Really under appreciated watch. Of all my watches, these have been surprisingly the best everyday wear watches and the simplicity of the dial mixed with the complexity of the hands gets me every time. Tritium- actually practical for night use. They also have a version with a date window. Some people complain the strap is too short but marathon offers 16mm leather nato and regular nato straps, both a bit longer and both super comfortable and durable. Really the nicest nato straps I’ve ever had. I normally wear 18-20mm watches so I wasn’t expecting 16mm to wear good but it’s fantastic
@@a.j.c.t.3904 yes unfortunately, the NH35 movement does have a date wheel complication. However the date wheel has been removed but when adjusting the watch you can still pull out crown to pos 1 and adjust the date feature though it does nothing. Second Pos for adjusting time. Although I do believe marathon offers a version of the gpm where the date wheel has a window, I think it’s an extra 10 dollars. Although the reason they removed the date feature from most of them, was to make the dial clean and uniform.
@@entertainme7523 No one is talking about diving (or even swimming). But 30 meters waterresistance for a fieldwatch is rediculous. Not a watch I would take with me when going camping or hiking. 50 meters would be the absolute minimum I would feel comfortable with.
I’ve owned this watch for 2 years now. Looks and fits perfectly on my medium 7.5 wrist. My only comment is for the sake of 2 cents of material, the included nylon strap was just bit short forcing me to spend $20 for a third party strap. Come on Marathon.
What!?🤔 I think this watch looks perfect on you. 34mm is your size! There is more to collecting and wearing watches than just looking at a watch face. The strap and context play a role in style too.
Field watch,✔️ , for small wrists? Not really. I’ve had my Benrus movement stainless Marathon mechanical for years rocking on my 8 1/4” wrist. I love it, don’t feel it, can easily read it day or night, glasses or not. Size only really matters if you’re trying to impress, or if it is truly too big, imho.
I own this watch in black. While the 34.5mm size is pushing it, I wouldn't trade this watch for anything. Great build quality, mechanical with tritium. Perfect trifecta, thanks for the review.
I bought the GP(Quartz) version with date in sage green. I have a leather nato coming also, as well as a grey nato that I can’t wait to try on it. Honestly the small size makes the dial even more intriguing to me. The tiny tritium tubes and radioactive logo get me every time, with the added bonus of “Swiss Made” in tiny letters at the bottom. It’s really an awesome watch for the price, as long as your wrists aren’t too big.
Great Video as always! Speaking of smaller Wrists: could you feature the Orient Bambino 5s? It's an unisex Bambino with 36,4 mm case and since the size is the biggest complaint about the other Bambinos, it's the perfect dress watch for smaller wrists in my opinion. And overlooked by most people.
@@MrBacchus18 unfortunately yes. I just used a 18mm one, cause the taper down to 14mm on the original strap is really skinny :D But the 21mm lugs of the bigger Bambinos are weird too though ...
Great review of a real military watch maker! I was issued two Marathon (battery-quartz movement) watches in late 90's and loved them...worn on many airlift missions spanning the world. Both had manufacturing dates in 1997, H3 tubes, 12 hour rotating bezel, black face/case, and were basically indestructible. In my squadron though, we aircrew members found that the tritium ceased its bright useful glow after a year, so we switched to a G-Shock for flightcrew standard issue. Has there been any improvements by Marathon to improve the tritium glow duration (or gas tube sealing) over the years? Even if they only glow for a few years, they're still cool watches that carry a rich history with the military. And the Seiko automatic movement only makes them better IMHO. Thanks!
@@xpusostomos Very true and well said regarding the half life glow. I could have chosen better wording, implying that somehow the measurable light emitted was less than standard decay. Didn't mean to slight physics. Still, we found in actual use from dozens of watches the squadron was issued, the amount of light emitted was not adequate after the first year and we switched to G-Shocks. The tritium still glowed, but not powerful enough to be useful for aircrews. Still, I love the watches and still have mine.
