MWC p656: a watch for all seasons. $349

Okay so I must confess to a being a little bit of a watch nerd, perpetually on the hunt for that perfect timepiece that checks all the boxes in weight, functional simplicity, comfort and 24-hour readability. For me I‘ll only wear a watch if I can forget it’s on my wrist because the minute it starts to bother me I take it off, put it in a drawer and may never think to put it on again no matter how cool or attractive it boasts to be. Needless to say I have a drawer full of neglected chronographs that tout themselves as tactical and/or cool including the brand we all know and trust from Japan. However most are erring too heavily on the tacticool and less on the tactical. Most are overly complicated to set so when there’s a time or timezone change they get out of sync. Many are too heavy, the majority cannot be read in 0-dark-thirty without pressing a minuscule button, putting on a light or zapping it briefly with a flashlight and all of them finally become a nuisance on the wrist and remain relegated to “the drawer”. My wife jokes if we’re ever broke she knows what she can hock on ebay.

Well all that changed when a package arrived last week from a company called MWC - the Military Watch Company - who make watches for the British Ministry of Defense. Lifting the P656 from it’s box I knew immediately I was beholding something borne by decades of design cues relayed from the military personnel, LEO and security contractors who typically wear MWC watches. In this day and age I frequently feel I've overpaid for something when it finally arrives in the mail - the photographs that prompted me to make the purchase tend not to disclose an item's defects or sub-par quality - but with the P656 you’ll immediately feel you got away with robbery! This feels like a watch ten times the price. It’s titanium case belies it’s expected heft and the sapphire crystal (the same glass used on the latest iPhone) is all but invisible over the crisp 24hour dial. The bezel (rotating ani-clockwise) provides a tritium zero and 60 units of count. Instructions on setting the time consists of a single, beautiful sentence “Unscrew or pull out the crown to the second position. Once the time is correct push or screw the winder back in.” And you’re in business.

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The matt black on all surfaces is not paint as you’ll find on most watches, no, this is a PVD treatment that actually blackens the metal down to a certain depth meaning scuffs and scrapes (unless very deep) won’t suddenly reveal white metal beneath. This is an important feature and critical for the special forces and anti-terrorist units who rely on stealth and invisibility to perform their duties (MWC claims that wearers report PVD-treated watches retain their finish for 20-30 years with no visible loss of plating).

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Likewise, the recessed numbers on the bezel allow the tritium to stay down out of sight to everyone but the wearer. I originally wanted the subdued version of this watch thinking the luminescence might be glaringly obvious, but it’s not. You actually have to be quite close, and on my nightstand it’s subtle enough that I have to position the watch on it’s side to be visible from the pillow should I open my eyes in the wee small hours wondering what time it is. In my opinion the P656 provides the perfect amount of covert black-of-night visibility and I now suspect the subdued version would have been less usefully readable. Remember, this is not the run of the mill phosphorescence you’ll see on most luminous watches, this is Swiss Tritium GTLS. GTLS is a self-illuminating radioactive isotope that does not require pre-charging with a flashlight. It’s a costly but wondrous, non-hazardous material that glows perpetually providing the wearer with time-keeping confidence whichever God-forsaken corner of the planet you’re in, and, no matter the dark of night.

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If I have one issue after several days of wearing - and this is not a strike against the P656 - it's with webbing watch straps. I find them awkward to fasten quickly and always struggle to feed the strap-end through the second side of the buckle. It's not a big deal as I can usually slip it into the strap keeper (in this case a loop of stitched webbing) but over the course of the day it'll come loose and annoy me - remember, I don't want to be aware of a watch until I need to read it. In this case I was able to promptly remedy this issue with the addition of a leather cuff I'd bought for another (disused) watch and I was mollified. The cuff also spreads the weight of a watch more pleasingly around the wrist though weight is certainly not a factor with the titanium P656. 

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With each passing day I've further realized what a uniquely crafted timepiece the P656 actually is -  it's truly intended for the avid outdoorsman, special operator or master of adventures. At it's heart beats a high precision Swiss-made Ronda Quartz Movement designed to withstand 40,000 feet of altitude and high G-forces, so pilots needn't hesitate to go wheels up with this one. Surpassing U.S W-46374F Type 6 mil specs, the watch is also water resistant to 30ATM (1000ft) just like MWC's dedicated diving watches; that along with the precision bezel means professional or recreational divers can breath easily knowing they'll avoid the hazards of low oxygen or decompression sickness. And in case I was worried about longevity, it has a 10-year battery life as well as an end-of-battery-life indicator.

One particular group whom I think would value this timekeeper are the hunters. Game is easily spooked so trekking out to a tree stand or brush hide before dawn requires stealth. Once inside the blind it’s even darker, but you don’t want to alert anything to your presence by flicking on a light or making a noise. They claim a red light is safe but I know for a fact animals pick up on them - for my part when I add all the hours and effort of prep I expend to get out into the woods, plus the waking up at 2am, plus the drive to my favorite spot, plus the cold and lugging stuff into the hide, I don’t want to then go and blow it all by making my presence known with flashlights, chirping walkie talkie’s or pinging cell phones. There is something especially comforting in the P656’s softly glowing constancy and as I huddle cold and adrenalized in my deer hide next November this puppy will absolutely be on my wrist.

So, whether you're an outdoorsman, an intrepid civilian explorer, a foreign correspondent, a prepper anticipating imminent societal meltdown, a law enforcement professional tasked with nighttime stakeouts, an FSO or warfighter protecting our air, land and sea borders, the P656 is a vital addition to your kit. For my part, I'm just a regular Joe who's acquired a big piece of utilitarian cool and I feel lucky to have found my new favorite watch. I have been looking for this exact set of features on a timepiece for a long, long time and would not hesitate to trust my life to the outstanding MWC P656.

You can find it here on their WEBSITE. The strap can be purchased from this leatherworker HERE.

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