The first time this technology was mentioned was in a 2004 fiscal report prepared for the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities, House Armed Services Committee, U.S. House of Representatives.  DARPA’s Projected Future Wristwatch Applications This chip-scale atomic clock technology most recently became part of a larger DARPA initiative called Robust Optical Clock Network (ROCkN) in 2022. But instead of a theoretical study, the objectives are clearly defined: The clock was to be used aboard fighter jets, Navy ships, satellites, and eventually a wristwatch.  Modern GPS systems, communication systems, and even the internet, operate down to nanoseconds, and this is exactly why synchronization is still important. Timing matters here because packets of data need to be exactly where they need to be, when they need to be there. If it’s even slightly off the packets get scrambled or lost. Add in the threat of cyberwarfare and timing becomes even more important. Most atomic clocks have a +1/-1 variance over a time span of 31.71 million years. The idea with ROCkN is to get them down to an accuracy of a trillionth of a second. And every single device would be on one network, running at this level of accuracy. This is exactly the kind of moonshot idea the DARPA specializes in. As with most of their projects, this technology exists in the future.  After all, we’ve come a long way in 2023 from DARPA’s initial early-’90s vision for the wristwatch. Before the miniaturized atomic clock, DARPA conceptualized what would eventually become something functionally similar to the smart watch of today.  Patent document for wearable computer packaging device Celebration and Skepticism Around Wrist-Computing In 1998, Military+Aerospace Electronics magazine ran a piece titled DARPA Describes Vision of Wearable Computing. In it, author Chris Chinnock describes a DARPA-led program about a decade earlier, that allowed soldiers of the future to utilize “wearables”, like a wristwatch, to plug into a MIL-STD 1553 bus interface and run tests to determine feasibility of repair and maintenance in the field. The idea was that “Interactive electronic technical manuals would be on the wearable computer, and wireless communications would enable the operator to order replacement parts via the World Wide Web.” Wearables are still being researched and developed, during the Covid-19 pandemic, DARPA has invested in an early-detection projection leveraging the Oura Ring.  Air Force 18th Component Maintenance Squadron wearing a Garmin watch and an Oura ring as part of a 2021 study(Photo Credit:/ U.S. Air Force) Beyond interacting with machinery on the battlefield, DARPA’s vision carried over to large-scale communication, much like the 1940s Dick Tracey model of using your wristwatch like a two-way radio and tracking device. DARPA-backed ViA Inc. of Northfield, Minnesota came close to developing a wristwatch that doubles as a folding computer, much like a laptop. The user would raise their wrist, flip open the screen, and type messages and commands with the other hand in addition to using voice commands. But the idea wasn’t widely adopted. Wearing technology on your body–or wrist–took some getting used to, the story states: People felt uncomfortable talking to the computer," says Dick Urban, deputy director of the electronic technology office at DARPA…There was a cultural barrier that was inhibiting the use of such a novel computing platform. Those early users were certainly on to something. Not only is interacting with an inanimate object inherently difficult, it also introduces a security threat. In 2017, More than 3 trillion data points were compromised and used to reveal the location of sensitive military locations in Syria, Niger, and Afghanistan. Open-source data from Strava, an app designed for the Apple Watch, was used to pinpoint these locations. Now it’s second nature to interact casually with a so-called smart watch, and one day DARPA’s atomic wristwatch will adorn the wrist of service members. But for now, the military will have to make do with G-shocks, Tudors, and Marathons. And that’s just fine with us here at W.O.E.    READ NEXT: Trading a Rolex to Get out of a Sticky Situation - Myth or Reality?  

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 Rolex. The truth is just as interesting, however. Both watches are Seikos, aka the Toyota of Watches. Thanks to research by our friend @niccoloy, we’d like to set the record straight, and while we’re at it, we’ll dig into the idea of “double wristing”, or simply put–wearing two watches at once. “Double Wristing” -Bravado vs practical utility: Double wristing can be understood today as somewhat of a “flex”, done by celebrities, athletes and rappers as an ostentatious display of wealth, an indication one has “f*ck you money.”  But wearing two watches before the era of smartphones meant something different. Keep in mind, watches were largely used for their intended purpose - to tell time. Wearing two watches meant that you probably had a reason to.  While the GMT complication has allowed a single watch to track two time zones at once, several historical figures have worn multiple watches. Most notable among them is Four Star General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, aka Stormin’ Norman, who wore a watch on each wrist during the First Gulf War. There’s undeniably an element of projecting a certain image, but here’s the reason in his own words: "I always wore two watches during the war. The one on my left arm was set on Saudi Arabian time and the Seiko on my right arm was set on Eastern Standard Time. That way I could quickly glance at my watches and instantly know the time in both Saudi Arabia and Washington, D.C.”  Then commander of United States Central Command (CENTCOM) and head of coalition forces against Saddam Hussein, Schwarzkopf was pictured regularly wearing the two timepieces, a supposed two tone "Rolex" and a Seiko diver on a rubber strap.   Photo Credit: Yousuf Karsh The dressier watch is regularly reported in watch media as a two tone Rolex Day-Date, which is incorrect.  According to expert historical watch spotter @niccoloy, both watches are actually Seikos.  Niccoloy looked through scores of pictures to find this relatively obscure photo of General Schwarzkopf on a helicopter, the signature Seiko clasp clearly visible on the inside of the wrist. Practicality vs Imagery, Bravado, Perceptions: Did the General really need two watches to track the time in DC and Saudi Arabia?  Probably not, a simple GMT function would have sufficed. Or a quick calculation.  While we will not outright question Schwarzkopf’s claimed utility of the two timepieces, we can also assume that the watches also served as a tool in the information war. In Diplomacy, Military, and Intelligence, imagery and perception matters.  Modern day Generals are just as much politicians and diplomats as they are warfighters.  Schwarzkopf was the face of the Gulf conflict to the American people, allies, and Iraqis. He likely spent considerable time thinking about how he was perceived by each constituent.  While it seems comical now, thirty-plus years ago, the “double wristing” arguably supported his persona as someone in charge, someone who valued time and someone intensely focused on accomplishing his mission.  The contrast of the two watches, one a riff on the watch par excellence, and the other a known tool watch, mirrored his position as warrior-diplomat. An effective General can get his hands dirty during the day and stroll right into a state dinner at night looking the part.  Our assessment is that these two accessories were intended as a physical display of this dichotomy.  The watches were tools–each one for a different job. Interestingly, General Schwarzkopf appears to periodically switch wrists throughout the conflict, the reasoning behind this is purely speculation.  While the two tone dress Seiko is unidentified, the blue and red “Pepsi” bezel Seiko on a rubber strap was auctioned in the 1990s at Antiquorum for $11,000.  The Seiko diver is often listed as a Seiko SKX009, but according to the 1999 auction description, it was quartz so it is likely something a Seiko reference 7548. Havana - Moscow - Washington D.C. The General is by no means the first notable historical figure to wear two watches at once. Fidel Castro routinely wore multiple watches, sometimes on the same wrist, including during a 1963 meeting with Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in the Kremlin.  There are some indications he set the watches to Havana, Moscow, and Washington DC (The third utilizing the GMT function).   Similar to Schwarzkopf, we can assume this was just as much a strategic decision as it was practical. We can only speculate what a socialist and Marxist-Leninist leader was trying to accomplish with this display, but we can assume it was no accident.  (Today Washington D.C. and Havana are in the same time zone -UTC -5-, but between the years 1960 and 1964 Havana used the time zone UTC -4.)   Modern Day Double Wristing - Is it acceptable? In general, we do not judge people for how or why they wear their watches.  Anything that lets one enjoy their timepieces is a good thing.  It appears that double wristing is having a renaissance with the advent of the smart watch.  This may seem overboard, but the use case of wearing a high tech Apple Watch and a traditional timepiece seems to make complete sense.  Recently, former Delta Officer and JSOC Commander, Four Star Gen. Scott Miller was seen double wristing an Omega Seamaster 300M and smart watch while meeting with some former Afghan partners in Texas.  It's hard to judge a man like Scotty Miller. READ NEXT: The History Of Casio G-Shocks And The US Military

Detailing the Lesser Known Fourth CISO-Issued “SOG Seiko” By Nick Ferrell - Watches of Espionage previously covered a trio of vintage Seiko dive watches worn by the U.S. Military’s ultra-secretive Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observat

The watches of the most powerful men in the world, the Commander in Chief

In Watch and Firearm Collecting, Details Matter I purchased a new Rolex GMT Master II “Batman” directly from an authorized Rolex dealer (“AD”). After photographing the watch in my studio, I was surprised to see a production error that I had never seen before. In the “8” in the “18” on the bezel, the top circle is blue, while the bottom is black.

