By the late 1960s the Rolex 6538s were starting to show their age, but more importantly technology had moved on, there had been advances in waterproofing (enabling watches to go much deeper) and in movement design (giving increased accuracy and consistency). Still have questions? Under the ‘Buy American Act’ the specification went to all of the major US watch companies; Elgin, Bulova, Hamilton and Waltham. At the same time as the Bundeswehr was looking for a new divers’ watch, IWC were beginning their relationship with Porsche Design with Ferdinand Porsche as the design guru. Are CDT SF? They had a long history of using naval mines; in fact during the Russo-Japanese war of 1904, the only naval success they achieved was the sinking of two Japanese battleships by mines. When Churchill first heard of the Italian’s use of human torpedoes against Royal Navy vessels he wrote on of his famed ‘ACTION THIS DAY’ memos, insisting that the British produce a similar device. This gave them a head start, but making a movement completely amagnetic is a much harder task, and the technical director of the company, Jürgen King was given the responsibility to produce one. The Clearance Diving Teams (CDT) of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) also act as commando frogmen: they consist of naval personnel who are qualified in diving, demolitions, underwater repairs, and reconnaissance. This in turn is a direct descendent of one of the most unusual variants of the Rolex Oyster ever made, the Oyster Pocket Watch. The dials of the A/6538 followed exactly the first dials from the civil 6538, which is they were of the ‘Explorer’ configuration with large 3/6/9 in radium numerals on a glossy black dial. One of the recipients was a company called Diehl Avionics, this company made and maintained aircraft instruments for the Luftwaffe; they were a subsidiary of the famed German instrument maker VDO. You can earn well over 100 grand if you are a commando and get deployed to afghanistan, a regular infantryman can also earn up to 100 grand in afghanistan. This was an oversized Oyster, using a regular pocket watch movement (note the continuous seconds dial at ‘9’), most likely from Cortebert, it had a silvered dial with large Arabic luminous numerals. The steel in the balance staff and the pallet fork was replaced by items made from beryllium metal, which although it is harder than steel it is much more brittle. At the end of the 1970s the ‘Cold War’ seemed in danger of becoming hot, the Soviets had invaded Afghanistan and had begun to install SS20 missiles targeting NATO’s European bases, the US was planning on installing Cruise Missiles at bases throughout Europe and the US attempt to rescue the hostages held in Tehran had ended in failure. The first 6538 watches had a similar ‘Explorer’ style dial to the 6200, as seen here. The British, who were the main targets of these weapons, called them ‘Human Torpedoes’ after capturing several of them. The much more difficult components for which to find replacements were those in the balance and the escapement, the balance staff, the pallet fork and the hairspring are almost always made from steel or from ferrous compounds, as this was no longer possible, replacements had to be found. British Army military divers are commercially trained to extremely high standards to carry out underwater tasks and learn new skills and military techniques all the time. Is the pay good? Ball Watch Co. Fireman NECC U.S Navy Expeditionary Combat Commando Diver Automatic DM3090A-P4J-BK Black Mens Watch Review 2017. Mine Clearance Diver - All you need to know. After less than two years production the style of dial was changed to the one that is now more familiar with luminous dots and bars, as seen here. Although it is over thirty years since the first military Submariners were issued, many of them are still in service; it was thought that their days were numbered when the Royal Navy’s divers were issued with Sunnto D3 diving computers a few years ago. They were ordered from Rolex in batches of around 300 to 500 but delivered in small batches of 100 to 200 at a time and Rolex were given a list of the issue numbers to be engraved on the case backs. It took almost 2 years from the initial enquiry before the Navy got their first watches, and when they did they went initially to the EODU guys and afterwards to other naval divers. Is there a better one in the Australian Navy (like the clearance diver) is that a good job being a clearance diver. Marine Commando: Qualified as MARCO: 10500-12600: Diving: Ships Diver, Clearance Diver I, II & III: 600-900: Sea Duty: Sailors serving onboard ships (While sailing only) 3000-5400: Hard Area: Sailors posted in Nicobar and Lakshadweep Group of Islands: 25% of Pay in Pay Band+ GP+ MSP: CILQ: Married sailors not allotted Govt. Divers who risked their lives to save a fisherman in a capsized boat, recover WW1 mustard gas canisters and prevent a bomb devastating Portsmouth Harbour lead those recognised for bravery on the front line. They were placed in containers with other low-level waste (uniforms, badges, pipework etc) and the containers were filled with concrete and then buried deep underground at sites in deserted areas of the US. Who on Earth would want to mess with underwater explosives with zero visibility? It was realised that the crew on the Human Torpedoes would need a watch capable of functioning for several hours underwater, if