Whilst I have quite a number of military watches, it is as you collect over the years that you see what you really want in a watch as opposed to thinking  about what you might want.  There is a difference!

For military I already have the multi-bezel 12 hour and 24 hour registers, the oversize crown guards and odd coloured dials, chronos and the like.   So looking for something simpler but not simplistic (I already have both Nato and Mil spec watches) is actually not as simple as it sounds.
I would prefer no bezel (or if one must it should be relatively unobtrusive) and I like a single crown.  It also must be strap changeable or in other words I don’t want a rubber/textile “special” affair that only fits that watch.  And I must be able to see it at night.

Here’s one that comes to mind –

Swiss military Watch "Millicurie PVD"

This is the Swiss Military Watch company’s “Millicurie ” pvd coated stainless model.  Complete with my favourite H3 technology light source lume – which is simply unbeatable.
The hands and numerals are Tritium tubes – orange for the 12 and green for the numerals and the hour & minute hands.
Slightly odd this one in that the hand tips also have Super-Luminova infills – though I can’t quite see the benefit of this when the hands themselves are Tritium tubed.
Note the image taken in the dark – whilst the Tritium hands and numerals glow brightly, the tips are pretty faint in comparison.  What this does show however is the superiority of the self illuminating Tritium system as opposed to the ambient light charged Luminova coating.  And this is especially noticeable if like me you wear your watch under your sleeves most of the day – the luminova will never see any light – and therefore will not glow too well.

The rest of the watch features are pretty good – a Swiss Ronda Quartz movement, red centre seconds and date@3.  Nice clear black face, no distracting bezels, 100m water resistance with double O ringed crown.  It’s also a nice size at a medium 40mm dia and 13mm depth, so not a monster.  A 22mm strap  completes the ensemble which is a nice “mans’ size and looks good on the wrist.

A 2 year guarantee on the watch and a 10 year guarantee on the “unchanged optical readability” of the H3 Trigalite illumination system.

All in all not a bad offering at all and it’s not expensive at around €180 (Euros) or $240.

H3 illumination

Image 2
Shows the H3 Tritium light source lume used on this model.  Note the Orange horizontal marker @12 makes for excellent readability.

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So any negatives?

Well the date maybe could be larger or clearer and the Luminova hand tips a bit of a waste of time, though in fairness the arrow heads are quite clear during the day against the black face so OK I’ll accept that.

But the positives outweight the negatives by a long way – so it’s definitely under consideration.

Note – Check out “Watch of the week” above in the tabbed header.