@@MR-C5-C130 yeah, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying it's odd. I can only guess the phosphor was damaged early by radiation, but I haven't heard of that happening for tubes.
@@xpusostomos I really have no idea and shouldn't guess as to why they didn't glow as well after we started using them for a year or so...but it was noticable. Guys were frustrated because it was the first watch we were given that had a rotating (GMT) bezel - something we really needed at the time since all missions used Z-time. Even so, they're still great watches...and I'd still consider and encourage others to buy one. It's a piece of military history... and a simple, uncluttered, yet effective design.
I like the watch but it's hard to get over plastic at this price, even one made by marathon. Plastic is crazy strong, and incredibly light for that strength, but it's just not appealing. It takes scratches easily and looks terrible, hard to repair. If these were under $100, or if I were in a situation where that lightness were critical to my survival or health, I think this fits. And that's what it was made for. But at this price, there are some very attractive options in titanium or steel. At a much lower price, you can get a resin Bertucci which I think competes with this well. I still have my eye on the 39mm GPQ in stainless, even at almost twice the price I think that's the one to save up for.
I have the berrtucci and several gpm’s. Bertucci and this watch are absolutely uncomparable. I bought the bertucci because I too thought it was similar to this watch but after having it I’ve worn it once and went back to these. The quality and feel of this watch is 1000 times the quality and feel of the bertucci
@@Flockingtheherd That's useful information, helpful to me. I'm still hesitant to pick up a resin GPM any time soon, it's not a fit for me. But knowing this makes me focus more on the Stainless GPM a bit more, and hold off on buying the affordable alternatives until then.
Well think about it. Most military members wear gshock watches which are almost exclusively made of resin. This isn’t a flashy watch this is made to survive and be practical. Think of it like hardlex versus sapphire. Sure it scratches easier but it’s gotta take a hit a whole lot better.
@@jeffreyokogbaa7192 Im not the biggest fan of NATOs. I haven’t come across a NATO that has the right length so they either have too much left to loop around or too little and it just sticks out.
Exactly. Why people would prefer SuperLuminova over tritium is baffling. Tritium stays lit all night, while traditional lume peters out way too fast and you're stuck with nothing in the evening.
@@megasoid Because of the half-life of 12 yrs, the glow will decrease over time, and almost disappear after ~10 yrs or so (half life means that the concentration of radioactive tritium will reduce to 50% by 12 years). Might be a lesser problem with SuperLuminova
It's a fantastic watch for women, and you should market it as such. There are virtually no cool mechanical watches or military watches for women because the wrist size is usually huge, which is a shame. It is almost impossible to find a nice no nonsense watch for woman, and this is it ! It's also very lonely in its category (the 34 mm Timex marlin hand wound does not look durable enough). I'm a bit disappointed to see reviews that mention the small wrist size only as a disadvantage instead of thinking about all the women who could finally be targeted by a practical watch... Good review though ! Do you know how many seconds a day it loses on average? I feel I have to adjust it a bit often, I'm wondering if it's normal.
This is a men’s watch but could totally dub as unisex due to its size. It wears absolutely perfect on me but then again i think it would wear absolutely perfect on anybody
As for the time, the reason these are so pricy is because they are made in Swiss factories and expertly tuned. I have a few of these and they both keep great time surprisingly for a NH35 movement. I find after two to three weeks my watch is about 30 seconds to a minute off compared to my atomic time gshock. So not bad at all
I managed to pull through an 18mm strap and made mine way better. Wish it had a date though, otherwise it's hardly noticable on the wrist and very accurate.
The field watch is supposed to be small tough and through out time all have been like that and the water resistance is fine as a field soldier it's all you need ,you can get it wet
I was going to buy one but, 30m water resistance is insulting at any price range. Unbelievable. So much goes into making a watch yet, can't even swim with it.
