CWC RN Automatic Dive Watch

The British firm Cabot Watch Company (CWC) currently supplies the UK Ministry of Defense (MOD) with two dive watches. First, there is an all black-anodized dive watch issued to Special Forces, the so-called CWC "SBS" diver, also known (possibly more properly) as the UKSF diver. This watch features a day and date calendar in addition to the time. The other current issue dive watch is the CWC Royal Navy (RN) diver. It has a time-only dial in a polished stainless steel case with the top of the lugs in a brushed finish. These are both quartz watches powered by the ETA/ESA 955.122 movement. I'm lucky enough to own issued examples of each. However, as I'm a fan of mechanical watches I wanted the same styling, but with an automatic movement. Luckily, Silvermans (CWC's retail arm) sell just such a beast.

The watch below is the automatic version of the RN diver and is a factory reissue or "replica" of the original CWC RN diver issued by the MOD in the early 80s as the replacement for the Rolex Submariner. Now while I would love to own a mil-sub I don't quite have the $40,000 or so to drop on a watch!

The CWC RN Automatic diver takes much of its styling cues from the Omega Seamaster 300, which was issued by the MOD in the late 60s to early 70s. However, the CWC also complies with the MOD Standard 66-4 (Part 1)/Issue 3.

The dial is a very clean matte charcoal black featuring large trapezoidal hour markers with arabics at the quarters and a big triangle at the 12 o'clock. As with the current quartz issue RN diver, the automatic RN diver has a time-only dial. Just the way I like it. The circle T below the triangle marker is not a faux marking. The luminous used on the hour markers, hands and bezel insert dot is indeed tritium. Over time the tritium will decay and the dial and hands will "mellow out". The aged-tritium look is an acquired taste, but if it's honest wabi I have no problems with it.

I'm a big fan of MOD sword hands and this watch doesn't disappoint. Unlike the silver-framed MOD sword hands used in the issued SM 300 and mil-sub, these hands are framed in a frosted matte white. The combination of dial and hand set make it easy to read the time at-a-glance. This translates into excellent legibility: one of the most important aspects of a dive watch and a military timepiece.

The bezel is unidirectional to prevent accidentally increasing decompression time during a dive. It features 60 clicks, turns very precisely and has a firm feel to it. The bezel is also heavy and tall enough so that it's easy to grip. The black-anodized (aluminum?) bezel insert has minute markers all the way around, not just the first 15 minutes as used in many modern dive watches.

The watch is quite substantial in both size and weight. The massive polished stainless steel case is about 40 mm in diameter without the crown and 45 mm with it. As mentioned above, the tops of the lugs are brushed. The height is about 12 mm measured from the caseback to the top of the crystal. The case features fixed bars instead of spring bars like a proper milwatch should, although this isn't an issued watch. The unsigned screwdown crown has internal threads like the SM 300, while the crystal is mineral glass...OK I'm not a fan of mineral crytals. Once they get scratched, and they will scratch sooner or later, it's game over if you want to remove the scratches. While I would have preferred an acrylic or sapphire crystal, at least the mineral used on this diver is thick and replacements are readily available from parts houses. The CWC is rated to a depth of 30 atm or 990 feet.

The automatic movement used is the "ever popular" ETA 2824-2 with 25-jewels. Nothing exciting to write home about like an Omega cal.552 or a Rolex cal.1520, but at least it can be handwound and hacked, and is reliable, easily serviced, and spare parts will be available for a very long time to come. My example currently keeps time to +5 to +10 seconds a day. Not bad for a non-adjusted movement. While I don't have my own pictures of it, the movement ring is metal not plastic and there's a dust cover over the movement as well.

The watch comes supplied on a grey G-10 strap and with the fixed bars you can only wear it with similar one-piece or open-ended straps. Since this is in essence a MOD-designed watch, the OEM G-10 in my opinion finishes it off best.

The fit and finish are excellent. For example, under a 10X loupe I can't find any real dial slop. The case is also cut and polished precisely. If this watch carried any of the "big names" on the dial it would probably have a price point of around $1k. Thankfully full retail is about half that and sourced from the secondary market it's about 1/3 that. Not a bad deal for a lot of watch.