FEATURE
FEATURE
MILITARY WATCHES
Watch Focus:
The Holton Professional
Elliot Brown’s Holton Professional is the first military issue watch created by a British company in 10 years,
and was developed in direct response to contact from specialist military operators for a fit for purpose dive
watch. ALESSANDRO CARRARA sat down with co-founder, Ian Elliot, to find out more about the
design process that went into the timepiece, and how it is able to stand up against the toughest conditions
February 2019 | jewelleryfocus.co.uk
it was better than anything they had used before and
asked Elliot Brown if they would consider developing
a new watch that would be 100% fit for purpose. That
conversation was around two years ago at which point
the Holton collection was simply a new watch brief.
Armed with some great feedback and the unique
knowledge that we developed over the years of
designing watches and accessories for extreme sports,
the Holton collection was created. It’s unapologetically
fit for purpose and perfect for its military users and
civilians alike.
Can you tell me a bit more about the technical
aspects of the watch?
The Holton range carries a shock-absorption system
protecting every movement within the 316L gunmetal
steel case, the crown is triple sealed and we go about
testing every single watch in water at 200 meters or 300
meters depending on the model, as well as testing them
all in air pressure twice during construction - it’s just
one of the unique ways of ensuring our watches really
are fit for purpose and is a very different approach to
the majority of watch brands.
The high grip bezel is unusual with a knurled outer
surface in the shape of pointed pyramids, with one
of the rows also facing upwards. Because of this, the
wearer can put the palm of a neoprene glove or cold,
wet muddy fingers on the bezel and turn it easily.
Additionally, to make the bezels perform longer,
the stainless steel insert insert with the numerals and
markings and the outer component of the bezel are
case hardened. This means they are both six times
harder than normal stainless steel, so it will look
brand new for years and years. It’s got a vickers
hardness of 1200.
The crystal in the watch is 2mm thick and treated
with an anti-reflective coating on the underside. It’s
set very slightly below the level of the bezel, so if
it’s dropped on a flat surface it won’t hit the crystal.
The crown is also located at 4 o’clock, rather than 3
o’clock and that’s so that if you are bending your wrist
‘‘
Over the years we
have developed
relationships
and collaborated
with some
really powerful
organisations,
including
Mountain
Rescue England
and Wales as a
provider of their
‘team kit’
‘‘
What’s the story behind the new military issue watch?
Just as a bit of context, we come from the extreme
sports marketplace, and I was the co-founder of
a brand called Animal which started in 1988. We
made clothing, accessories, watches and watch
straps made out of velcro. In fact, we were actually
the first business to invent the velcro watch strap,
which was intended to prevent watch loss for the
extreme sports community
Elliot Brown is the result of 25+ years of unique
watch building knowledge and a blank sheet idea to
build the world’s toughest, most wearable timepieces
up to a new kind of standard.
Over the years we have naturally developed
relationships and collaborated with some really
powerful organisations, including Mountain Rescue
England and Wales as a provider of equipment. Other
relationships include the Clipper Round the World
Yacht Race and military charities for whom we have
made special editions.
Some members of one charity in particular purchased
a special edition watch, wore it in the field, concluded
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