The connection between watches and the military, the dangers of commercial espionage and the influence of firearms manufacturing on the watch industry. by Aaron Stark In December 2022 I published Disrupting Time: Industrial combat, espionage, and the downfall of a great American company. I got started on this mission of exploration after inheriting a pocket watch from my great grandfather and wanting to learn more about it and the Waltham Watch Co. 1903 Waltham Watch, which I inherited from my great grandfather - author’s photo On the surface it tells the never-told story of two Swiss spies who came to America in 1876 and stole the secrets of the American watch industry, used it to transform the Swiss to mechanized watch production, and how the recovering Swiss watch industry overwhelmed their main target – the Waltham Watch Co of Waltham, Massachusetts. However, the story runs much deeper, touching on the dangers of insider threats and espionage to corporations, the role of timekeeping in the development of modern society, and the impacts of strategic choices made by companies and entire industries that impact their survival or failure. Accordingly, the book has found a wide and diverse audience including historians, business professionals, intelligence professionals, watch enthusiasts, and those who follow the impact of industrial espionage in current events.  Despite the many themes explored in the book, three stand out most saliently to me. These are covered in the book, but the nice thing about writing articles like this is that there are so many more anecdotes that you come across in researching for which there is not room in the book. You can also check out my website to see additional photos and read some of the historical sources I mention.  Waltham Watch dial from an Ellery watch – author’s photo The dangers of industrial espionage One must only read the Wall Street Journal or Financial Times for a week or two before they will see some reference to industrial espionage and its impact, typically related to technology related companies. The concept of stealing technology is well known in history. Some of the most famous targets of industrial espionage were porcelain, silk, and textile manufacturing. The Lowell Mills of Lowell, Massachusetts resulted from Francis Cabot Lowell stealing trade secrets from the English. However, the term industrial espionage is relatively new – it began appearing in historical documents in the early twentieth century and became a mainstream term in the second half of the twentieth century.  In many respects, our view of it has been shaped by the passage of the 1996 Industrial Espionage Act, though many laws touched on the concept, dating back to the 1700s in England. Regardless of the technical legal definitions, there is no doubt that industrial espionage plays a role in economic development and the success of companies. A 2016 economic study found significant evidence of the effects of industrial espionage between East and West Germany. The authors concluded that East Germany would not have been able to maintain its economic near-parity with West Germany had it not been so successful in stealing trade secrets. Thus, the authors conclude: “Our results provide evidence of significant economic returns to industrial espionage.”  Disrupting Time tells one of the most well-documented and illuminated stories of industrial espionage from pre-World War I. While a new story to most – Disrupting Time was the first published research to tell the story –the spies documented their work in copious detail. Jacques David was the main spy, accompanied by his partner Theo Gribi, a watchmaker. David was an engineer and watchmaker who had a strong understanding of emerging mechanized industries. These two men were dispatched by the Society of Jura Industries (SIIJ), a trade association representing the businesses and industries of western Switzerland. They were in America for approximately three months, using this time to sneak into America’s technology leader – the Waltham Watch Co, and also recruiting company insiders and acquiring company documents.  Gribi – left, from “Horology,” June 1937 During their time in America, they wrote letters back to Switzerland giving insight into the mind and method of 19th century industrial spies. They concluded their mission by writing a 130-page report. Their report would remain secret until 1992 but became more widely known when it was translated to English in 2003. From David and Gribi’s 130-page report, it was obvious they had abnormal access to detailed financial information about Waltham, but I couldn’t figure out how, and skeptics kept telling me that maybe Waltham naively shared this information with the Swiss.  The story of their work as spies did not come together until the report could be combined with a key letter they wrote. In David’s letter back to Switzerland from September 1876, he wrote “I sped through [the Waltham factory] quickly and incognito and saw the poor arrangements that I already knew about.” He also wrote about an inside source he recruited: “we tried to work out [Waltham’s] outgoings without reaching a precise result. Mr W, the former director on the mechanical side who is helping us in this respect…” (see page 113 of Disrupting Time). This letter connected many dots that were missing between David’s report just being an interesting document, to identifying it as a product of espionage. Mr W referred to Ambrose Webster, Waltham’s former assistant superintendent and one of the early Waltham godfathers who invented much of the company’s automated production.  Ambrose Webster - The Keystone, December 1892, public domain Knowing of the Webster connection led to a second historical mystery to explore – Webster’s financial gain. When David published his report in 1877, he recommended Webster as the best maker of tools for watchmaking and suggested the Swiss purchase from him. Accordingly, Webster, who retired from Waltham in the summer of 1876, quickly invested heavily in a venture that would produce watchmaking equipment. It is no surprise that during the fall of 1876, in David’s letter back to the SIIJ, he noted: “I cannot recommend wholeheartedly that W. [Webster] be engaged by a group of manufacturers or by one company, but I still believe this man will be a great help in any reorganization measures that we decide to implement.”  While Webster was providing sensitive information to David, David was securing Webster’s long-term involvement in the Swiss transformation through business opportunities. Webster’s involvement remained a secret until 2022. In many pocket watch and Waltham history circles, Webster is considered one of the founding fathers who is revered, thus his involvement with the Swiss is stunning to many Waltham historians. Waltham would not have existed without Webster, but his defection through a probable quid-pro-quo arrangement with the Swiss resulted in Waltham’s eventual downfall. Connection of watches and the military As a veteran of the Army, I especially connected with the heritage of watches and the military, and their resulting impact on society. The Waltham Watch Company gained much of its early fame for its production of the Ellery model, which quickly became known as the Soldier’s Watch during the American Civil War. It cost about two months wages for a private in the Union Army, yet there is much evidence to indicate that soldiers bought them anyway. Their ubiquity in the Army during the Civil War had much to do with an increased emphasis on synchronization during warfare, combined with the fact that there were few clocks in the field. If a soldier wanted to keep track of the time, they needed a watch.  My own timekeeping in combat - an Omega Speedmaster X-33. I could easily relate to the Civil War soldier’s desire to know the time - and spending more than necessary to do it - author’s photo As I was putting together my book, one anonymous reviewer questioned the idea that soldiers would pay two months salary for a watch – it seemed like too much money for an unnecessary item. When I read that comment, I knew this reviewer had never served in the military! Even now, soldiers spend disproportionate amounts on watches whether they be a nice G-Shock, Rolex, or Breitling. I often attribute this military connection to watches to be much more than a need to know the time; rather it is the one item that a soldier can take with them, it reflects their identity, and it is a valuable tool. These were all attributes expressed by Civil War soldiers as well. Much of the research I came across felt like a multi-century connection between soldiers and their love of watches.  