@@entertainme7523 sarcasm thanks for that . if you look at Teddys other videos regarding water resistance 30m is only Good for rain , it isn't even covered to wear in a shower let alone swimming . If I'm paying for a field watch i want peace of mind it can handle more than just a little bit of rain . Do your research .
Teddy... the term field watch should be reserved for pieces with at least 100m of water resistance. First a 50m Hamilton and now this 30m abomination? I’d sweat just washing my hands thoroughly with these. Please do your viewers a favor, and introduce them to the Boldr Venture watch. Literally the actual best bang for your buck mechanical field watch currently available by far!
I get your sentiment, and agree to a certain extent. But I will say that field watches from the 70s and before- the style these types of watches are emulating- didn’t really have more than 30 or 50 meter WR so technically they can still fall within that descriptor. However, if we went by those rules dive watches would only have to be 100m and still use super compressor cases so I understand it’s kinda of a weird discussion. That being said, I’ll bet you the price tag of this piece that you can take it swimming no problems.
@@Othusdragonreviews where are you located and where is boldr? I wonder if there’s a way to circumvent those taxes. There must be. I’m gonna look into it
Teddy, I have my SandY 490 that i wore in Desert Shield/Storm. I want to give it to my grandson, but I need it repaired. Any plave i can send it or take it to get serviced? i live in Chicago.
Nah, he does plenty of bigger watches. Maybe not 50mm invicta but definitely some larger watches. Although, he might be focusing more on pricier watches lately and I suppose those tend to have more modest sizes.
Maybe for enthusiasts that would like a more “historically accurate” piece or size. I’d definitely go for it if it didn’t have permanent lugs as I’d like to change it to a nice two piece but even still. The more I look at it, the more I want it. You gotta remember that back in the day, 34mm wasn’t considered a small watch
Really under appreciated watch. Of all my watches, these have been surprisingly the best everyday wear watches and the simplicity of the dial mixed with the complexity of the hands gets me every time. Tritium- actually practical for night use. They also have a version with a date window. Some people complain the strap is too short but marathon offers 16mm leather nato and regular nato straps, both a bit longer and both super comfortable and durable. Really the nicest nato straps I’ve ever had. I normally wear 18-20mm watches so I wasn’t expecting 16mm to wear good but it’s fantastic
you own the mechanical NH35? does it have a ghost date wheel in the first position of the crown?
@@a.j.c.t.3904 yes unfortunately, the NH35 movement does have a date wheel complication. However the date wheel has been removed but when adjusting the watch you can still pull out crown to pos 1 and adjust the date feature though it does nothing. Second Pos for adjusting time. Although I do believe marathon offers a version of the gpm where the date wheel has a window, I think it’s an extra 10 dollars. Although the reason they removed the date feature from most of them, was to make the dial clean and uniform.
It's quite hard to get 16mm straps, especially if you have a big wrist. Not much out there
I like the size and brown colour case. But a fieldwatch with only 30 meters water resistance ???
Pascal Leers I was thinking the same thing.
Me too
That’s because it’s mil spec. 😆
When are you ever going 100ft under water? Honestly?
@@entertainme7523 No one is talking about diving (or even swimming). But 30 meters waterresistance for a fieldwatch is rediculous. Not a watch I would take with me when going camping or hiking. 50 meters would be the absolute minimum I would feel comfortable with.
This was standard issue in 1991 Coast Guard Pearl Harbor Hawaii, but it was plastic and manual wind instead of sapphire it was plastic
Maybe only for aviation, my dad was a C-130 pilot but he said it was given to him when he transferred from Sacramento to Oahu
I’ve owned this watch for 2 years now. Looks and fits perfectly on my medium 7.5 wrist. My only comment is for the sake of 2 cents of material, the included nylon strap was just bit short forcing me to spend $20 for a third party strap. Come on Marathon.
$288 3 years ago, I just stumbled on it a few weeks ago & it’s at $420 msrp for the exact same specs. Kind of crazy
What!?🤔 I think this watch looks perfect on you. 34mm is your size! There is more to collecting and wearing watches than just looking at a watch face. The strap and context play a role in style too.
