What Are Special Ops Watches Used For?

United States special forces soldiers undertake dangerous and technically sophisticated missions under extreme conditions. They might find themselves needing to jump out of an airplane at extreme altitudes or swim out of a submarine to being a mission. Once inserted, they could be dealing with extremes of hot and cold, running over rough terrain, or wading through monsoons. Everything a special forces soldier uses, even just his wrist watch, needs to work under any condition.

  1. Scuba Diving

    • Watches designed for special operations soldiers are designed to work at intense depths that would cause a normal watch to cease functioning. Some of these watches are designed to work at depths of 200 meters underwater. While special forces soldiers are generally the only ones operating at these depths with an automatic weapon in hand and trying to dodge enemy detection, they are not the only people who scuba dive. Even civilians who scuba dive can use these watches for their extreme depth capabilities.

    Mountain Climbing

    • Be it scaling a rocky mountain face to sneak up on an enemy position or hiking a land route up mountains to operate at high altitudes, special operations soldiers can find themselves exceedingly high above seas level just as easily as they can find themselves extremely far below seas level. They need watches that can stand high elevations and take the abuse of knocking against rocks and other hard surfaces. Civilian climbers require the same level of durability in their watches, and can find special forces watches useful for these same properties.

    Sailing

    • The watch's ability to withstand moisture and impact makes it very useful for another civilian sport: sailing. While some sailing runs will simply take the form of a casual cruise around a placid sea, other times sailors will find themselves fighting surf, squall, or other sailboats to stay ahead in a race. These situations will find sailors scrambling around deck to work the sails and rigging. In addition to the soaking a watch can take, it can also find itself being knocked hard against mast poles or other items on deck. Special forces watches allow sailors to focus on the task at hand, and not worry about what will happen to their watches.

    Aesthetics

    • Special forces watches are precisely engineered to stand up to the most grueling circumstances. Whereas special forces soldiers use these features to serve their country, and various types of civilian sportsmen find the watches useful in their outdoor adventures, there is one more use that civilians find for these watches: aesthetics. The watches generally look exactly like what they are: the kinds of watches that would be adorning a special forces soldier's wrist during a mission, and some civilians find it worth paying their hefty price tag.