A Massachusetts's 13th Infantry Regiment Soldier from the Civil War, showing off his watch. Provided courtesy of Clint Geller, author of The Appreciation and Authentication of Civil War Time Pieces. (Liljenquist Family Collection, Library of Congress Archives).  The connection of soldiers to their reliable-but-affordable Waltham Watches during the Civil War began a societal transformation. As millions of soldiers left the service, they took their watches and concept of time-consciousness with them. The year for which Disrupting Time is centered – 1876, Americans and the world were experiencing a revolution in timekeeping making the watch industry central to society and the tech industry of its day. By 1880, it was said that people were now expected to be someplace on time, whether that be work or the theater. In 1870, about 1-in-20 American adults owned a watch. By 1900, this per-capita ownership would quadruple to 1-in-5.   Connection of firearms to watches Springfield Model 1873 Trapdoor Rifle (from Gromitsonabarth, Wikimedia,  CC-BY-SA-4.0) In an earlier section, I mentioned Ambrose Webster, an American inventor who became a recruited agent for the Swiss watch industry. Webster actually got his start at the Springfield Armory where firearms were being mass produced by the 1850s. Webster left the armory and joined Waltham shortly after its founding as a chief mechanic. Webster began to reorient the entire factory at Waltham to be more than just a collection of highly-skilled watchmakers operating in the same building. He introduced early automation that allowed Waltham to hire semi-skilled workers who knew little to nothing about watchmaking. He became the principal inventor of many machines, allowing Waltham to quickly scale its production. In 1857, it took Waltham twice as long as the Swiss to produce a watch. Within a few short years, Waltham produced watches in half the time that it took the skilled Swiss watchmakers.  Inside the Waltham Watch Co around the time David and Gribi targeted the company – W.A. Webster, public domain Webster’s ability to bring the concept of firearms mass production to watches completely revolutionized the watch industry. It was also what alarmed and motivated the Swiss when they saw these novel systems in 1876. Waltham’s systems continued to become more automated as they invested heavily in invention and capital. By 1890, Waltham’s systems would be near-fully automated with handling systems. It was probably around this time that Henry Ford would visit the factory and get the idea for the assembly line for automobiles. Ford’s grandson, Henry Ford II said “I think - I always understood...[Henry Ford] got the idea from the Waltham Watch Company originally by seeing watches going down on an assembly line and he felt that [technique] could be applied to the manufacture of automobiles. There are some other stories prevalent, but that is the one I always heard. So that is the one I believe to be the truth.” (source: “Sidelights of the Day: Show the Boss the Ad,” New York Times, May 9, 1953, 253). In conclusion Disrupting Time is a book that weaves together many themes. This era was truly one of revolutionary change in society. As one reviewer noted, the espionage discussed in the book occurred because watches and timekeeping were so central to the economy of that time. If you find any of the topics discussed in this article to be of interest, I encourage you to check out the book, either on Amazon, Audible, or iTunes. It tells the story of cutthroat competition, industrial espionage, societal development, and a great world’s fair. The competition in this era was so intense it was even referred to as “combat of industry” by one contemporary observer.  The Swiss watchmakers and Waltham viewed their situation through such a lens, using similar bellicose imagery. David would refer to the American watch companies as “a courageous and well armed adversary.”  Meanwhile, Waltham’s chief executive also viewed the situation as a protracted war: “if we can't live in peace we must live on a war-footing…I propose to make the fighting as effective as possible.” You can find more information about Disrupting Time on Aaron’s website, aaronstarkbooks.com. He enjoys hearing from readers and talking with groups about the book. You can contact him through the website.  Aaron Stark is the author of Disrupting Time: industrial combat, espionage, and the downfall of a great American company. He is a former assistant professor of economics at West Point and a veteran of the US Army. READ NEXT: Jordanian Breitling: The Gift From A King That Spawned A CIA Case Officer's Love Of Timepieces

Mercenaries, Presidents, Generals, and Oligarchs - a conflict of timepieces We are now in the second year of Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that will go down as one of the most significant geopolitical developments of the 21st century.  In the age of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, watching the conflict in real time and attempting to understand its complexities can be overwhelming.  Through writing this piece, we seek to take a step back and look at some of the men involved in the conflict through the lens of their timepieces.  As discussed in the previous Dispatch, “CIA Analysis Of Foreign Leaders’ Timepieces,” a foreign leader’s timepiece can tell us a lot about their character, how they perceive themselves, and how they want to be perceived by others.  Analyzing a practitioner's watch can provide unique insight into both their personality and what they are trying to telegraph to their own constituents as well as the larger world, something especially true in today’s information war. In war, a simple wristwatch is a crucial piece of kit. The watch has remained a seminal tool on the battlefield despite the huge technological advancements in military equipment and weapons. It’s no surprise that several notable timepieces adorn the wrists of those leading the various parties involved in this conflict.  Really? Watches of the Ukraine War? Looking at something so complex as the Ukraine War through the lens of wristwatches–what essentially amounts to a hobby, might seem diminishing at first. What do watches have to do with the war in Ukraine? As it turns out, a lot.   At the onset of the conflict, notoriously neutral Swiss brands including Rolex, Swatch Group, LVMH (particularly the Swiss-based watch division) and Richemont suspended exports to Russia. In response, the Russian intelligence service, the FSB, reportedly seized millions of dollars of Audemars Piguet (AP) watches from a Moscow affiliate of AP. Meanwhile, Russian citizens purchased large quantities of Swiss timepieces as a measure to store value as sanctions took hold and devalued the ruble.  It is logical to conclude many of these have left the country with the mass migration out of Russia as a form of money laundering and wealth transfer.  Further, watches reportedly liberated from Russian military personnel have found their way to Ebay for purchase. Battle field pick up?  A watch reportedly worn by a Russian solider, now for sale on Ebay. To be clear, we do not intend to glorify war.  I have seen the ill effects of war and there is absolutely nothing glorious about it.  At W.O.E., we cover all types of people and stories, many of whom could be described as “evil.”  Coverage does not signify endorsement, this is simply our prism for looking at history and current events in the way we know best, through the timepieces on the wrists of those involved. Wagner Group: Yevgeny Prigozhin -Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo $3,000-$4,000 Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin, formerly known as "Putin's Chef," regularly wears a Ulysse Nardin Michelangelo. This piece has been seen on Prigozhin’s wrist at black tie dinners in Moscow and on the battlefield worn with fatigues, including during the June 2023 attempted mutiny.  