Field watch,✔️ , for small wrists? Not really. I’ve had my Benrus movement stainless Marathon mechanical for years rocking on my 8 1/4” wrist. I love it, don’t feel it, can easily read it day or night, glasses or not. Size only really matters if you’re trying to impress, or if it is truly too big, imho.
was deeply searching for this and you have covered it already wow
I own this watch in black. While the 34.5mm size is pushing it, I wouldn't trade this watch for anything. Great build quality, mechanical with tritium. Perfect trifecta, thanks for the review.
Very similar to my Boldr Venture. I like that Marathon a lot!
I bought the GP(Quartz) version with date in sage green. I have a leather nato coming also, as well as a grey nato that I can’t wait to try on it. Honestly the small size makes the dial even more intriguing to me. The tiny tritium tubes and radioactive logo get me every time, with the added bonus of “Swiss Made” in tiny letters at the bottom. It’s really an awesome watch for the price, as long as your wrists aren’t too big.
How do you remove the permanent spring bar?
@@the_lotus2720 I did not, that’s the great thing about nato! One single strap that goes through both
I,m going to order one⌚👍
Great Video as always!
Speaking of smaller Wrists: could you feature the Orient Bambino 5s? It's an unisex Bambino with 36,4 mm case and since the size is the biggest complaint about the other Bambinos, it's the perfect dress watch for smaller wrists in my opinion. And overlooked by most people.
Yeah! I hear so much, “why don’t we have a 36mm bambino”. I always just wanna say, “We do!”
Weird 17mm lugs
@@MrBacchus18 unfortunately yes. I just used a 18mm one, cause the taper down to 14mm on the original strap is really skinny :D
But the 21mm lugs of the bigger Bambinos are weird too though ...
Great review of a real military watch maker! I was issued two Marathon (battery-quartz movement) watches in late 90's and loved them...worn on many airlift missions spanning the world. Both had manufacturing dates in 1997, H3 tubes, 12 hour rotating bezel, black face/case, and were basically indestructible. In my squadron though, we aircrew members found that the tritium ceased its bright useful glow after a year, so we switched to a G-Shock for flightcrew standard issue. Has there been any improvements by Marathon to improve the tritium glow duration (or gas tube sealing) over the years? Even if they only glow for a few years, they're still cool watches that carry a rich history with the military. And the Seiko automatic movement only makes them better IMHO. Thanks!
It's an unalterable law of physics that tritium degrades 50% in 12.5 years, so it's pretty odd that you think they massively degraded in 1 year.
@@xpusostomos Very true and well said regarding the half life glow. I could have chosen better wording, implying that somehow the measurable light emitted was less than standard decay. Didn't mean to slight physics. Still, we found in actual use from dozens of watches the squadron was issued, the amount of light emitted was not adequate after the first year and we switched to G-Shocks. The tritium still glowed, but not powerful enough to be useful for aircrews. Still, I love the watches and still have mine.
@@MR-C5-C130 yeah, I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just saying it's odd. I can only guess the phosphor was damaged early by radiation, but I haven't heard of that happening for tubes.
@@xpusostomos I really have no idea and shouldn't guess as to why they didn't glow as well after we started using them for a year or so...but it was noticable. Guys were frustrated because it was the first watch we were given that had a rotating (GMT) bezel - something we really needed at the time since all missions used Z-time. Even so, they're still great watches...and I'd still consider and encourage others to buy one. It's a piece of military history... and a simple, uncluttered, yet effective design.
I want to apologize to math teacher, I am no longer paying attention
Haha stay in school
@@TeddyBaldassarreReviews alright
I like the watch but it's hard to get over plastic at this price, even one made by marathon. Plastic is crazy strong, and incredibly light for that strength, but it's just not appealing. It takes scratches easily and looks terrible, hard to repair. If these were under $100, or if I were in a situation where that lightness were critical to my survival or health, I think this fits. And that's what it was made for. But at this price, there are some very attractive options in titanium or steel. At a much lower price, you can get a resin Bertucci which I think competes with this well. I still have my eye on the 39mm GPQ in stainless, even at almost twice the price I think that's the one to save up for.
