5 Underrated Tool Watch Brands Every Collector Should Know

There is no shortage of options on the market today when it comes to tool watches.

Whether you want a luxury diver from the likes of Rolex and Blancpain or an affordable beater made by Seiko or Citizen, practically every major watch brand today has at least some tool watches in its lineup.

But some brands take their love of tool watches to the extreme, producing only tool watches and nothing else. A handful of these brands are pretty well-known, like the enthusiast darling Sinn and the mass-appealing Luminox.

A number of others, however, fly under the radar, remaining known only to those who are deeply entrenched in either the watch enthusiast or, perhaps more frequently, EDC/tactical communities.

This guide reveals five dedicated tool watch brands that perhaps aren’t as well known as they should be. They all make some of the toughest purpose-built timepieces in the business.

CWC

CWC

CWC Royal Navy Quartz Diver Mk.2

If it’s good enough for the UK’s Royal Navy to wear for a few decades, then it’s good enough for your wrist. This classic milspec dive watch is built to tried-and-true 20th-century military diver specifications and combines an iconic design and bulletproof build quality.

• $720 at CWC

If you happen to be a member of the British Armed Forces, then you’ve probably heard of CWC. If not, then listen up. Cabot Watch Company became an official watch supplier to the UK military in the 1970s, a relationship that continues to this day.

As a result, CWC exclusively makes traditional tool watches long used by various military branches: field watches, pilot’s chronographs and dive watches. Today, the brand offers a mix of modern iterations along with many vintage reissues, with its divers being particularly notable. The brand’s Royal Navy Diver Automatic replaced the Rolex Milsub as its titular branch’s official watch in 1980, and the quartz version that launched three years later was in continuous use by the Royal Navy for decades.

Marathon

Marathon

Marathon 41mm TSAR Arctic Edition

Originally designed for Search and Rescue operators, Marathon’s flagship diver features two types of lume and 300m of water resistance. This version, with its high-contrast dial, was designed for improved legibility in Arctic environments.

• $1,200 at Huckberry
• $1,300 at Marathon

When it comes to modern military-issued watches, Canada’s Marathon arguably leads the way. The brand has supplied watches to the Allied Forces since World War II and currently has a number of government contracts around the world, most notably with the U.S., Canada and Israel. There’s even a dedicated section of the brand’s website dedicated to government purchasing information, a significant portion of Marathon’s business.

Similarly to CWC, Marathon exclusively makes military-specified tool watches, with most being available with either a quartz or automatic movement and in multiple sizes. The SAR (Search and Rescue) divers are especially popular. They first debuted in the 1990s and are built to Canadian Government specs for SAR operators. The divers are recognized for their strong lume provided by a combination of tritium gas tubes and proprietary Maraglo luminous material.

Micromilspec

Micromilspec

Micromilspec Milgraph

Is this the ultimate tool watch? A lightweight titanium case, comfortable destro crown, “QuadGrip” bezel, 100m water resistance and Swiss-made automatic movement combining GMT and chronograph complications suggest it just might be.

• $3,850 at Micromilspec

Debuting just a few years ago, Micromilspec is the youngest brand in this guide. As its name suggests, it is a microbrand that exclusively makes mil-spec watches. Based in Oslo, Norway, the brand specializes in custom-made timepieces for military personnel and first responders, with a long list of clients ranging from the U.S. Space Force to practically every division of the Norwegian Armed Forces.

In addition to its robust custom program, Micromilspec also offers a catalog of “civilian” watches that are based on previous custom projects its undertaken. The best known, and the watch that largely put the brand on the map when it launched last year, is the Milgraph, an ultimate tool watch originally developed for special forces and incorporating features like an injury-preventing destro crown and ultra-grippy bezel.

Sangin Instruments

Sangin Instruments

Sangin Instruments Kinetic II

Sangin took into account the feedback of its customers along with dozens of professional pilots to craft this second generation of its go-anywhere, do-anything Kinetic. A dual-function bezel allows you to track a second time zone or elapsed time, 300m of water resistance give you piece of mind and a reinforced buckle keeps the strap on your wrist when the going gets tough.

• $629 at Sangin Instruments

The culture around Sangin Instruments is quite unusual for a watch brand. Ask a random watch enthusiast if they’re familiar with its offerings and you’ll probably get a blank stare. Ask a random cop, and he may show you the Sangin on his wrist. Perhaps more than any other brand, California-based Sangin has entrenched itself within the law enforcement and military communities thanks to its ethos of tough, no-nonsense tool watches that can be worn in every circumstance.

The brand was co-founded by a veteran of the Marine Raiders, one of America’s most elite military forces, who used his personal experiences in the field to mold the ideal tool watch brand. Those who are into Sangin watches are really into them — watches frequently sell out — and certain models are reserved for those who belong to certain organizations (e.g., law enforcement officers) or have achieved certain rigorous certifications.

Tornek-Rayville

Tornek-Rayville

Tornek-Rayville Type 7B “Blakjak”

Tornek-Rayville’s reimagining of an obscure military-issue watch from the mid-’90s swaps the original’s quartz movement for an automatic, trades the tritium lume for Super-LumiNova and upgrades the mineral crystal to sapphire, but otherwise maintains its ancestor’s utilitarian design and bulletproof build.

• $895 at Tornek-Rayville

The original Tornek-Rayville wasn’t so much a brand as it was a loophole. When the first Navy SEALs needed dive watches in the early 1960s, the Swiss-made Blancpain Fifty Fathoms was the top option. But at the time, U.S. law required the government to buy American products whenever possible. To win the Navy contract, a New York-based watch importer named Allen Tornek imported Blancpain watches and rebranded them “Tornek-Rayville,” successfully passing them off as American divers to the SEALs.

For more than half a century, that was where the Tornek-Rayville story had ended. Then Bill Yao came along. One of the world’s foremost experts on military watches and the founder of Mk II watches (Yao also helped Sangin Instruments get off the ground), Yao purchased the rights to the name Tornek-Rayville and launched it as a legit brand in 2021. The Tornek-Rayville of today produces a variety of affordable tool watches based on great milspec watches of the past, with build quality that far outpaces both their price tags and the originals.

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