they were to be able to make the rendezvous with the fishing boat for their return. Along with the payment, Rolex were sent an annotated list of all the watches. It is the SASR who are the most similar to SEALS and the SBS and they do cross train with them. The hairspring was replaced by one using a Niobium/Zirconium alloy (the only other use for either of these metals is in constructing nuclear reactors). ... TAG (E) is part of 2 Commando Regiment. The Military Diver’s Watch – A Revisionist View by JAMES DOWLING. Personnel from these and the Australian commando regiment form TAG ( tactical assault group teams). Yes and no. This testing had to be done in the presence of a Naval officer, and was done with all of the Ocean 2000 Bund watches. Rolex had a head start, as their Oyster case was pretty much the only truly waterproof watch available at this time. There is also an Australian SAS regiment. Because it is harder than steel, this means that the parts of the watch it comes in contact with, will wear much quicker than in a normal watch. The diving school is responsible for training all the Marine Nationale divers in four disciplines (navy diver, Mine Clearance Divers… This approximate figure is the best estimate known, as most of these watches are still in service with the German Navy and detailed information is still considered classified by them. The original RGS Explorer’s watches used gaskets between the main case & the screwed front and back, these gaskets were made of oil impregnated leather and kept the movement protected from moisture as long as the gaskets were kept in excellent condition & lubricated regularly. The Clearance Diving Teams (CDT) of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) also act as commando frogmen: they consist of naval personnel who are qualified in diving, demolitions, underwater repairs, and reconnaissance. If someone in the military, a veteran quits for any reason, can he or she keep their ID card or will they lose it? The divers would need a waterproof timepiece; but, at this time, the Royal Navy did not have a watch capable of operating in such conditions. The diver is personally responsible for ensuring that his equipment has been prepared, maintained and tested correctly before each dive. The solid strap bars were brazed into place, a circled T was overprinted on the dial and the NATO stock numbers engraved on the caseback (6645-99-923). So the special production line was dismantled, and the external suppliers (dial and steel companies) were told that their services were no longer needed. The problem was that these replacements had not only to be as functional as the originals but had to have no deleterious effects on the performance of the watches. The white skeleton hands and the tip of the sweep seconds hand are coated with radium paint for maximum visibility in challenging conditions. now it's not like 2nd CDO or SEALs or anything where many try out, please I can not say that enough which people seem the think that it's easy to pass CDAT, how many for SEALs mabye 40+ try out. Clearance Divers (CDs) are the Australian Defence Forces' specialist divers. So, as the dials became dimmer and the watches became less useful they were returned to the naval stores. Tornek & Rayville were interested for a couple of reasons; to both of them an order of 1,000 watches was a substantial one and they had a head start over the other companies in that Rayville were already manufacturing a diver’s watch in the Blancpain ‘Fifty Fathoms’. During training candidates get expert diver tuition that teaches them everything from the physics of diving to underwater search and recovery skills. But, if you will remember, I mentioned that Promethium 147 had a half-life of only 2.5 years; this meant that only five years after the first watches were made they would now be down to 25% of their initial luminous output. The size of the watch is huge, even compared to the Panerais, it measures 51mm in diameter, 17mm high and takes a 24mm strap. IWC’s great advantage was their experience in working with titanium, as a case material as titanium is completely amagnetic. To date four of these watches have surfaced, all with serial numbers ranging between 306 and 338; leading me to think that less than 50 of these were made. The requirement issued by the Bundeswehr in 1980 for a new divers’ watch was thirty pages long and asked for capabilities never previously seen in a wristwatch, the requirement was sent to all companies with whom the Bundeswehr were currently dealing, NOT to individual watch companies. From there they were sent to Herstmonceux Castle in Sussex, this was the new site of the Royal Greenwich Observatory who had moved there in the 1950s when industrial pollution in the skies over London made their work in the capital difficult. In this article, I will take watches from every decade from the 1930s up until the 1980s and show how the needs of combat swimmers forced the development of watches we now consider iconic. The history of these early Panerai watches is shrouded in myth, legend and downright falsehood; although this might not be the place, I will try & clear up some of this before continuing. The initial order was for 780 watches (at $187.50 each) and the last of them were delivered in June 1965, a few months later another order for slightly fewer than 300 was received but that was it for the Navy. Prior to the Second World War, the US Navy