I have the berrtucci and several gpm’s. Bertucci and this watch are absolutely uncomparable. I bought the bertucci because I too thought it was similar to this watch but after having it I’ve worn it once and went back to these. The quality and feel of this watch is 1000 times the quality and feel of the bertucci
@@Flockingtheherd That's useful information, helpful to me. I'm still hesitant to pick up a resin GPM any time soon, it's not a fit for me. But knowing this makes me focus more on the Stainless GPM a bit more, and hold off on buying the affordable alternatives until then.
Well think about it. Most military members wear gshock watches which are almost exclusively made of resin. This isn’t a flashy watch this is made to survive and be practical. Think of it like hardlex versus sapphire. Sure it scratches easier but it’s gotta take a hit a whole lot better.
I don’t mind the size as much as the permanent spring bar. I’d love to put this on a distressed leather two piece
Marathon has leather nato’s
@@jeffreyokogbaa7192 Im not the biggest fan of NATOs. I haven’t come across a NATO that has the right length so they either have too much left to loop around or too little and it just sticks out.
Marathon makes 16mm leather natos for this. Nicest straps I’ve ever found. They also make ones with standard nylon material that can be cut to size
Had 2 watches with the nh35 movement, 1 crapped out -the others fine. On the fence with it,
My 2 different orient in house are bulletproof
JOMW just covered this watch as well, it's a very cool "real" field watch.
I love my sage green general purpose with the older lexan crystal.
Title is misleading. I have a large 8” wrist diameter and i wear this 34mm watch.
have had this for over a year wearing it nearly every day and at night you can almost read a book with the tritium glow its awesome
Exactly. Why people would prefer SuperLuminova over tritium is baffling. Tritium stays lit all night, while traditional lume peters out way too fast and you're stuck with nothing in the evening.
@@megasoid Because of the half-life of 12 yrs, the glow will decrease over time, and almost disappear after ~10 yrs or so (half life means that the concentration of radioactive tritium will reduce to 50% by 12 years). Might be a lesser problem with SuperLuminova
It's a fantastic watch for women, and you should market it as such. There are virtually no cool mechanical watches or military watches for women because the wrist size is usually huge, which is a shame. It is almost impossible to find a nice no nonsense watch for woman, and this is it ! It's also very lonely in its category (the 34 mm Timex marlin hand wound does not look durable enough). I'm a bit disappointed to see reviews that mention the small wrist size only as a disadvantage instead of thinking about all the women who could finally be targeted by a practical watch... Good review though ! Do you know how many seconds a day it loses on average? I feel I have to adjust it a bit often, I'm wondering if it's normal.
This is a men’s watch but could totally dub as unisex due to its size. It wears absolutely perfect on me but then again i think it would wear absolutely perfect on anybody
As for the time, the reason these are so pricy is because they are made in Swiss factories and expertly tuned. I have a few of these and they both keep great time surprisingly for a NH35 movement. I find after two to three weeks my watch is about 30 seconds to a minute off compared to my atomic time gshock. So not bad at all
I managed to pull through an 18mm strap and made mine way better. Wish it had a date though, otherwise it's hardly noticable on the wrist and very accurate.
The field watch is supposed to be small tough and through out time all have been like that and the water resistance is fine as a field soldier it's all you need ,you can get it wet
More wrist presence than any size watch
I was going to buy one but, 30m water resistance is insulting at any price range. Unbelievable. So much goes into making a watch yet, can't even swim with it.
You reviewing this watch within 24 hours of Jody is a little suspicious, Teddy...
30m water resistant., So you basically can't do anything in the water with it ?