Prigozhin began his career in Leningrad/Saint Petersburg in organized crime before moving into the catering business (as one does) which gave him the nickname "Putin's Chef." He quickly branched out to more lucrative (and questionable) ways of making money- running the world's most notorious mercenary force. Prigozhin’s forces have been leveraged globally in Syria, Ukraine, Madagascar, Venezuela, and the Central African Republic.  Prigozhin also recently admitted to founding the Internet Research Agency, which was leveraged by Russian Intelligence services to influence the 2016 US Presidential Election. Prigozhin was allegedly sent into exile in Belarus after an aborted march towards Moscow in June. (Although press reporting indicates he is potentially still in Russia at time of publication.) President Volodymyr Zelensky - TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre HEUER 01 Chronograph $3,000-$5,000 It’s been one year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began.  Few could have predicted the course this conflict has taken and the strong resistance put forth by the Ukrainian people and President Volodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky is pictured here (pre-conflict) wearing a TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre HEUER 01 Chronograph.  Zelensky was reportedly a Ukrainian brand ambassador for the TAG prior to the conflict. According to financial disclosures, Zelensky also has a Rolex, Breguet and a Bovet Château de Môtiers. Despite his extensive collection, a watch is noticeably absent from his wrist since the onset of the conflict. In addition to the kinetic war, this is an information war.  Ukraine has been masterful in this area. Zelensky’s appearance, actions, and demeanor are a key strategic part of this information war. Zelensky has consciously dressed down in a military green t-shirt. We can assume that this is no accident. Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin - Blancpain Léman Aqua Lung Grande Date approx. $10,500 Analysts assess Russian President Vladimir Putin is one of the wealthiest men in the world, with shaky estimations putting his net worth in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Putin has been photographed wearing numerous expensive watches, including a 18k yellow gold Patek Philippe Perpetual Calendar Moon Phase and a platinum A. Lange & Sohne – watches fitting for a man of his supposed fortune. But in recent years, Putin has appeared to favor a more modest limited edition Blancpain Léman Aqua Lung Grande Date and a IWC Mark XVII.  Putin has also been known to give away watches to Russian citizens, including a Blancpain to a factory worker in 2009. Casual wrist shot from the lucky factory worker. Putin’s expensive watch collection is estimated to be valued over $1 million dollars, which is hard to explain given the Kremlin's claimed salary of $140k per year, something that Putin has drawn significant criticism for in recent years. By flying in the face of norms and wearing a flashy watch in public, Putin might have been demonstrating that he believed he would not be held accountable for past corruption. Similarly, Putin’s more recent outings wearing a modest and explainable timepiece may indicate he has concerns for the criticism and his domestic image. President Putin wearing F.P. Journe Chronometre Bleu (Photo Credit: Kremlin) Commemorative Watches:   The presentation of watches as commemorative gifts has a long history in intelligence, diplomacy, and military circles.  This tradition extends to the present conflict, with both Ukrainian and Russian officials presenting watches to their forces and partners. Ukraine: Photo Credit: Ukrainian President’s Office In June 2021, Zelensky visited the frontline troops on Ukraine's Armed Forces Day and presented soldiers with Ukrainian-produced Kleynold KFS-820s ($220).  Zelensky has also given watches to sailors that were returned from Russian captivity. Russian Forces: Denis Vladimirovich Pushilin, the head of the disputed “Donetsk People's Republic” (DPR), recently presented Wagner mercenary forces with watches in response to their actions in the conflict.   The watches and values are unknown, although it is reasonable to assume they may be of Russian origin, although they do not appear to be Vostok or Raketa, common Russian brands.  Pushilin remarked about Wagner forces: “By your actions, by your deeds, you show what the Russian spirit is, what the strength of Russian weapons is, which is why now you, your units are setting an example for many in the area entrusted to you, freeing the Russian land.” Ukrainian Colonel Oleksandr “Grey Wolf” Oksanchenko - Kleynod "Independence Insignia" edition $390 Ukrainian fighter pilot Colonel Oleksandr “Grey Wolf” Oksanchenko was killed when his aircraft was shot down during the Battle for Kyiv in late February 2022. President Volodymyr Zelensky posthumously awarded him with the Order of the Gold Star. The Grey Wolf is pictured here wearing a Ukrainian made watch, a Kleynod "Independence Insignia" edition which was developed on the 15th anniversary of Ukraine’s Independence. Oksanchenko was a legendary Ukrainian Su-27 Flanker pilot who retired in 2018, but like many Ukrainians, returned to service to defend his nation when the conflict kicked off. He was reportedly shot down by a Russian S-400 air defense system, although some reports suggest it may have been a friendly fire incident.  In the information war, it is often difficult to separate fact from fiction. Dmitry Peskov - limited edition Richard Mille 52-01, approx. $600,000 Putin aide, advisor, and Russian press secretary Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov has been photographed wearing a Limited Edition Richard Mille, most notably during his wedding where he claimed the watch was a gift from his wife, former Olympic figure-skating champion Tatiana Navka. With an eye watering estimated value of $600k+, the value of this watch likely exceeds the cumulative value of the salary he has drawn throughout his entire career as a civil servant. Minister of Defence Sergey Kuzhugetovich Shoigu, Porsche Design Black Dashboard Chronograph P6612 approx. $8,000 Minister of Defence, Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu wears a Porsche Design titanium Black Dashboard Chronograph P6612.  Shoigu is largely responsible for overseeing the conflict in Ukraine, which has come under direct criticism from Wagner boss Prigozhin. After Prighozin’s failed mutiny attempt, Shoigu was filmed at a high level Russian Ministry of Defence meeting; however, the watch itself was blurred out, potentially meant to conceal the time and date of the meeting. Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox church, Breguet approx. $30,000 Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox church, was sanctioned by the US and NATO partners and described by the EU as “one of the most prominent supporters of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine.” In 2012, an official church picture appeared to show the reflection of a $30,000+ gold Breguet watch on the polished table, the only problem was that the watch itself was photoshopped off the wrist of Kirill. The original photo was later released depicting the watch.  Kirill described Putin’s fraudulent election in 2012 as a “miracle of God” and was recently referred to by the Pope as “Putin’s altar boy.” For authoritarian governments, harnessing support from the religious elite is crucial.  The Breguet was supposedly a gift from a wealthy member of the church. Kirill has also been photographed wearing a Ulysse Nardin Dual Time, which appears to be a favorite of Russian elites. Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich, Polar M61, Sub-$100 Russian Oligarch Roman Abramovich is known for wearing a modest sub-$100 Polar M61 watch, which is notable given his estimated net worth of $7-15 billion. An interesting note about Abramovich: In 2010 he commissioned 50 Breitling SuperOcean automatics with "Eclipse" on the dial, the name of one of his 533 ft super yachts. Sketchy dudes wear Breitling . . .  (Photo Credit: Chiswick Auctions) The Eclipse cost an estimated $700 million and is one of two of Abramovich's superyachts. READ NEXT: Third Option Foundation Fundraise - GBRS AOR-1 Watch Pouch And Challenge Coin This article has been reviewed by the CIA's Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information.

