Vintage military watches have a vast enthusiast base within the broader collector community, and it’s no surprise that there are numerous brands on the market today that pull inspiration from these beloved, purposeful watches. Of course, being true vintage pieces, many of these classic mil-spec tool watches are now over a half-century old. As a result, they aren’t as bulletproof as they once were, so it makes a whole lot of sense for contemporary brands to produce watches that follow that design language, but then execute them to a modern standard. The latest brand to do that is Serica with their W.W.W. (for Wrist. Watch. Waterproof) “WMB” Edition, a collaborative project between the folks behind the French watch blog Les Rhabilleurs and The WM Brown Project, the latter founded by Matthew Hranek (who joined us on the podcast here to discuss his book, A Man & His Watch).
On a surface level, the four watches making up this initial W.W.W. “WMB” Edition evoke the famed “Dirty Dozen” watches produced around the time of the Second World War. They’re not direct copies, but a hint of the flavor is certainly there, and the result, to my eye anyway, is quite nice. That said, these watches play in a crowded space, so the question remains: are they worthy of consideration? Let’s take a closer look.
(Editor’s note: the watches shown here are prototypes, and the final production models will feature a handful of changes that I will note below.)