Not true.
When are you ever going 100ft underwater?
@@entertainme7523 sarcasm thanks for that . if you look at Teddys other videos regarding water resistance 30m is only Good for rain , it isn't even covered to wear in a shower let alone swimming . If I'm paying for a field watch i want peace of mind it can handle more than just a little bit of rain . Do your research .
@@entertainme7523 Waterproof ratings don't mean what you think they mean.
@@john.t645 Oh, it's true.
Teddy... the term field watch should be reserved for pieces with at least 100m of water resistance. First a 50m Hamilton and now this 30m abomination? I’d sweat just washing my hands thoroughly with these. Please do your viewers a favor, and introduce them to the Boldr Venture watch. Literally the actual best bang for your buck mechanical field watch currently available by far!
Watchmakers decision what they produce to sell
if they had dutyfree shopping, i would go for Boldr. alas, they dont.
I get your sentiment, and agree to a certain extent. But I will say that field watches from the 70s and before- the style these types of watches are emulating- didn’t really have more than 30 or 50 meter WR so technically they can still fall within that descriptor. However, if we went by those rules dive watches would only have to be 100m and still use super compressor cases so I understand it’s kinda of a weird discussion.
That being said, I’ll bet you the price tag of this piece that you can take it swimming no problems.
@@Othusdragonreviews where are you located and where is boldr? I wonder if there’s a way to circumvent those taxes. There must be. I’m gonna look into it
@@mariog7213 Mexico. Boldr seems to be based on Singapore. i know some brands have dutyfree like Sternglas, so it might be doable somehow.
I wanted to see the tritium lume!
Teddy, I have my SandY 490 that i wore in Desert Shield/Storm. I want to give it to my grandson, but I need it repaired. Any plave i can send it or take it to get serviced? i live in Chicago.
Jody from just one more watch also just reviewed this marathon
Picked on up from you guys and loving it so far, a bit pricey tho
I also have a 6.25 inch wrist. Doesn't the strap stick out and flap around or can it be folded in?
hi teddy!!! 😎✌️
A look at the movement would have been nice, especially and the caseback is so darn easy to remove!
Sup Teddy!!🙏
Hey man!
My Marathon fogged the first time I wore it. Is this a frequent complaint? It's 34 mm width and dark illumination are great.
Wow! I WISH it was still $288 😂😅
This watch screams for a Bundt strap.
Haces envíos a México?
Class watch
Any chance you could do something nice for us thick wrist types I have a 19cm wrist but don’t like chunky g shock style watches?
I’d say that’s just slightly above average wrists. Mine are 7 inches so around 18cm and I have just about average
@@mariog7213 measured incorrectly my wrish is 21cms
Wrist
3 atm for a "field watch"...
I used a cheap timex that I got from the px at ITB. 3atm is fine. You'll live.
When are you ever going 100ft underwater?
@@entertainme7523 im a navy seal
@@MarcelitoRecords then you can afford better watches than a marathon
@@entertainme7523 it couldn’t do 1 foot with this rating.
I won my mechanical gp for the price of the quartz on eBay!
Ah yes the small watch channel.
Nah, he does plenty of bigger watches. Maybe not 50mm invicta but definitely some larger watches. Although, he might be focusing more on pricier watches lately and I suppose those tend to have more modest sizes.
And thank goodness
Don’t see who this is for. Weird dimensions and specs
Maybe for enthusiasts that would like a more “historically accurate” piece or size. I’d definitely go for it if it didn’t have permanent lugs as I’d like to change it to a nice two piece but even still. The more I look at it, the more I want it. You gotta remember that back in the day, 34mm wasn’t considered a small watch
Certainly, not for some city slicker!
Urghhhhh
so basically CWC and Khaki rip off
No it is an actual military field WATCH that is not a tipoff ,it the real deal
Have a look at RZE Resolute instead. yeah, it costs a 100$ more, but so much more character, better design and utility than this Marathon tin can