CWC

From Chronopedia
CWC-Logo-Black 280x@2x.png

History of Cabot Watch Company

Cabot Watch Company was established in 1972 purely to make military watches for the military. The mechanical GS Navigator and the pilots' mechanical asymmetrical chronograph were quickly established as military issue to thousands of troops, RAF pilots, Navy pilots and navigators.

In 1980, CWC made the first quartz watch supplied to HM Forces, the G10 Quartz (nicknamed "Fatboy"), and in the same year won the contract for the watch that replaced the Rolex Milsub as the Royal Navy Divers' watch - the 1980 Royal Navy Diver Automatic, probably the rarest milsub to date.

The CWC logo was changed from a simple typeface on all models and these were issued with the new oval logo from 1982 onwards.In 1982/3, the CWC Royal Navy quartz divers' watch was issued, which remained the watch of choice to the Royal Navy well into the new millennium.

In 1987, a new watch was requested by the MOD, the black Special Boat Service issue quartz 300m SBS divers' watch. CWC continues to supply this watch to select branches of HM Forces today. Throughout the 90s and well into the new millennium, CWC supplied the MOD with thousands of G10 watches for the British Army and Royal Navy. The GS2000 was issued to the RAF, also Royal Navy divers' watches, aircraft and ships' clocks, stop watches and straps.

Many older watches still survive today, having seen military service, a true testament to their durability. Some CWC watches are now becoming rare and collectable, such as the 1980 CWC G10, 1980 CWC RN Divers watch, CWC 1970s GS Navigators mechanical watches, CWC pilots 1970s chronograph, CWC SBS issued watches, and CWC Royal Navy issued quartz watches.

In 1982 and 1984 the production contract was shared between CWC and to a lesser extent Precista (5000 in 82 W10 prefix and 1700/1800 in 84 6BB prefix).

The largest contract was the 1989 issue with just over 24000 examples being produced, followed in 1990 by a further 22000. However the Hamilton W10 GS mechanical was the largest issue with just over 25000 being produced in 1973. 1999 saw the introduction of the Pulsar which was issued in 99, 01, 02, 03 and a shared contract with CWC in 04. From 07 it became the only contracted issue GS watch.

Models

Links

Further Reading - https://www.mwrforum.net