If you’re a watch guy and you paid close attention in Mission Impossible: Fallout, you may have noticed Tom Cruise utilizing a mechanical stopwatch with a white dial in a critical scene. The stopwatch is made by London-based Cabot Watch Company, based on a model from the 1970s that saw service in television in production — evidently it’s actually still in use by the BBC and ITV to time 60-second and 60-minute segments — and was special ordered by the M.I. production team and produced to their requirements for the film.
Now, CWC has released a new version of their General Service watch, dubbed the “Sonar,” inspired by that very watch. Housed in a 38mm satin-finished steel case with a domed sapphire crystal, Swiss-made ETA 955.102 quartz movement and a screw-down case back, the watch is largely a typical dateless G.S, but with significant aesthetic differences to the dial. Sporting a white background, inner 60-minute/seconds track, outer 1/5th-seconds track, yellow, Super-LumiNova-filled hour and minute hands and a red seconds hand, the watch is indeed reminiscent of the pocket watch version, and a red screw-down crown — in imitation of the stopwatch’s push-button — helps drive the point home.
As CWC is an MoD contractor, the watch is up to military specs, featuring 100m of water resistance, fixed spring bars and shipping on an 18mm admiralty grey NATO strap as well as an additional vintage canvas strap in the color of your choice. It’s available for ~$460 now at CWC’s website — the perfect holiday gift for a watch lover or movie buff, or an excellent addition to a collection of military-inspired watches.