[Atlantic]

First, a little history. I am a watch lover, currently having twelve watches in my collection, all but two being mechanical and including three Rolexes (two Subs and an Explorer II). I am also a life long sailor, having completed three trans Atlantic voyages and many thousands of miles, offshore, cruising and racing between Maine, Bermuda and the Caribbean on my twelve meter cutter.

Last fall, after spending a year and a half in Europe, I decided to sail to Martinique, in the Caribbean, from Portugal. For navigation, I always sail with a minimum of three independent GPS’s in addition to my Furuno chart plotter and radar. For this last voyage I decided to add a sextant as an additional back up, and for this I would need an incredibly accurate watch. Both of my Subs have been regulated to approximately plus one to two seconds per day, but that would not be enough for my purposes.

I was already familiar with Marathon’s excellent line of military issue watches having had a GSAR for a number of years. I gave this watch to my son for Christmas shortly after purchasing my second Sub, a 114060.

Enter the military spec Marathon Pilot’s Navigator. I chose the black, sterile, no date version. This attractive 41mm watch is incredibly light and comfortable, the asymmetrical case, being made of an impact resistant fibershell composite with a hesalite crystal and a 316L stainless back, and fitted with a 20mm pull through nylon strap. The watch also features a rotating GMT bezel. The crystal is resistant to rapid negative pressure changes, as you would encounter were you to parachute from a high altitude. The watch is rated to six atmospheres and uses tritium illumination, which is very useful on those long and often moonless night watches.

But, the icing on the cake is the incredibly accurate, Swiss, high torque, hacking, ETA F06 movement which features an End of Life indicator that will advance the second hand every four seconds to inform you that a battery change is needed. I tested this movement over a twenty-five day period and it gained an unbelievable .02 seconds per day. This works out to plus 7.3 seconds per year!

This all goes to show, for me at least, that a watch need not be expensive or mechanical to tick all of the right boxes.