Last year, a dear friend of mine, Jim, sent me a xerox'ed excerpts from a chapter on Dive Watches in Whitney's Military Timepieces. I asked those papers in order to learn more about Benrus Type 1 watches but after reading the first few pages, I found myself intrigued by one of the photos there. It was an old black and white magazine cover showing frogman looking at a small dive watch during a training session out in the ocean. He was also wearing a huge wrist compass alongside the watch. The watch, I learned, was an Elgin waterproof canteen dive watch. The canteen watches were the first dive watches to be issued by the US Navy. Hamilton was the first model being issued around 1941 or so with a slightly different case design and spade hands. Elgin came next with basically the same case used on A-11 watches of the same period but with a unique screw-down canteen cap for maintaining water-tightness. I've also learned that the frogmen who landed on Incheon for reconnaissance and beach clearance prior to the historical landing there, which many experts say changed the tide of the Korean war, wore those canteen dive watches... and that basically did it to me. I had to get it. But perhaps I jumped into this hobby of collecting military watches a little too late because the price of Elgin canteen dive watch was quite out of reach for me. What I did manage to get however is the watch shown here in this review. It is a Zeno Navy canteen dive watch with 17 jewels ETA mechanical movement. As you can see, it's a remarkably accurate reproduction of Elgin canteen dive watch, right down to the dial patten, hands, crown system (including the chain), and case design.

Many people have warned me that Zeno Navy was a very small watch and that it may be mistaken for a lady's watch. Well, the width of the watch is approximately 32 mm. Yes, a bit small compared to contemporary standards, but if you take into consideration of the enormous size of the canteen cap, the width extends to 42 mm. Funny thing is, this watch has drawn more comments and attentions from my officemates who are not watchnuts (except hyshim) than Rolex Sub or Tritium watches I usually wear to work. Still, it is a small watch, yet it's such a refreshing change in size that I've fallen in love with it instantly. Case thickness is about 12mm and the watch takes 16mm sized strap. It comes with a one-piece canvas strap that is supposedly patterned after the issue straps, but I've strapped it on a proper WW2 era one-piece plastic band Ed was selling on his Hack-Watch site. I got it not only because it is more water resistant than the canvas strap but because it was like the one worn by the frogman in Whitney's book. Here's a photo of the canteen cap disengaged from the thread to show the winding crown.

There are two drawbacks, however, and I feel obligated to mention them to future buyers. One is the distasteful UDT-SEAL logo on the caseback. I don't know why Zeno would create such a magnificent piece of watch and at the same time put a finishing touch that totally ruins it. Maybe it makes them sell more... marketing, as they say. The other shortcoming of the watch is the luminescence on the dial. There is none. The hands are luminescent though.

Despite these two shortcomings (and the small size) Zeno Navy is a fantastic piece of canteen dive watch for those who cannot afford the real thing. With a hacking ETA manual wind movement, it's better than the original! And it's new! Well, that's about it. Enjoy the scans!