79 years ago the most important Allied coordinated effort of WWII took place. These watches kept soldiers on time.  On Tuesday June 6th, 1944 the largest seaborne invasion in history occurred. Nearly 160,000 allied troops managed to change the course of WWII by storming the beaches of Normandy and setting off the liberation of France from the Nazis, and later, a victory. The invasion began at 6:30am, when soldiers started storming five beaches–Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno. Approximately 11,000 aircraft and 7,000 watercraft supported the invasion. Shortly before the landing, under the cover of darkness, Paratroopers, including commandos from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), were inserted into strategic spots inland in order to weaken the German defense network and provide a strategic advantage to the soldiers arriving by amphibious craft.  Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944 Today marks the 79th anniversary of the day this incredible effort took place. Roughly 73,000 Allied soldiers were lost over the course of the invasion.  “D-Day” as its known, typically refers to these Normandy landings, but in the larger military context, it refers to the exact time a combat action takes place. D-Day and H-Hour refer to the day an hour a coordinated effort is initiated. “D-Day”, in the case of the Normandy Invasion, was actually set for June 5th, but General Eisenhower made the choice to delay the attack due to rough seas and inclement weather.  General Eisenhower reportedly wore a Heuer Chronograph, as identified by @niccoloy (Government Archives)  In war, time matters. A massive concerted effort between Allied nations meant every single soldier had to be on time and operating in unison. The tool that helped orchestrate an invasion that shifted the outcome of the war? The humble wristwatch. In the 1940s, watches were hardly considered as the luxury accessories they are today. Soldiers wore watches that were issued to them as a part of the set of tools needed to do a very important job.  Photo Credit: Vertex Watches  History buffs, WWII enthusiasts, and even re-enactors pay incredible attention to details surrounding WWII, but somehow one of the most important pieces of kit–the watch–is often overlooked. At W.O.E. we care about nothing but details, so today, on the anniversary of D-Day, we’ll take a look at some of the watches that were on the wrists of soldiers, sailors, and airmen that were involved in the invasion.  The A-11 (produced by Bulova, Elgin, Waltham and others) Personal collection of former CIA Officer and W.O.E. contributor, J.R. Seeger. Commonly referred to as “the watch that won the war”, the A-11 was the most ubiquitous service watch during WWII. It’s a specification, rather than an actual watch, and that meant that various companies could produce watches to this spec and in turn, the government would purchase these watches and distribute them to service personnel. For its time, the specification set was exacting, the watch needed a black dial with white numerical indices, a manual-winding, hacking movement with center seconds, 10 minute markers, an hour and minute hand. The case came in at a compact 32 millimeters. The watches saw service with the Brits as well as the Americans.  The Army Ordnance Watch Army Time Piece (ATP) watch of the UK forces and the US Army Ordnance (ORD) on original OSS manual (Seeger’s personal collection) While the A-11 was rated for aviation operations (and specific maritime operations), the “ORD” watches were general-purpose watches issued to US soldiers en masse. The specification outlined in the TM 9-1575 War Department Technical Manual for Wrist Watches, Pocket Watches, Stop Watches allows for some variation in design, so Waltham, Hamilton, Bulova and Elgin all put their own twist on these watches meant to be mass produced for soldiers. These watches are distinguished by their white dials and “Ord Dept” engravings on the caseback.  The “Dirty Dozen” MoD Watches The Dirty Dozen - all twelve W.W.W. watches (Credit: A Collected Man) Most popular among collectors is a series of 12 watches produced by the likes of Buren, Cyma, Eterna, Grana, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Lemania, Longines, IWC, Omega, Record, Timor, and Vertex. On all of these British-issued watches you’ll find W.W.W. (Watch, Wrist, Waterproof) and a broadarrow insignia engraved in the back. It’s unknown how many of each were produced because it’s believed that only WC, JLC, and Omega recorded their production at 6,000, 10,000,  and 25,000 respectively. The Dirty Dozen were general service watches, and that meant they saw service with various service roles across all functions of the military. While these pieces were not delivered until after D-Day at the conclusion of the war, they are a product of this conflict. IWC Dirty Dozen piece with original box (Credit: A Collected Man) We tend to romanticize the equipment used by service members carrying out brave efforts that changed the course of world history. Watches are certainly among the kind of things we tend to prescribe a certain importance to–and that’s not to be ignored, timekeeping is absolutely vital especially when it comes to a massive coordination such as Operation Overlord. But watches only supported the mission as a piece of gear with an assigned function. They were, and always will be, tools to get the job done. Today we honor and remember the valiant efforts of Allied service members 79 years ago to this day, and the actions taken by them that resulted in a free world that flourishes.    If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our weekly free newsletter for further updates HERE. Read Next: CIA’s JAWBREAKER Team And A Rolex Submariner  

Readers of thrillers set in World War II and even some non-fiction histories of the OSS and SOE could easily assume the kit of these “special forces” operators was highly specialized and the result of great care and curation in OSS and SOE headquarters. The reality was that early in the war, this kit was as much ad hoc as it was highly curated.

