Marathon's first military order arrived from the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1941, and through the Second World War the company supplied field watches to Allied forces. More than eighty years later, reference WW194004BK-0908, the black GPQ with a U.S. Government dial and DefStan strap, continues that line in 34mm Swiss quartz form.

The path from those wartime watches runs through the 1960s GG-W-113 specification to today's MIL-PRF-46374G, and the General Purpose Quartz is built to Type I, Class 1 of that modern standard. Its layout would be familiar to a soldier from any of those eras: a black dial with bold numerals, a 24-hour scale and a simple pressure crown. What has changed is the hardware. Tritium tubes now provide continuous, self-powered illumination, a sapphire crystal guards the dial, and a Swiss ETA F06.115 HeavyDrive high-torque quartz movement with end-of-life indicator keeps accurate time.

The dial reads "U.S. Government," with government markings on the caseback, and the 34mm black composite case weighs very little. A black DefStan nylon strap, the British military pattern, gives this configuration an authentic, kit-ready finish.

WW194004BK-0908 Overview

• Model: Marathon GPQ, U.S. Government dial
• Case: black composite fibreshell, 34mm diameter, 11.5mm thick
• Movement: Swiss ETA F06.115 HeavyDrive quartz, end-of-life indicator
• Water resistance: 3 ATM
• Crystal: sapphire; crown: pressure
• Lume: tritium gas tubes
• Strap: black DefStan nylon, 16mm lugs

A 1941 idea, refined for the present day.