Marathon Navigator – Long Term Review

By: XEONIQ [ Instagram | Tumblr ]

Introduction
Performance Specifications
Design Features
Issues and Concerns
Use Case and Styling
Summary

1. Introduction

Released for sale in 1986, the Marathon Navigator in fibreshell is a bulky, matte 80’s tool watch that has been offered in multiple unique colourways, boasts a number of novel performance functionalities and has military-issued cred. Obviously, I had to have one. I’ve been wearing a Marathon Navigator for over two years now and felt that enough time to give an in-depth review on Marathon’s resin-cased aviator watch.

This particular watch being reviewed is the military-issued version with a sterile dial, quartz movement, and a polishable acrylic crystal with a sage green fibreshell resin case on a ballistic nylon strap. The Marathon Navigator is currently offered at $USD420 with a sapphire crystal and ballistic nylon strap in three different colours on their official e-commerce store. There are also steel-cased and automatic versions available at a premium. Older models in different configurations can be found second hand on eBay or Y!JP auctions.

2. Performance Specifications

Marathon offers the following performance specifications for the Navigator (Quartz):

Movement: Swiss-Made ETA F06.115 high-torque 3-jewel quartz movement: low power consumption with end of life display. Accuracy rating: -0.3/+0.5 seconds/day
Dial: Mil-spec matte black surface, large white 12 hour numerals, smaller 24-hour index, and luminous hour index; angled square date window at 4.5 (Note: date window is optional on some models)
Case: High-impact composite fiber shell
Crystal: Lightweight acrylic; polish-able (Note: current Marathon Navigator comes standard with a sapphire crystal)
Water Resistance: 6ATM/60m – capable of wearing in the shower or swimming, but not diving
Bezel: Bi-directional countdown bezel
Strap: 12″ ballistic single-pass nylon strap
Dimensions: 41mm diameter | 13mm thickness | 20mm lug width
Luminous Features: Tritium gas tubes

3. Design Features

Firstly, a little history on the design of the Marathon Navigator will be briefed. The Navigator’s case design is highly referential of the Benrus Type II diving watch, which was designed for the Vietnam War and issued to military personnel only during the 1970’s, without sale to the general public. While the asymmetrical case feature to protect the watch’s crown was not unique to the Benrus Type II, with designs such as the 1960’s Lemania Series 3 predating it, the Benrus Type II and Marathon Navigator have nearly identical cases. The Type II was offered in A and B configurations with the B spec lacking tritium lume elements for use in radiation sensitive environments, such as submarines.

The Benrus Type II was produced under older MIL-W-50717 specifications that are targeting heavy duty military dive watches while MIL-PRF-46374G, which the Marathon Navigator is produced under is a more general purpose specification that allows for plastic cases and quartz movements, but also requires a higher degree of illumination and accuracy than MIL-W-50717 did. As a diving watch specification, MIL-W-50717 also has much higher water resistance requirement than MIL-PRF-46374G. As the Navigator, released in 1986, was designed for aviation and general use, water resistance was not a primary requirement.

It should be noted that while Marathon has maintained its private ownership under the Wein family, Benrus suffered a number of financial issues during the “quartz” crisis of the wristwatch industry in the 1960s and 70s and has changed ownership multiple times. The current iteration of Benrus is not the watchmaking business that designed and sold the Benrus Type II during the Vietnam War. The current iteration of the Benrus brand is owned by Michael Sweeney, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer and they sell a Swiss ETA powered re-issue of the original Benrus Type II design at a considerable premium to Marathon’s offering: Official Benrus Type II Re-issue

Thus, while the Marathon Navigator’s case design might not be the first, it is a military issued model and its specification was considerably different to Benrus’s Type II diving watch. One significant evolution was the use of resin fibreshell as a case material. Strong, shock-resistant and very light: the material affords a significantly lighter wristwatch for its size.

There are two performance aspects of this watch that I consider to be competitively functional even for 2024.

The first is the two-way rotating bezel which can be used as a count down or duration timer.

For Event Duration Timing:

Set the Bezel: Simply rotate the bezel so that the zero mark (represented by the inverted triangle on the Navigator) aligns with the minute hand (or hour hand) if you anticipate it to be a long event) at the start of the event or activity you want to time.
Monitor the Duration: As time progresses, the minute (or hour) hand will move away from the zero mark on the bezel. The number it points to on the bezel indicates the elapsed duration since you started timing.

For Countdown Timing:

Set the Countdown: Determine how long you want the countdown to be (e.g., 30 minutes or 2 hours, or until “4PM”). Rotate the bezel so that the zero mark (represented by the inverted triangle on the Navigator) aligns with the minute hand (or hour hand) after you move it ahead by the countdown duration. For a 30-minute countdown, place the zero mark 30 minutes ahead of the minute hand.
Track the Countdown: As time passes, the minute hand will move towards the zero mark on the bezel. When the minute hand reaches the zero, your countdown is complete.