In the 1970s, CIA Technical Officers modified a digital Seiko to conceal a Tropel T-100 camera inside.  The purpose of the watch-turned-espionage-tool was to allow a recruited agent to surreptitiously photograph classified documents in their place of work and deliver them to CIA.  The camera was so quiet that it could be used to photograph documents within a KGB Rezidentura or other sensitive buildings while unknowing co-workers were just feet away. The Silver Screen vs Reality: Hollywood's depiction of spy gadgets embedded in a Rolex Submariner or Omega Seamaster is entertaining, but largely a fantasy of the  screenwriter's imagination.  In fact, there were very few times in my career as a CIA Case Officer that I used “spy gear” and instead largely relied on low-tech tradecraft to build relationships, recruit spies, and steal secrets. US Embassy Moscow- Cold War  That said, technology plays a significant role in the espionage trade from both an offensive (collection) and defensive (counterintelligence) standpoint in the modern era.  Historically, spy gadgetry was a crucial tool in the “great game” of the Cold War where both the Soviet Union’s KGB and CIA leveraged cutting edge technologies– including miniature cameras and audio recording devices– to collect intelligence and thwart hostile surveillance.  In order to mask these capabilities, pieces of surveillance technology were often housed in “Concealment Devices,” seemingly benign objects that could be carried by the Agent into sensitive government facilities.  In some now-declassified cases, a timepiece was used as either a passive or active concealment device to hide the presence of the espionage tool. U.S. Representative to the United Nations Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. points to a hole for a concealed listening device in the U.S. Great Seal (a gift from the Soviets to the UNSC).  (Photo Credit: Getty) In the niche genre of Watches of Espionage, it is important to understand these historical references.  We will periodically profile some of these watches, their relevance, and the impact they had on intelligence collection. The Real Q-Branch: In most spy movies, there is a “Q:” a fictional character responsible for providing the lead “spy” with the latest and greatest technological advancements.  In obvious foreshadowing, the issued gear (often a luxury timepiece with spy gear embedded) will later play a significant role in the movie during a pivotal scene where the spy escapes a deadly situation or finally gets even with the villain. While I never met an individual “Q” at CIA, there are several offices dedicated to developing, testing, and fielding technologies for intelligence collection.  During the Cold War, this office was known as the Office of Technical Service (OTS) positioned within the Directorate of Science & Technology (DS&T). Modified Seiko Housing T-100 Camera: In the mid-1970s OTS technical officers reportedly modified an off-the-shelf Seiko LCD-equipped model (reference unknown) to conceal a Tropel T-100 camera inside.  The watch worked by “active concealment,” meaning it functioned normally when the camera lens was not visible.  When the asset–or a recruited agent–rotated the dial nearly 180 degrees it exposed the aperture at the 6 o'clock position.  A button at the 4 o'clock position activated the shutter to take the picture.  (Photo Credit: Ultimate Spy, Keith Melton) According to intelligence historian Keith Melton, the camera held a 15-inch strip of auto-advancing film and could capture 100 high resolution images. The purpose of the tool was to allow an asset or agent to surreptitiously photograph classified documents in their place of work.  The camera did not require an auto-focus mechanism and could effectively take pictures of standard-sized documents when held approximately 11 inches off the desk, which was about the length of an average adult male's elbow to hand.  The camera was so quiet that it could be used to photograph documents within a KGB Rezidentura or other sensitive buildings while unknowing co-workers were just feet away. OTS produced instructions showing an Asset how to use the T-100 key fob model.  Instructions also showed agents “how to hide the camera in a fist held to the forehead while seated–as if they were reading, not photographing.” (Photo Credit: Ultimate Spy, Keith Melton)  While the watch concealment is interesting in itself, the T-100 subminiature camera was the real technological feat at work.  Despite its size, it was designed to take distortion-free images the size of a single page of text using retired stock film first used in spy satellites. In contrast to the movies, where a piece of gear was issued “just in case,” the tiny camera was purpose-built for intelligence collection and issued only to the most sensitive CIA assets operating behind the Iron Curtain. The tool was designed and produced by an outside contractor who painstakingly assembled the shutter components and lenses the size of a pinhead. As Robert Wallace and Melton would later recall in Spycraft, the Secret History of the CIA’s Spytechs, “the T-100’s assembly was closer to watchmaking than any commercial manufacturing process. The owner of the company fabricated each camera himself under a large magnifying glass and halo light using a device he built specifically for the task.”  T-100 concealed in cricket lighter (Photo Credit: Ultimate Spy, Keith Melton) Looking at the watch, it’s tempting to conclude that it looked semi-futuristic for the 1970s and that this might cause counterintelligence concerns for an asset back then.  But the Seiko was created, or modified, during an important time in horology history: the Quartz Crisis.  During the Digital Revolution of the late 1960s, the development of the quartz watch resulted in a transition in the market from mechanical watches to quartz movements and eventually, digital displays with the Pulsar in 1972. This quick shift was dubbed the “quartz crisis,” where many consumers moved to the cheaper more accurate timepieces and there was a dramatic decline in the traditional, mechanically-driven Swiss watch industry.  Seiko, credited with developing the first quartz movement, was one of the first brands to embrace the new technology and produced several LCD screen watches similar to the one used by CIA.   While we have not identified this exact reference, there are several Seiko watches from the era that match the similar design, including this 1975 Seiko 0114-0010 Quartz LC.  The exact reference likely would have been procured in the Soviet Union before being shipped back to the U.S. for modification, so as not to raise questions why a Soviet official would be wearing an imported watch. Again, details matter.  1975 Seiko 0114-0010 Quartz LC (Photo Credit: Ebay) Interestingly, it was in this time period (in 1977) that the Bond franchise integrated the first Seiko into the mix in The Spy Who Loved Me.  Bond, played by Roger Moore, wore a modified Seiko 0674 LC, which contained a miniature printer to receive messages from his headquarters in the UK. CIA has been known to take inspiration from Hollywood, and whether this was life imitating art or the other way around, we can only speculate. What is uncertain is whether the CIA-modified Seiko was actually used by an asset during the Cold War or if this was a prototype that never made it to the field.  While much of the information from this time period has been declassified or leaked, there is no public information available indicating it was issued to an asset for operational use. What we do know is that the camera itself, the T-100, was particularly effective at collecting intelligence and was dubbed by some as the "camera that won the Cold War."  There are documented examples of both the T-100 and later the T-50 being issued to assets housed in fountain pens, keychains and lighters and capturing images that were later passed on to the CIA handling Case Officer. Tropel Camera Housed in Fountain Pen, Image courtesy of International Spy Museum. READ NEXT: The Lasting Legacy Of The CIA’s Lockheed A-12 And The Watch That Served It   This Dispatch has been reviewed by the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board to prevent the disclosure of classified information.

