I've been teasing the Rolex Forum a bit with photos of two Tudor Submariners that I had the opportunity to clean and polish. Now I can tell you some of the story behind those watches, and a few other watches I've been happy to play around with.

US NAVY SEALS

As most of us know, the US Navy has some developed some special forces to perform Sea Land Air operations. They're commonly known as SEALs. These men used to be called Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT) or Frogmen. Note that I say men because there are no women in the SEAL teams; in fact more than 80% of the men who apply are dropped during training.

San Diego area (Coronado) is the home of SEAL teams 1, 3, 5 & 7. The even-numbered teams on are based on the East Coast. From these home bases, Naval Special Warfare Squadrons or Special Operations Task Forces fan out to any sphere of operations in the world, working with cooperative forces from other countries and alliances such as NATO. At other times they cooperate with the CIA, FBI or other political groups within the US government. Basically they kick the butts of selected targets.

OK, enough of the overview.  

I've got a few friends who have served in the US Navy as SEAL team members. These guys, all now retired, don't hear too well any more, can't walk in a straight line very far, don't give a hoot about being "politically-correct," but can drink their fair share of beer, and are filled with stories and legends. And some of them have watches dating back to their time of service.

DISCLAIMERS

I have not personally served in the Navy, although my father was a Navy aviator. We do live in a "Navy town" and have many friends in the US Armed Forces.

I am not a Rolex expert. I am not a certified Rolex technician. I can't speak for the authenticity of any of the watches shown here. All I can say is these watches came from men who are wearing them today, and say they have had them since new. 

I simply clean, adjust and wear these watches. Some may have been serviced before, and may have had dials, hands, straps, and other parts replaced with non-original parts. None of the watches are for sale now and none of them are likely to ever be available for sale. 

Given their history, we are lucky the darn things are still operational (the men and the watches).

"OFFICAL" SEAL WATCHES

It would be nice to think that any SEAL could choose any watch he wanted, for any purpose. But they didn't, can't and don't. Due to the price of Swiss mechanical watches, it's unlikely any SEAL other than the odd Admiral would be wearing one of these (photo from our forums a few years ago):

It may be that some of the guys you saw in the Act Of Valor movie, were wearing JLCs. They were given these watches for the filming. 

I was told today by "Senior Chief Otto"  "They gave everyone a watch BUT me. I was in Germany, working!  Please could you tell them I need one..."  

He sends his best wishes and says for a real SEAL a WristScan would be done like this. You might NOT want to be the photographer, Casey... (photo from the web)

 

I found this paragraph on a military watch website and it summarizes my understanding of the situation regarding WHICH watches are "official SEAL issue." None.

"I have not read the law on this but it is certainly my impression that most badges, emblems, etc, of the military are NOT protected by copyrights, trademarks, etc., and can be used pretty openly. There are laws that prohibit reproducing certain medals but even those get legally circumvented by making a "replica" at say, 90% scale. If you want to use the Trident I'm sure that you can find a way to do so without fear of legal action. If you want to say that your widget is used by Navy SEALs all you need to do is get a letter from one SEAL testifying that he has carried your widget on operations. All he has to do is carry it in his pack, once, and it has been used by Navy SEALs on operations. Spin away."

So I'm not going to talk about "official" watches. I'd rather report on "actual" watches.

A FEW "ACTUAL" SEAL WATCHES

GARY

This watch belongs to Gary, who started me off on this SEAL-watch-restoration journey. He's at far left with the other original TEAM ONE guys, in 1962. I was about 11 years old then. BTW he's not extremely tall, he's standing on a curb to enhance his stance.

I've spent a lot of time with Gary in the past 10 years due to me selling him one of my 2CVs ...

 and him taking us out on his boat, JASON.

He recalls having several Tudor watches which he had to return when he left the SEALs. So he bought this one for about $100. He thinks it was in the mid-Sixties. 

Gary was part of SEAL Team One which was the first crew of SEALs, who followed the Frogmen and/or Underwater Demolition teams. 

Here's Gary,  wearing his watch while playing a bit part in the 1977 B movie Tentacles. 

If you can't remember that one, here's the plot summary: 

"An enormous and angry octopus besieges San Diego after a greedy construction owner (Henry Fonda) made a tunnel out into the ocean and disturbed its home. Bo Hopkins, Shelley Winters and John Huston go out to sea along with some trained killer whales to track down and kill the octopus..." 

He had been hired to ferry equipment and food out into the ocean where filming was taking place. At some point they needed a guy to respond to the Sheriff's question "Do you know if the kids are safe?" Since the director didn't want to pay Gary for a speaking part, they simply filmed his well-practiced "Who me?" shrug. 

 

I've had to fix this watch several times as he's extremely active and always bashing it up on his boat.

Here's a double-wrist shot with my Rolex.

I think this is getting too long for a single post.

 

I hope you don't mind a few photos of SEAL activities, and an extra submarine photo

If you are still interested, please take the time to read parts 2, 3 and 4.

Navy SEALs and their Watches, Part 2

Navy SEALs and their Watches, Part 3

Navy SEALs and their Watches, Part 4

More posts: Tudor

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