American instruments
Four tool watches drawn from American flight and service: a chronograph for the flying boat Baltimore built, a GMT that finds north, and two field watches named for the first rank. Their color is there to be read.
From an airport display case to the wrist
The Martin M-130 China Clipper was the flying boat the Glenn L. Martin Company built in Baltimore. In 1935 it opened transpacific commercial flight, crossing the Pacific in about sixty hours. This is how its cockpit clock became a Towson chronograph.
Ready to order
RECRUIT and CADET are in stock and ready to ship. NORTH•er and MARTIN M-130 are available now and take about a month. Each watch is numbered, assembled and regulated in Maryland, and carries a two-year warranty.
Field automatic in Army olive with an engine-turned dial and date at 3. Ready to ship.
Field automatic in Navy blue with gold numerals and date at 3. Ready to ship.
GMT pilot watch that reads as a compass. 100 numbered pieces. Ships in about a month.
Pilot's chronograph with the China Clipper on its caseback. 100 numbered pieces. Ships in about a month.
A watch that finds north
The NORTH•er followed the MARTIN M-130 and carries its cockpit colors into a second instrument: a GMT that works as a compass.
Set the 24-hour hand to solar time, point it at the sun, and the fixed 24-hour bezel reads north. It is one of the oldest analog ways to find direction, used by aviators, soldiers and explorers, and it needs no satellite or battery. The idea came from the wrist compasses made for the military, which never told the time.
Yellow cathedral hands read the hours and turquoise reads the second time zone. The matte black dial cuts glare, and the 24-hour hand sets in one-hour steps without stopping the movement.
Named for the first rank
The CR250 field watches were released in November 2022, the last reference Hartwig Balke led as designer and watchmaker.
They are named for the entry positions of the service and colored after its uniforms: Army olive for the RECRUIT, Navy blue with gold numerals for the CADET, after the gold on a Navy officer's dress. The name and color on the dial are the only difference between them.
“Military watches are not pieces of jewelry. They are tools,” Balke says. So the crown carries no engraved logo, the finishes are brushed, the date stays on the dial, and the coin-edge bezel twists off for service. Each is regulated in Maryland, the CADET to ±5 seconds a day and the RECRUIT to ±10.
Every reference
Pilot and field are separate instruments. The pilot watches are 41 and 42 mm, built on a GMT and a chronograph and read by color. The field watches are 40 mm three-hand automatics, made to be worn every day.
The MARTIN M-130 chronograph came first; the NORTH•er GMT followed it. 100 numbered pieces of each.
The CR250 field series, released November 2022. Individually numbered.