In 1957 Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the leader of aircraft manufacturer Lockheed’s Advanced Development program dubbed Skunk Works, knew satellites would make reconnaissance aircraft obsolete in the near future. It was determined that the U-2 spy plane, which Johnson had worked on, had a radar cross section that was simply too large to operate completely undetected. Three years later one flown by pilot Gary Powers would be shot down in Soviet Airspace and he would be captured and charged with espionage. The price of human life was simply too high to pay, and with the Cold War in full swing, US intelligence-gathering operations were necessary to keep an edge over the nuclear-capable Soviets. This meant that significant investments were being made in satellite technology to solve these problems, but the technology wasn’t quite where it needed to be just yet. That day would come, but the impending obsolescence of aircraft built for reconnaissance didn’t stop Johnson from spearheading one last effort: Project Oxcart.  Richard Bissell was the CIA officer responsible for facilitating the successor to the U-2. He oversaw Project Gusto, which was a committee set up to explore all possible solutions to the dynamic need for a next-generation aerial reconnaissance platform. Lockheed’s submission won out over Convair’s designs derived from the B-58 Hustler, and the A-12 project was funded and kicked off.  The A-12 had its maiden flight on April 25th, 1962, and subsequently carried out 2,850 test flights before its first official mission on May 31st, 1967. Ironically, the A-12 never carried out any overflights of the Soviet Union or Cuba, which is exactly what it was intended for. The CIA found another use for the plane: to spy on North Vietnam. Departing from Kadena Air Base in Japan, the A-12 performed 22 sorties gathering intelligence on the movements of North Vietnamese forces. The project wasn’t all for naught, however. The development of the A-12 led to the creation of the SR-71, the often-celebrated and easily recognizable icon that’s wrongly dubbed “the fastest airplane ever to have graced our skies” even though that honor officially belongs to the A-12 at just over Mach 3.3. While the A-12 was born and died in secrecy being owned and operated by the CIA, the SR-71 was the product of the USAF. Both carried out surveillance overflights, but the SR-71 was fit for a wider range of missions, not to mention a two-seat configuration for a reconnaissance officer. The plane featured a modular system in the nose-mounted equipment bay that allowed for ELINT and SLR data to be collected. ELINT is electronic intelligence, while SLR is side-looking radar, and the added benefit of gathering additional intelligence meant that the SR-71 had a much longer service life and participated in just about every single conflict up until 1989, until they were retired.  The A-12 on display at CIA Headquarters — number eight in production of the 15 A-12s built — was the first of the operational fleet to be certified for Mach 3. No piloted operational jet aircraft has ever flown faster or higher. (Photo Credit: CIA) And that’s why it has become perhaps the most prominent military aircraft ever produced. It’s become a symbol for superlative, next-generation technology and a very specific can-do attitude of the mid-century era that simply doesn’t exist anymore. Budgets be damned, the Blackbird was going to be the most capable airplane ever. And it was. It’s a flying superlative.  However, the watch that’s most typically associated with the A-12 is anything but iconic, instead it’s been relegated to enjoyment by a very niche community of die-hards. Although what it lacks in popularity it more than makes up for in technical prowess. The Bulova Astronaut was a perfect horological fit for the A-12; both platforms were so far ahead of their time that neither of the core technologies they introduced stuck around long after they were gone. The Astronaut used the Accutron tuning fork movement, which predated quartz and proved to be accurate to one second a month. It didn’t have a balance assembly (or mainspring), instead it used a tuning fork oscillator that vibrated at 360hz. If we think in terms of a “propulsion system,” the tuning fork movement was congruent to the SR-71’s J58 engine that pioneered a system that essentially turned it from a standard jet engine at lower speed to a ramjet engine above Mach 2.  Bulova Accutron Astronaut, late 1960s (W.O.E.s Personal Collection) Both the tuning fork mechanism and the J58 were engineering marvels that excelled at capturing and controlling energy and bending it to humankind’s will. The Bulova Accutron Astronaut even emits a high-pitch whine that’s straight out of a sci-fi movie.  The advantage of the tuning fork movement for an A-12 pilot is that there isn’t a balance spring that G forces would be able to affect, and in an airplane that can go over Mach 3, G forces are a crucial concern for a mechanical watch. Accutron movements proved effective and reliable for most of NASA’s cockpit instrumentation in the Gemini rockets, and later, the Apollo program. The CIA supplied the A-12 pilots with the Bulova and when the program ended, the watches stayed with the pilots. Vintage Watch Advertisement, 1969 (W.O.E.s Personal Collection) In typical CIA fashion, the Agency cared nothing about the absolute technical and engineering achievement of both the A-12 and the Bulova Astronaut. They were tools to get the mission done. If there was a cheaper or more effective tool available to execute the mission, those would be chosen, and eventually, they were. Quartz watches replaced the tuning fork movement, and more conventional propulsion systems were favored over the complex retracting inlet cone system that allowed Mach 3+ flight on the Blackbird.  The existence and disappearance of both these technical marvels serves as a reminder that no matter how much we romanticize or idolize incredible technology, it’s all in service of a larger mission: Giving America a competitive advantage when it comes to national security. The rest is just an added bonus. Read Next: Man O'War And The Horological Symbols That Inspire Us

MACV-SOG Recon Elements Required a Tough Tool To Support Operations, So They Turned To Seiko Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG or just SOG) recon men required a robust and non-attributable timepiece to accomplish their mission. They turned to Seiko, known as the ‘Toyota of Watches’. Three distinct Seiko references in total were used by MACV-SOG operators. We spoke with former SOG legend John Stryker Meyer–“Tilt”--about the role these Seikos played in the missions he took part in. As with anything clandestine, there’s plenty of misinformation and speculation out there. Meyer served as a primary source that helped us cut through the hearsay and get to the facts surrounding the shadowy MACV-SOG Seiko references.  When it comes to tools actually used in the field, there are few watch manufacturers more present than Seiko. Seiko, after all, is the “Toyota of watches”– they’re cheap and reliable utilitarian tools. For the same reasons Toyotas are a common sight in modern conflict zones, Seikos have adorned the wrists of hard men in hard places for decades.  One of the most well-known examples of Seiko’s presence in the intelligence and SpecOps world is the Vietnam-era “MACV-SOG Seiko,” procured using black budget funds and issued to SOG operators as sterile and untraceable equipment. Seiko’s cult-like following combined with military historian’s fascination with SOG has made the MACV-SOG Seikos incredibly collectable.  