Of course, watch nerds love a good story, so you’ll often hear how these watches were issued to Navy SEAL teams and other Special Operations units in the Army and CIA, since the lack of military markings on the case meant that the watch (and thus its wearer) could not be identified as American. The collector community has mostly agreed that these sterile versions were pre-production versions of the watch that made it out into military use. There also exist a very small number of “sterile” Type Is – these watches don’t have any of the military stamped markings on the caseback and instead have a single engraved serial number. In all, there were a little over 9,000 Type II Class As produced, along with roughly 6000 Type I Class As and about 1000 Type II Class Bs. However, some of the remakes and re-imaginings are quite good, like the Paradive from MKII or even the Marathon Navigator.īenrus Type Is and IIs were produced for nearly a decade, from 1972 to 1980. They have ridden the wave of milwatch popularity, which, of course, means increased prices and copycats. Fixed bars force the use of pull-through or open-ended straps, but it’s hard to find a better look than one of these on a black NATO. These watches wear very comfortably, despite being relatively large and heavy. While I find myself preferring the simplicity of the Type I, the Type II looks more like other American milwatches we’re used to and is helpful in quick conversions from civilian to military time.
Like most military watches, legibility is tops on both Type I and Type II. There is also an unlumed version of the Type II, designated Class B, which does not have any lume on the dial or hands – they were used in locations containing delicate instruments that might be sensitive to even the small amounts of tritium contained in the lume (like on nuclear-powered submarines). Type IIs have a traditional 12/24 military dial, with small lumed triangles at each hour. Type I’s feature lumed markers at each hour: a triangle at 12 rectangles at 3, 6, and 9 and dots at the remaining hours. Although the Type is stamped on the back of the case (along with mil-spec number, manufacturer, NSN, manufacturer part number, contract number, production date, and serial number), telling Type I from Type II is as easy as looking at the dial. With guidance from the military specification, there were two types of these watches produced: Type I and Type II.
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