This works extremely well in practice, and is less time consuming than setting a timer of however many minutes on a digital watch.

This two-way bezel can also be used as a rudimentary compass guide combined with the analog time keeping hands on the watch. This method requires the location of the sun to be clearly visible. In the Northern hemisphere here’s how you would use the Navigator’s bezel to act as a basic compass:

Point the Hour Hand at the Sun: Position the watch face parallel to the ground and rotate your wrist until the hour hand points in the direction of the sun.
Find the Midpoint between the Hour Hand and 12 O’Clock: Imagine a line that divides the angle between the hour hand and the 12 o’clock mark on your watch directly in half. This imaginary line is approximately due South.
Align the Bezel: For easier reference, you can now rotate the Navigator’s two-way bezel so that the zero mark (represented by the inverted triangle on the Navigator) aligns with this mid-way line, which will denote South. Now, directly opposite this point (180 degrees around the bezel) will also denote North.

For the Southern hemisphere, it is simply the reverse, where the mid-point between the hour hand and 12 o’clock denotes North.

The second of the Marathon Navigator’s performance features of note are the tritium radioactive vials. Tritium is a radioactive gas that Marathon contains in tubes which are glued to the dial to provide low-light visibility via the release of beta particles to excite phosphorescent material. This is an alternative to non-radioactive photoluminescent materials like strontium aluminate that are painted to the dial and hands of a watch, which glow for a length of time after being exposed to light. The benefit of tritium gas tubes are that they glow perpetually without the need for being exposed to a light source. This radioluminescence method works in four stages:

Radioactive Decay: Tritium is a radioactive isotope of hydrogen and contains one proton and two neutrons in its nucleus. As it undergoes radioactive decay, it transforms into helium-3 through beta decay.
Emission of Electrons: During this decay, tritium emits electrons (beta particles). These electrons are relatively low-energy but are sufficient to induce luminescence.
Interaction with Phosphor Material: The emitted electrons from the decaying tritium interact with a phosphorescent material that is coated on the inside of the tritium gas tubes used in watches and other devices.
Light Emission: This interaction excites the phosphor material, causing it to emit light as it returns to its ground state. The color of the light depends on the type of phosphor used. Marathon uses both green and orange for their Navigator design.

The radioactive tritium vials are a novel selling point for Marathon’s Navigator

I am not a diver so the 6ATM water resistance is perfectly adequate for my needs. I feel like for actual diving you’d want to use purpose built diving computers and the days of needing 200M pressure tested “diving” watches are long past. Further, you wouldn’t expect a pilot’s watch to need significant water resistance beyond showering and swimming. The stainless steel version of the Marathon Navigator provides 10ATM of water-resistance for those who want a higher rating from their pilot’s watch.

I’d also make a point to recommend that regardless of the brand or model, one would not wear their wristwatch into the shower. Not because of water penetration but due to the temperature flux and alkaline soap exposure, the seals and potentially other components may expand and be degraded over time. I feel it is unnecessarily damaging to a watch to regularly wear it in the shower for that reason.

The movement is a Swiss ETA movement F06.115 that can last up to 68 months with a 40 mAh battery cell. It’s an entry level $USD20 quartz movement that is cheap to replace if it becomes damaged, which is a plus to me. The F06.115 also has ETA’s HeavyDrive technology that gives it a good degree of shock resistance and lets it drive heavier watch hands like those uses in the Marathon Navigator.

Marathon’s ballistic nylon watch straps with black metal hardware are the best I’ve used

Marathon’s ballistic nylon straps are some of the best that I’ve ever used. I don’t say that lightly as I am particularly picky with mine and have ordered at least a dozen of the years from different manufacturers and have rarely been satisfied. The ballistic nylon and in particular the matte black hardware are both of robust quality and do not show appreciable wear or damage despite heavy use the past couple years. In fact, I liked Marathon’s ballistic nylon so much that I ordered a 16mm version of the strap, which at the time was only $USD18, to use on my MWC military field watch. Sadly the price at the time of writing for these straps has risen to $USD30, but I still feel this is a good deal given the quality and the fact they are one of the few making their straps with matte black hardware and not glossy plated black like the majority of other manufacturers.

4. Issues and Concerns

4.1 Tritium is not the Brightest Illumination on the Market

While tritium gas tubes make for a interesting talking point in a watch and have a functional benefit over RC Tritec’s Super-LumiNova paint in that they do not require exposure to a light source to glow, they do have a few limitations. Firstly, high end Super-LumiNova and proprietary versions of it like Seiko’s LumiBrite are capable of a much stronger illumination than tritium is. If you want the brightest lume on the market, tritium is not it. Secondly, tritium has a half life of 12.3 years. That means it will emit only half the light it originally did when the tritium decay process began, and this decay will continue predictably until the vials are completely converted to H3 helium. The phosphor paint used is stimulated by beta particles and not light as Super-LuminNova is so once that happens there will be no glow at all. Photoluminescent paintdoes not degrade through a decay process and instead UV light will break down the chemical bonds in the phosphor particles, gradually reducing their ability to store and re-emit light effectively so that after some tears a strong exposure to light will only provide a couple of hours of significantly weaker illumination relative to its original state. However, it would take many decades for Super-LumiNova to become completely ineffective, and even then, it would more likely just be very dim rather than completely non-luminescent.

