Having a tactical watch on your person can be one of the most important accessories you take with you on your adventures. Whether it be hiking, camping, diving, flying, cave exploring, or if you’re a military professional. So what are the top military/tactical watches and if you’re looking to buy one which one should you pick? This is Times Ticking’s in-depth review on the worlds top 10 tactical watches.
1. Casio PAG240-1cr Pathfinder Multifunction
This Casio Pathfinder multi-function watch is the first on our list and for good reason too. This timepiece can withstand temperatures of extreme lows and because it is water resistant up to 100 meters you’ll never have to worry about water damage.
The most attractive feature about this watch isn’t its durable case or band, or even the digital compass, altimeter, barometer, or thermometer, it’s the fact that it is powered by solar quartz that will hold a charge for six months before it needs to be exposed to sunlight again.
2. Casio G9300-1 Mudman G-Shock
The new Tough Solar MUDMAN G9300 features direction and thermo sensors that can help you keep your bearing wherever your adventures take you. A one-touch easy access button goes directly to compass & therometer mode and a moon phase graph can help to determine whether the night time hours will be dark or light. A declination function even makes it possible to adjust the watches magnetic north direction reading to indicate true north. All of this, plus Tough Solar to keep everything working including shock and mud resistance to keep it well protected.
3. Fathom Stainless Steel Dive Watch
The Fathom Stainless Steel Dive Watch is pressurized to be waterproof up to 200 meters making it ideal for search and rescue teams. Featuring stainless steel housing and bezel, this watch is durable enough to withstand any test in and out of the water, while being sophisticated enough in styling to wear off-duty.
4. G-Shock GA-100-1A1
This G-Shock watch is the perfect wristwatch for scuba enthusiasts with a depth rating of 200 meters or professional military or law enforcement operators such as divers who need exceptional timekeeping under water.
This combat-tested shock-resistant watch from Casio is also anti-magnetic to prevent inaccurate time, something that could save your life if you find yourself scuba diving, for example, where time really can run out. Other high-performance features include an auto LED light that allows you to tell time easily in dark or dim lighting, a heart rate monitor, and four daily adjustable alarms, snooze alarm and an hourly time signal, which helps you know exactly how much time has passed.
5. Garmin Tactix
If you’re looking for a watch to accompany you on a long adventure that will keep you from getting lost you’ve found it. The Garmin Tactix watch has high-sensitivity GPS positioning with an automatic calibrating altimeter, barometer and a 3-axis compass.
As cool and useful as the GPS positioning is, there are a few downsides. If you’re looking to go diving with this watch… don’t. It is waterproof up to 50 meters but that will only protect you from shallow water and rain. Another negative aspect is due to this feature the battery doesn’t keep as long of a charge as you’d probably hope for. The rechargeable lithium-ion battery can run up to 50 hours in GPS mode, 3 weeks in sensor mode, and 5 weeks in watch mode. Some other features include a scratch-resistant, curved mineral glass lens, a rugged forged stainless steel case, and an LED back light for night vision compatibility.
6. Breitling Super Avenger II Military
The Super Avenger II Military watch by breitling is definitely one of the most attractive and striking watches on our list, not to mention it’s extremely powerful and reliable. It’s equipped with a 1/4 second chronograph, which has flyback function and tallies 30 minutes and 12 hours on two subdials and features a 24-hour military time display.
7. Marathon Diver’s Automatic Watch
The Marathon Swiss Made Military Issue Diver’s Automatic Watch is designed for optimal military use. The watch has been designed to conform to the government’s design of having the timepiece for military use.
One of the best features about this watch are the tritium gas tubes that are self illuminating which means the hour markers will always be showing whether or not it has been exposed to sunlight. The watch performs great in water. It is water resistant for up to 300 meters or 1,000 feet which is great for underwater search and rescue operations which is what is is designed for, or deep sea scuba diving.
To top it all off the Diver’s Automatic watch is made in La Chaux de Fonds Switzerland to give the highest level of quality and accuracy in manufacturing to give you a reliable and accurate timekeeping experience.
8. Suunto Core
The Suunto Core is truly a one of a kind watch combing an altimeter, barometer, depth measurement, and compass into one. The altimeter is great for determining your current elevation, tracking your ascent or descent and gauging your overall progress on a climb which is ideal for mountaineers, skiers and wilderness travelers. The barometer allows you to forecast sudden alterations in the weather by keeping a close eye on the air pressure trend. Get heads up on a possible storm and take the necessary precautions to help make your journey safe and successful. Lastly, never worry about running out of daylight again with its sunrise and sunset indicator function.
9. Luminox Navy Seal Colormark BO Series
First off, the Luminox Colormark BO collection was made specifically for military use and is known to be “essential gear” for tactical missions in the dark, as well as used and endorsed by elite military and law enforcement groups around the world for the past 25 years. This is thanks to Luminox’s proprietary Luminox Light Technology (LLT), micro borosilicate gas tubes that enable the watch to glow continuously for up to 25 years.
The watch is made up of the same carbon fiber-reinforced polymer material used in the original Luminxon Navy Seal Watch collection, which was first commissioned in the 1990’s for its light-weight, durability.
Each Luminox Navy Seal Colormark Nova watch is Swiss made and features a high quality Swiss Ronda 5030.D quartz movement for top-grade time keeping reliability. A 20 minute diving countdown is indicated by accented colored numerals from 0 to 20 on the uni-directional rotation bezel. This allows a Seal, or any diver, recreational and professional, to have an easy glance on the crucial minutes left to securely monitor diving time and decompression stops before the ascent.
10. Casio G-Shock Rangeman
We saved the best for last: the Casio G-Shock Rangeman. With its tough solar-powered rechargeable battery, multi-band 6 radio wave timekeeping, digital compass, thermometer, altimeter, barometer and a 40-record sensor memory.
Another super cool feature about this first-grade military watch that you’ll truly fall in love with is the auto backlight LED support. Simply tilt your watch and the backlight will come alive. This is a really great feature for you, especially when your hands are occupied and/or full and you need to check the watch.
It gets even better, the Rangeman is water resistant for up to 200 meters! That may not sound like a huge deal considering there are a few other watches on our list with that feature as well, but when a watch has as many functions as the Rangeman, a water resistance of that depth is a rarity. the Rangeman is definitely one of the best watches available for any outdoor activity and is an excellent survival watch. In addition to being one of the most functional G-Shock watches, the limited edition models are highly coveted as collector timepieces and the Rangeman is now one of the limited edition base models of choice.
Conclusion
Lastly, tactical watches are paramount when following adventure and knowing which watch is best for you and the activities you’ll be doing is equally as important. Out of the list that we’ve provided, our #1 tactical watch choice is the Casio G-Shock Rangeman. This watch has just about everything you’ll ever need when you’re navigating yourself through the wilderness, including a solar-powered rechargeable battery, digital compass, thermometer, altimeter, barometer, a backlight for pitch black time telling, and a water resistance of up to 200 meters. These watches provide much more than just the time and in some cases, might even save your life some day.
