Watches these days are becoming more and more scarce due to the fact that the average person utilizes a smart phone over a good old-fashioned watch. Don’t get me wrong, smartphones have their advantages in some cases, but when you take them for granted, they can often fail when we need them the most.
In the Every Day Carry world, we tend to look at an average of 3 to 4 items we keep with us at all times to get us through the day. These would include a wallet, phone, pocket knife and a watch. Yes, there are more things we can carry, some of us would opt to take along a concealed carry weapon, if you have the proper permit or license for it, and also add a small-sized flashlight into the mix. It’s easy to get carried away and carry more tools than we need, but a good solid wrist watch is something you can never go wrong with.
When deciding on a watch to buy, you have a couple of options as far as quality goes. These are broken down into 2 main categories, mechanical and quartz movements. Think of these as the engine that makes the watch run. A mechanical movement which is often referred to as an automatic movement uses energy from a wound spring inside to run the watch rather than a battery, that a quartz movement would use. To me, the automatic movements are by far more dependable. You never know when the batteries are about to go out on you.
I consider myself a watch connoisseur, and have collected many kinds over the years. I started getting into them back when I served in the Military, I knew I needed a good solid watch that could take a beating between workouts, deployments and everyday use. I’ve gone cheap and definitely paid for it, as well as bought more expensive watches for the long haul. A former DEVGRU operator Kyle Defoor says it best when talking about Every Day Carry gear. “ Buy once, cry once.” Meaning spend the money up front on a better quality item and get more use of out it rather than nickel and dime yourself and end up spending 2 or 3 times as much months or years later.
Recently I have purchased the GPT-2 automatic watch from County Comm. The General Purpose Timer is privately designed and contracted by Maratac for County Comm. This is the second version of this watch, made with a few upgrades from the original design. First off, let’s talk movements. The GPT-2 uses a Miyota (9105) 24 jewel movement which is manufactured by the Citizen watch company, and known for its superior quality and accuracy. The Miyota movement provides up to 42 hours of reserve power when not in use. This watch also has a hacking movement which will allow you to completely stop the second-hand, and set it for a more precise timing.
Some other features include a “clean dial” which refers to the fact that there is no date or branding on the face of the watch. This one is up in the air on whether people prefer to see that date or not. I personally like having just the Super luminova C3 watch hands and would rather not see a date window, but that’s just me. I think it makes the watch face look much bigger and has less that can go wrong with the internal pieces. The outside case is cut from a solid steel block of 316 stainless steel, and measures 46 mm wide and 15 mm thick. If you dive at all, you can rest assure that this watch is rated at 10 ATMS, and the anti-reflective sapphire crystal will never scratch.
I have enjoyed the GPT-2 automatic watch so far and get many compliments on it. It’s a large watch for anyone looking for a solid built timepiece that handle anything. There are only a small handful of these made at one time. Head on over to County Comm and get one before they are gone. You won’t regret it!
Author – Chandler Brookins is a former US Navy Veteran with multiple deployments to SE Asia and The Middle East, while attached to many Tier 1 Special Operation Groups. Chandler has also served as a Dallas Police Officer for 3 years, before focusing his efforts on civilian SERE training and security assessments.