It should be noted that a dial replacement is not difficult for a watchmaker to do, and from some brief research, a new replacement Navigator Dial with fresh tritium dials is under $USD50.

4.2 White Chrono Lettering is Very Attention Grabbing on Wrist

For those who want a minimal watch, this is probably not it. Despite the fact you can order the watch sterile without branding and that it is in a relatively sedate matte green finish with a black dial, the white numbering on the bezel really stands out in person. Together with its relatively large size in terms of thickness, it is an eye-catching time piece. Compared to some of my more subdued military watches, like my Vietnam war field watch from MWC, which I find I can just throw on with nearly everything, the Marathon Navigator requires a bit of styling consideration to look just right in a complete outfit.

Even with a sterile, logo-free dial, the Navigator is not a minimal watch; it commands attention

4.3 Price as a “Tool” Watch

When it comes to something as superfluous as a wrist watch in 2024, I would not consider price as something to be of much consequence. At the same time you don’t want to feel like a fashion victim, paying far too much for something that originated as a tool. The Marathon Navigator is a unique watch on the market and there is no exact substitute of my review piece in this colour with an asymmetrical case, tritium lume and sterile dial.

The details are unique in the market, but there are cheaper tool watches out there

But I wanted to have a third “con” for the review and the relatively high price point of the quartz Navigator compared to other options such as MWC’s extensive line of quartz and full auto homages, or military-ready digitals, like Casio’s G-Shock range, are an alternative for those seeking value from their watch purchase.

However, if the Marathon Navigator stands out to you, I feel its RRP is competitive for how unique the piece is, especially compared to over-rated, and quite frankly hype marketed, mil-homage watches, which can often command jewelry-tier prices depending on the brand. The current owner of the Benrus brand name makes a Type II re-issue, and it’s almost three times the price of the Marathon Navigator (albeit as an automatic, steel diving watch and not resin-cased quartz flight watch).

5. Use Case and Styling

I’ve included a typical outfit below for sample styling. I don’t often pair this watch with a lot of black, because the green case and white lettering will stand out so much.

However, with a olive or brown dominant outfit and a lighter coloured tee, the Marathon Navigator in this colourway is perfectly balanced. This is precisely why I advocate for more minimal designs that speak for themselves without the need for logo branding. Watches, or especially sneakers, are often marketed to look interesting on their own in product photos. Yet when you style them together in an outfit, those small details quickly compete with other busy elements of design language in the rest of the pieces you are wearing; and the overall result is often overwrought.

Styling such a large watch isn’t easy, but the large, tapered sleeves of the bomber-inspired ROSEN-X Aeon jacket and its complementary colour and flight jacket details, result in a look that is modern with a unique aviation aesthetic. Far more subdued than one would get from an Alpha Industries bomber and a Brietling for example. Contemporary military boots from Lalo, a lesser known manufacturer, but highly-rated with military personnel, and a pair of slim cargo pants provide an off-black foundation that matches the hardware and Velcro on the jacket without overwhelming the sum outfit.

Outfit Summary

6. Summary

6.1 Pros

Military-issued pedigree
Sage Green is relatively unique as a case colour (with several other colourways and stainless steel options available)
Able to be ordered with a sterile dial for those with a distaste for logo branding
The ballistic nylon strap is of very good quality and has excellent matte hardware
Very light for its size thanks to the fibreshell resin case material
Rotating bezel is still very functional in 2024 despite being “old tech”
Very accurate quartz movement
Unique asymmetrical case design
Radioactive tritium as a lume material is a good conversation starter and glows all day and night

6.2 Cons

The tritium lume is not the brightest illumination on the market and will fade over time until gone
Not a “minimal” watch due to a combination of size and its large white numerals; which might be challenge to coordinate outfits with
$420 USD for a quartz watch could be excessive to some for a functional tool piece (keep in mind however, the unique qualities of the Navigator in green don’t have a exact substitute on the market)

6.3 Verdict

Bulky, light-weight, and military-styled: the Marathon Navigator might be low-tech compared to a Casio G-Shock or contemporary “smart” watch; but it is surprisingly functional even in 2024. If you want an analog aviator watch that is anything but fragile, (and especially if you want a watch in green or tan or that features radioluminescent lighting), the Navigator should be considered.

Ethical Statement: This product was purchased by myself with my own funds and is in no way endorsed or otherwise sponsored by the manufacturer (Marathon).

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