The brand Marathon might be new to some, but not for Canadians, Americans, and especially military watch fanatics like us. The moniker is better known to watch collectors be among the few that, until today, officially offers no-frills timepieces to the military. Those regimes include the United States and Canadian army since circa 70 years ago.
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Marathon GSAR Government Diver Black Automatic - Rubber Ref. WW194006BK
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Let’s dive a little deeper. The company that was to become Marathon Watch was founded in 1904 as Weinsturm Watch, later to be named Wein Brothers. In 1939, Morris Wein founded Marathon Watch, supplying fine precision timepieces throughout North America. Since 1941, Marathon has been manufacturing timing instruments for the Allied Forces, and today the fourth generation of the family continues the tradition with a wide range of tools measuring time, temperature, and distance. Marathon watches combine military durability with Swiss engineering and craftsmanship to ensure the highest level of quality and precision. All these traits unveiled on the GSAR Government Diver Black Automatic on Rubber Ref. WW194006BK that we are going to introduce today.
Marathon timepieces are now standard issue for the U.S. Army, Navy, Marine Corps, NASA, Canadian Armed Forces as well as law enforcement and government agencies worldwide. They continue to provide ever more innovative watches to government and military forces globally. In fact, they are the only current active military watch contractor to the US Government.
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Made in Switzeland, Approved by US Government
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The acronym “GSAR” stands for “Government Search and Rescue.”- where appropriate military personnel in different branches and jobs get offered these officially issued watches. Since this specific model is built to be taken mostly under the sea, it fits appropriately for the Navy branch all round. The GSAR Government Diver Automatic celebrates form over function, a non-flashy watch for sure, but builds with a purpose to aid the army with their missions.
The GSAR Diver Automatic starts with its 316L stainless steel case that measures 41mm wide, with a height of 14mm thick and 48mm lug to lug. Further, here’s where Marathon pays extra attention to their watches; the case is first completely sandblasted to give it a dull finishing and then treated with a full black anodized treatment, removing any source of inessential reflections, while still being immaculately executed. The 120-clicks black bezel gets expansive grooves that allow one to rotate it uni-directionally under all conditions, especially when your hands get wet. The engraved black anodized bezel stays true to military needs in a 60-minute format, with a luminous triangle pip at 12 o’clock. The dimension of the timepiece allows one to feel its sturdiness and built with a sense of purpose, to be out in the field.
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Full satin-brushed finishing throughout its 41mm case
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Moving to the side profile, we get beefy squared crown guards that flange the nail-textured screw-down crown for easy manipulation. Flipping it over, we get the screw-in case-back, allowing it to withstand 300m water-resistant. Right on the case-back, we get the essential government markings and specifications engraved. These provide credentials to the GSAR Diver Auto as manufactured they are manufactured in accordance to US Government NSN 6645-21-558-0133.
As you’d expect in a military-style watch, the dial needs all the right ingredients to live up its livery. Underneath its flat sapphire crystal, Marathon has applied tritium gas tubes with MaraGlo™, a total of 15 self-illuminating tritiums (Isotope H3) on its hour markers and syringe-style handset. Even the second-hand gets its own at the tip, allowing one to view the time with maximum legibility even under prolonged in-the-dark operations. No more charging them by external light sources like conventional SuperLuminova.
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Tritium gas tubes and MaraGlow™ that glows 24 hours
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The dial features Arabic hour markers right beneath the tritium tubes, only to flange further a set of 24-hour reading inside. The date is placed at 4.30 position so as not to disrupt the placement of the tritium gas tubes. Lastly, only essentials wordings are allowed, the dial sports a sterile “NGM”, or “No Government Markings” dial, only the company’s logo at the top, balance off with “Automatic, 300m/ 1000ft (in red)” at the bottom. The dial gets additional markings with the “H3, hazard emblem” to indicate the tritium gas usage. All these information on the GSAR Diver is easy to determine at a glance.
Inside lies, the workhorse Swiss Self-winding automatic, 26 Jewel Marathon M2 Movement, which operates at 4Hz (28,800bph) and a power reserve of around 42 hours. The use of this movement shows that Marathon emphasizes accuracy under all conditions.
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Manufactured in accordance to US Government NSN 6645-21-558-0133
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Attached to the GSAR Diver Auto is a 20mm high quality black vulcanized rubber with marathon emblem stamped onto one of its keepers. This matches with the adventure theme, elevating its sportiness and ruggedness as a whole. All that said, the rubber keeps the full black theme on the watch, resulting in its tactical and sleek form through and through.
In all, Marathon products are manufactured with the utmost care and go through various quality control measures. This attention to details presented in the GSAR NGM Diver Black Automatic on Rubber Ref. WW194006BK-NGM, combining military toughness with Swiss craftsmanship. The world of military-style tool watches is ever populated, where consumers have many options to choose from, but not all have the right to get approval from the US Government. The GSAR Diver Auto stands out from the rest in this way since day one, and besides that, their watches are always built with a purpose in every aspect that offers startling value for money for dive watch collectors.
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