Horological Meandering

Marcus Hanke
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Consistently, only non-French citizens should be able to buy the watch ...

... otherwise, it would not be a "légion étrangère" ...

Personally, I have an ambivalent attitude towards military timepieces, that means timepieces, which are not part of the official equipment. Mostly, the "military" aspect is used to attract civilian customers who tend to believe that a piece of equipment issued or dedicated to the military must be of exceptional quality (which reminds of this F-16 pilot stating: "Never forget: You are sitting in the product of the cheapest bidder!"). The pay of the légionnaires is said to be not bad (as I was told by two of them I knew rather well), but I doubt any of them would spend a part of it to acquire a luxury timepiece. Any timepiece over. say, five hundred Euros must be considered as luxury, I think.

While many, if not most so-called military timepieces are bordering on the embarassing, this watch you show here, however, is not. As you rightly stated, it expresses an effort to make a unique design of the date and the case. If this, especially the latter, is practicable, is another question. But I could imagine wearing it myself, I really like it - or maybe this is my francophile side dictating my emotions?

Thank you for your interesting and well illustrated presentation!

Regards,
Marcus