had no mine protection divers but seeing the problems the British encountered, they sent some naval volunteers to the UK before the US entered the war. Both Rolex & Blancpain (who equally claim to have invented the diver’s watch) use the introduction of the SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) as the driving force behind the demand for divers’ watches; I hope to show that this commonly held theory is untrue. Once again Rolex proved to be quicker than the MoD and the ref. Clearance Divers, Very well payed abit less than 2nd CDO's about 5 years down there track you'll be getting paid the same or more! Clearance divers can be employed in the Special Forces role as part of the Tactical Assault Group (East) (TAG (E)), which is part of 2 Commando Regiment based at Holsworthy. It is now universally accepted that the first ever pure diving watch were the Panerais used by the Italians in the early days of the war. But once WWII was over and the ‘Cold War’ began, the US found itself at a major disadvantage up against the Soviet Union. Once Rolex had this paperwork they sent it off to the MoD along with their invoice and then they were finally paid. What is not so well known is that they were essentially Rolex model 3646 with a special dial made by Panerai. News, photos, links: Special Forces Selection. I hope that I have shown in this article how most of what we consider to be iconic diving watches have in their DNA watches originally designed for combat swimmers, perhaps the toughest military personnel in the world, and that in the future you will look upon the diver’s watch on your wrist with a little more respect. The watch shown in the accompanying images was never issued and, as such, is an extremely rare example. Others were responsible for locating minefields and either disabling the mines or marking them prior to the amphibious landings. As they were quite different to the normal 5513; they were given a specific reference number, 5517, and they then travelled a very circuitous route before they were strapped on to a diver’s wrist. 2nd CDO pays more and get to see more combat. Therefore the Royal Navy now insisted that each ship in its establishment had trained divers on board, capable of simple underwater engineering tasks as well as the regular ship’s hull inspections. Unfortunately this unique dial did not survive for very long, the problem was that it used radium as the exciter for the luminous material, and radium was a problem; both in nuclear submarines (where the users of these watches could be expected to travel) and as a hazardous substance in its own right. The cases constructed for these watches were made individually by hand and fitted together perfectly. CLEARANCE DIVER… Because they were designed together there are almost no visible differences between the civil & the military versions, only those specifically called for the specifications. This required that special steel for the case be imported from Sweden; this steel had a completely different composition to the normal stainless steel used for watch cases and the compromise that this entailed was the steel was nowhere near as corrosion resistant. AusSOCOM. what is easyer to become? The watch would need to function on and below the surface for several hours at a time, and what made the situation worse was that, other than the Panerai, there was no watch available anywhere on the globe with such capabilities. Ironically the 7928 was essentially the Rolex 5513 with an ETA movement and the next watch we are to discuss is the most famous version of the 5513. The hands fitted at the factory, were now ‘Sword’ style, in place of the standard parallel style ones seen on the civilian versions. This meant that ships no longer had access to convenient ports with divers on hand. Sourcing the special steel used was a minor problem compared to making the internals of the watch amagnetic, this involved making the escapement from hardened brass rather than steel; the balance spring also could not have been made from steel, but I have not yet been able to discover what material was used in its place. Two years later Mr. Tornek approached the Navy asking if they needed any more watches, but as the Vietnam conflict was at its height, the Navy had other things on their mind and told him that they didn’t think that they would need any more. The mine-clearance divers and boarding soldiers have meanwhile formed into a separate unit called the Sea Battalion. And when they introduced the Submariner (ref 6204) in 1954, the British forces ordered some for testing. (see above articles) Due to the investment that the Navy puts into potential recruits there is a minimum period of service for both Officers and Enlisted RAN divers of 6 years. What makes the case especially interesting is that it is made from sterling silver (92.5% silver) and despite the UK Hallmarking laws (the oldest consumer legislation in the world, dating from the 13th century) it bears no hallmark anywhere on the case. In the early 1970s the very last of the TR-900s were withdrawn from service in the US navy and went off for destruction; their replacement was the Tudor 7928. In June 1941, these veterans returned to form the first class in what was originally named the Mine Recovery School. The 6538 was almost identical to the 6200, apart from the movement; the only change to the case was to a flatter back rather than the ‘bubble back’ seen on the