What do Omega, Jaeger LeCoultre, and Seiko all have in common? Besides the fact that they’re all some of the most established watchmakers in the world, they’re all brands who have at some point or another, been formally commissioned to manufacture watches for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense. And now, a relatively young brand is about to join that MOD lore: Elliot Brown, whose rugged new Holton Professional diver is the newest standard-issue watch for an elite British fighting force, making Elliot Brown the first British watch brand in over a decade to design an original new combat watch from the ground up, specifically for the Ministry of Defense.
Named after the Royal Navy’s decommissioned cordite factory on the south coast of England, the Holton is a fully modern diver that joins a long legacy of tool watches rightfully bearing the Ministry of Defense’s ‘broad arrow’ motif on the dial. And like many of those watches, it also bears a good number of familiar tool watch attributes, like a hardened 316L stainless steel case, 200 meters of water resistance, a 2mm-thick AR-coated sapphire crystal, generously applied C3 Superluminova markings, and a highly shock-resistant Swiss Ronda quartz movement with a long-life battery.
But there’s another layer to this story: the new Holton at the center of the contract isn’t just a general issue watch – it was built to some very exacting specifications for a highly specialized combat unit whose identity is apparently so far above our pay grade, the best we can do is speculate. It’s a bit counter-intuitive in this day and age for a brand to supply purpose-built watches to a military unit and not openly identify said unit, but you have to respect the adherence to secrecy, because this isn’t the usual marketing cash-grab or a sponsorship deal obscured in brand-speak that we’re accustomed to seeing. Rather, this is a the case of the British government ordering a very specific watch to meet the needs of a very specific unit who seems to prefer a fair bit of *ahem* discretion when it comes to the gear they’re depending upon while in the field.
The Elliot Brown Holton Professional – shown here in the NSN-badged configuration issued to the British military
Despite the primary end-user being otherwise shrouded in secrecy, the backs of each Holton watch tell the rest of the story: a genuine NATO Stock Number (or NSN), which is a 13-digit numeric code that helps identify any and all contracted supplies as recognized by the participating countries in NATO – including the United States’ Department of Defense. This universal system of numbers essentially serves as a standardized serial that delineates everything from weapons and ammo to uniforms, field gear, and yep – even watches. For those keeping score at home, the Holton Professional’s NSN is 6645-99-303-0677.
So while the official identity of the unit who ordered them (our money’s on the British equivalent of the Marines’ Force Recon) is officially classified, the needs of the contract were relatively clear, and as such, the design team at Elliot Brown worked closely with the unit who essentially presented a laundry list of desired features for the watch. The unit wanted a 43mm stainless steel case, and they preferred Superluminova over tritium tubes for legibility. The watch also needed to be able to withstand extreme temperature changes, endure prolonged exposure to seawater and dust, carried significantly enhanced shock resistance, and it needed a markedly tactile unidirectional timing bezel that could be rotated even with a gloved hand.
Many modern dive watches that bear ISO 6425 certification likely already meet this criteria, but just to be sure, in developing the watch, Elliot Brown subjected the watch to a wide range of torture tests to ensure that it was indeed worthy of the broad arrow. For four months, watch prototypes were worn by the unit on high altitude jumps from freezing cold air temperatures into warm tropical waters, deployed on jungle & desert missions, and of course spent plenty of time fully submerged in cold underwater environments. It was those underwater environments which demanded particular upgrades, like the bolt-down caseback which creates a better seal and alignment for the movement’s shock-absorbing elastomer and stainless steel movement spacer, as well as the triple-sealed crown which maintains some water resistance even when unscrewed. Even the knurled ‘power grip’ bezel with the hobnail surface on both top and sides were direct enhancements that resulted from the testing phase.
As a whole, the watch very much feels like a product of a very specific environment. Its 43mm case is large and legible enough to be worn on the outside of a jacket or wetsuit, but at 13mm, it’s thin enough to slide under a BDU just as easily. Its PVD coating is also considerably thicker than a traditional black watch, adding greater scratch resistance, while maintaining sharp edges, and a cold, smooth surface that looks and feels like it could be right at home on the slide on a service pistol.
The bezel action and grip is also excellent – it can even be turned from the palm of a wet or gloved hand, due to the sharp, hobnail edge on all potential contact points. It’s worth pointing out that the pointy edges of the bezel might cause issue with fraying the undersides of some sleeves, but we haven’t enough long-term wear to be absolutely certain of this. Even the traditional springbars have been substituted for a custom screwed bar – just note that they’ll need to be removed to swap the included straps out, due to their wide diameter.
The Holton Professional models issued to the British Military are only available with a black PVD case, and either green or black dials
One of four Elliot Brown for Page & Cooper Holton watches, shown here with a grey dial and a stainless steel (uncoated) case
As one of the driving forces behind developing and advancing the project, London watch retailer Page & Cooper is getting in on the release with their own very special edition civilian Holton pictured throughout this article, which won’t bear the official NATO stock number of the issued watches due to the changes in case finishing and dial color (watches bearing an NSN must be identical in color and functionality of issued watches), but they’re built to the same exacting spec by Elliot Brown’s own watchmaker. The bonus is the added option of a bead-blasted stainless steel case, along with a pair of highly limited, and uniquely ‘sterile’ no-date dials in either grey or blue – hues inspired by the dazzle camouflage that was developed specifically for the British Navy’s Western Approach color schemes. Both the limited Page & Cooper Holton, and a civilian version of the Holton Professional may be ordered directly from Page & Cooper for a price of 420 GBP, or around $550 USD. For every watch sold, Page and Cooper will be donating a portion of the proceeds to SSAFA, an Armed Forces charity. Learn more about the Holton project at elliotbrown.com.
