Marathon Navigator
In the late eighties, both the USAF and Canadian Armed Force had issued these tough looking Adanac watches to their service members. The one pictured was issued by USAF in 1988. It's an interesting watch because it has "Adanac" written on the dial but the case is signed "Gallet". Not only that, the watch was actually produced under government contract by Marathon Watch Co. based in Ontario, Canada.
The styling of the watch is very similar, to the USAF issue Marathon Military Pilot's Watch. Adanac is the predecessor to that model, albeit without the tritium vials. A careful reader might have noticed that "Adanac" is Canada spelled backwards.
The watch has an unusual 0-11 marked bidirectional bezel, which makes it look like a hybrid of diver's and pilot's watches. Dial has the usual 24 hour markings found on many military watches. The hour and minute hands are applied with rectangular shaped tritium paint. The second hand is applied with tritium at its tip. Hour indexes on the dial and the zero position on the bezel are also tritium coated. The Adanac shown here has H3 and radioative propeller markings on the dial. There exists a version of Adanac with these H3 markings omitted.
All the Adanacs were procured by the Air Force under their own single contract; F41608-85-D-0179, over 4 years and they were ordered by San Antonio Air Logistics Center, Kelley AFB, San Antonio, TX.
Features
- USAF Issue
- Case Diameter: 42 mm
- Case Height: 11.75 mm
- Case length: 47.5mm
- Lug Width: 19.25 mm
- Movement: Quartz Harley Ronda 373
- 1 jewel.
- Case material: Stainless steel w/ fixed strap bars
- Crown: Screw down
- Bezel: Bi-directional, w/ click
- Water resistance: 6 atm (198 ft)
- Vintage: circa 1985-88
- Total Production: 8,608 in 1987-88
The tritium Marathon steel cased models were produced in much greater quantities, approx 30,000 between 1988 and 1991. All the steel Marathons were ordered by Defense Logistics Agency, DLA-Aviation, Richmond VA.
Issued to Air Force and Navy pilots during Operation Desert Storm, this watch has a quartz movement and self energizing tritium gas-tube luminescence. The case is military style with fixed strap bars. It is a direct descendant of the Benrus Type II military dive watch.
Features
- Case Diameter: 42 mm
- Case Height: 11.25 mm
- Case length: 47.5mm
- Lug Width: 19.5 mm
- Movement: Quartz,
- multi-jeweled unknown mfr.
- Case material: Stainless steel
- Crown: Screw down
- Bezel: Bi-directional, w/ click
- Water resistance: 6 atm (198 ft)
Links
Credits - http://scubawatch.org/adanacnavigator.html. and http://www.broadarrow.net/adanac.htm