In an effort to go deeper and seek the truth, we spoke with former SOG legend John Stryker Meyer–“Tilt”-- about his experience with the MACV-SOG Seikos, and he would know–he was issued one.  Meyer and Lynne Black Jr. in November 1968 with their CISO-issued Seikos. Note, the watch is worn on the inside of the wrist on his strong hand, a habit he picked up in training. (Photo Credit: Meyer) John Stryker Meyer is a former Green Beret and legend in the special operations community. He’s devoted much of his later life to preserving the SOG heritage and documenting his experiences for future generations. Even after 50 years, he still remembers his Seiko well. It was one of the many tools he used to carry out his duties and execute the mission. When it came to equipment, SOG recon men were issued the most innovative tools, often custom tailored for clandestine and covert reconnaissance. Meyer received his watch from S4 unit supply specialists after arriving “in country” in April 1968. There was no fanfare, the issue process of the watch was no different from that of a CAR-15 rifle, a tiger stripe camo uniform and a PCR-25 radio: it was part of the standard kit. Meyer believed that the watches were issued in 1967, but of course when dealing with minute details from so long ago, it’s hard to say with certainty. Unfortunately, after the Vietnam conflict Meyer lost his watch while body surfing in the early 1970s, but it was likely the first of the three models, ref. 6619-8060. Meyer recalls the Seiko being issued on a black tropic strap and due to the bright glow of the tritium dial, he wore the timepiece on the inside of his right wrist, noting that “the luminous dial was so bright that SOG recon men had to cover it with gloves or black electric tape at night.” Meyer preferred the watch over the Rolex Submariners many of his fellow SF soldiers purchased, because of the bright tritium lume and the practical day/date function. It was a tool, and as he recalled over a half century later, “even in the pitch black jungle, I knew when to make communication checks with the airborne command aircraft– usually at midnight, or at 2 a.m.” For MACV-SOG operators like Meyer, timing was everything. Meyer said that some of his fellow Recon Company soldiers added a Waltham Clock Company (W.C.C.) compass to the strap, but he preferred the traditional compass around his neck. When asked about some of the myths surrounding the Seikos, including the notorious internet rumor that they were provided as rewards for capturing an enemy POW, Meyer simply called it “bullshit.” He admitted, in a casual manner that only someone with firsthand experience is qualified to divulge, that the real reward for capturing a POW was $100 and a week R&R, not a Seiko watch. (Of note, in 1968, $100 could buy you over a dozen Seiko 5s.) Military Assistance Command, Vietnam – Studies and Observations Group (MACV-SOG or just SOG) was an elite Special Operations unit during the Vietnam War from 1964 until 1972 and was responsible for carrying out unconventional warfare tactics. The group was multi-service, with personnel from U.S. Navy SEALs, Air Force and Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance, but relied heavily on Green Berets from the 5th Special Forces Group. SOG missions included covert and clandestine operations, reconnaissance, sabotage, wiretaps and intelligence collection in South Vietnam, North Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. SOG’s success was in part due to their make-up: one to two Americans partnered up to nine indigenous troops. In order to accomplish their covert and deniable mission, SOG required unique training, authorities and equipment, including durable and sterile timepieces. Vietnam, 1968. Pictured; left to right; Sau - Vietnamese Team Leader, Meyer, Hiep - Interpreter, Black  (Photo credit: Meyer) SOG Seiko 5s: There are three generally agreed Seiko references that were carried by SOG personnel during the conflict: 6619-8060 from circa 1967, 6119-8100 from circa 1968 and 7005-8030 from circa 1970. There is some indication that the first reference (6619-8060) were purchased by soldiers on the economy and the latter two were issued from 1968 onward. While this may have been the case, according to Meyer, he was issued his watch in early 1968, which would suggest 6619-8060 were also issued, at least in small numbers. Conrad “Ben” Baker–a man who Meyer would later describe as SOG’s “Q,” a reference to the fictional character responsible for outfitting James Bond with the latest gadgetry– was Deputy Director of Counter Insurgency Support Office (CISO). In this role, Baker managed the procuring of equipment for SOG forces and was respected by the troops. He is credited with developing and procuring tailor-made equipment: everything from SOG knives, clothing, indigenous rations and most relevant for this discussion, watches. Baker, who was based out of Okinawa, would ultimately settle on the Japanese-produced Seiko as the supplier for watches. While their Japanese production–not USMIL–issuance–offered some plausible deniability, the rationale behind the decision may have been budgetary, rather than a spooky cover story. Years later, Baker would tell Meyer, “at one point, every team wanted 12 or 13 Rolex watches, the Oyster model I believe. They got Seiko watches instead that cost $6 or $8 apiece.” There are confirmed examples of MACV-SOG forces owning each of the three references, and while most modern day pictures show nylon straps, historical photos mostly show black tropical straps, something Meyer remembered as more “plastic” than rubber.  Seiko Sportsmatic 5, Ref. 6619-8060, circa 1967: Known for the graphite sunburst dial, the 36mm steel case features a 21 jewel 6619 movement and depth rating of 50 meters. 6619-8060 (Photo credit: Hodinkee Shop) Seiko 5, Ref. 6119-8100, circa 1968: This second reference is almost indistinguishable from the previous reference, with slight changes to the dial, a chrome case and “Seiko 5” on the dial. It has a chrome-plated case and a steel caseback. Issued watch of Kyle Dean, who served in Vietnam in 1969. (Photo Credit: Running Recon: A Photo Journey with SOG Special Ops Along the Ho Chi Minh Trail) Ref. 7005-8030, circa 1970: Round in shape and with a black dial, the third reference has a date only feature and was issued in smaller numbers until MACV-SOG’s deactivation in April 1972. It is highly sought after by collectors. CISO Deputy Director Conrad “Ben” Baker and his personal 7005-8030 (Photo Credit: Jason Hardy) In addition to these references, there are indications that other models were issued by CISO, including at least one documented 1968 Seiko 6106-8100 dive watch. Meyer also confirmed that many of his comrades purchased Rolex watches from the PX that were to be used as a potential bartering tool during escape and evasion. While the prices of the MACV-SOG Seikos have recently skyrocketed to well over $1,000, for those interested in purchasing a modern version, the SNK381K1 is as close as it gets. At 37mm, it is smaller than most modern watches, but throw it on a green nylon strap, add a tactical compass, and you can play the part. Tilt, thank you for sharing a part of your story with us and for everything you have done and continue to do for our community. It was an honor to meet you in person and present you with the “W.O.E.” coin. This Dispatch is in honor of the 1,582 Americans who are Missing and Unaccounted-for from the Vietnam War, of whom over 50 were Green Beret’s from the Secret War. If you would like to support them and their families, please consider a donation to the National League of POW/MIA Families.   -- If you enjoyed this article, please consider signing up for our free weekly newsletter for further updates HERE.   Read Part II: SOG Seikos - Vietnam MACV-SOG Watches, Part II