24 CARMAGAZINE.CO.UK | APRIL 2019
F
or watch-geeks, the ‘Dirty Dozen’ doesn’t refer to the
Lee Marvin movie but to the 12 watchmakers com-
missioned by the War Office to make the ‘watch,
wrist, waterproof ’ which was issued to British servicemen
in the Second World War. The standard design with its
black dial, ‘railroad’ minute track for accuracy and the
‘broad arrow’ mark which denotes government property
has become a classic. These three new military-inspired
watches clearly carry its genes.Watches
Fancy a warfare-inspired watch? May
the forces be with you. By Ben OliverMilitary
precision
01 I Vertex MP45 £3750
Vertex was a British watchmaker and one
of the Dirty Dozen, along with more famous
names such as Omega and IWC. It went bust
with the advent of quartz in the 1970s, but Don
Cochrane, the grandson of the founder – and
a former Ferrari, Tesla and Aston exec – has
restarted it. The new MP45 is his third watch,
reviving a clever, good-looking single-pusher
chronograph which Vertex designed for
artillery units in 1945 but never made.
vertex-watches.com02 I Elliot Brown Project 354
Holton Professional £495Elliot Brown’s Holton Professional watch was
designed for an elite unit of the British military,
and the standard watch carries the broad arrow
mark and a NATO stock number. Page and
Cooper has commissioned Project 354, a run
of 60 Holtons finished in either stainless steel
or black, with dials in either a historic Royal
Navy blue or grey. A donation goes to SSAFA,
the armed forces charity, for each watch sold.
pageandcooper.com03 I Breitling Aviator 8 Automatic
41 Curtiss Warhawk £3260Breitling wasn’t one of the Dirty Dozen, despite
making instruments for wartime RAF aircraft.
This new watch celebrates a US fighter of the
period but it’s influenced by the classic British
WWW watch design, with its minute hand
extending into a railroad track for accurate
read-off, and luminescent markers every five
minutes. Two chronograph versions are also
available, but we like this one for its simplicity.
breitling.com02
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