earlier model. I have handled five of the batch and none of them were numbered or ever showed signs of ever having a number between their lower lugs. Be honest about everything? ? However, as the initial request was for only 1,000 watches, none of them thought that the contract could be fulfilled profitably and that the challenges involved in the construction and testing were too demanding. A clearance diver was originally a specialist naval diver who used explosives underwater to remove obstructions to make harbours and shipping channels safe to navigate, but later the term "clearance diver" was used to include other naval underwater work. The C15 is the individual number of this particular watch. Firstly, it did not bear the name ‘Blancpain’ anywhere on the watch, the entire watch case was finished with a grained matt surface making it completely reflection proof and the dial luminous was neither Radium nor Tritium, rather it used Promethium 147. The requirement for naval divers had increased greatly since the 1950s and now, the Clearance Divers (responsible for mine & ordnance removal), were joined by Ships’ Divers. The clearance diver is personally responsible for ensuring that he undertakes the appropriate medical examinations so that he remains ‘in date’. But the 5517 wasn’t the first Submariner ever issued to these forces, in fact, it wasn’t even the second. They are clearance divers with commando training, an elite combat group that operates so far under the radar officially it does not even have a name. It it possible the democratic leadership teamed up with the Chinese and released coronavirus in the air to bring down Trump? Clearance Diver Selection Test - 2 Weeks. This makes the watch shown here extra special as it remained at Rayville for 40 years and never went either to Tornek or to the US Navy and so shows the finish that these watches had when new. Is the Commando's a good job? Clearance Diver Initial Employment Training - 50 Weeks (approximately) The Clearance Diving Course is based at the ADF Diving School located within HMAS Penguin, Sydney, NSW. But as the missions of the Marines and SBS has changed to emphasise more terrestrial and close quarter combat the need for a conventional watch has returned and the Submariners have found a new life. It is not disimilar to RM Commando level of fitness, however yiou are also expected to complete a 1000 metre open water swim as part of the selection course. During WWII the school produced hundreds of divers trained in removing mines both at sea and on the beaches. Despite the fact that there are many other special operations commando units, such as the Mountain Commando Brigades, Gendarmerie Commandos and Marine Corps, within the Turkish Armed Forces, they do not fall under the definition/classification of modern … Fortunately there was almost a century’s experience in England of constructing watches able to work in extreme environments; this came from the manufacture of special watches for the Royal Geographical Society, an organization that had sponsored almost all of the great Victorian explorers. The strap is attached to the case by huge fixed wire lugs (I am unsure if we can still call it ‘wire’, as it is over 2mm thick) and the strap itself is on the same scale as the watch, measuring 24mm at their ends. The Soviets did not have a major fleet during the war, but did develop a very advanced use of naval mines to protect its own shores and also to hamper the movement of the enemy’s vessels. The cases were made of silver because the metal was easy to work with, Oliver’s had great experience in working with the material and it was resistant to corrosion from seawater. However the downside to this was that its half-life is only 2.5 years, unlike Tritium, which has a 12.4-year half-life, and Radium whose half-life is measured in centuries. The full markings are: H ^ S stands for “Hydrographic Survey”; the department of the Admiralty responsible for map & chart making; as accurate timekeeping by means of a deck chronometer was an essential part of navigation, it was the Hydrographic Survey who was responsible for procuring and servicing all Royal Navy timepieces. 1st Commando Reg. Great Training. Would you do it if you could? Dr Porsche was designing a divers’ watch for IWC when the Bundeswehr specification landed on his desk, so the military version and the civil one were designed simultaneously. The Australian Navy has clearance diver teams ( CDT). If the Soviets did attack, one of their first tasks would be to deny the harbours of Western Europe, and particularly Germany, to NATO reinforcements; this would be done with Submarines and with mines. So, all the A/6538 watches bear two references, the original 6540 neatly crossed out by three horizontal lines and their new number next to it. While SAS are more recon and Commandos are more direct action. Commando courses included basic parachutist, diving, small scale raids, demolitions, climbing and roping and unarmed combat. This style of bezel proved to be such a success that it became the prototype for the bezels used on the 5512/3 models which followed soon after the A/6538s and has been used on all subsequent Submariners. Headquarters at Bexley in Kent, south of London a pass rate '' class... Australian Army Bexley in Kent, south of London and a commando diver Automatic DM3090A-P4J-BK Black Mens watch 2017... 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