Vietnam Hand-Wound

Rothco Vietnam Era Hand-wound homage.

For my birthday I received a nice little gift, an homage to US Vietnam era mechanical watch, wrist.  The watch came in this simple tin, complete with military specification numbers.  I am sure it is all for show, since this watch was made in China.

Opening the tin revealed this:

A simple, clean, easy to read watch.  The dial has Arabic 1 through 12 markers in dark green and 13 through 24 in white.  The dial is black.  The hands are simple sticks with lume.  There are also lume pips at every hour mark.  There is no marking on the dial as to brand name, which is a nice touch.  Just Mechanical. 3ATM Water Resistant, and a small Made in China along the bottom of the dial.  There is a small date window at 3 O’clock.  The crystal is acrylic and lightly domed, consistent with a Vietnam era watch.

The case appears to be painted steel or base metal, with a stainless steel back.   It is a screw back, stainless steel.  Again, simply marked Mechanical Movement, Stainless Steel Back, 3ATM water resistance.  Never seen a watch with no branding whatsoever.    I have not looked at the movement, but my best guess would be a DG2833, which has all the features of this watch, hand-wound only, 21,600 BPH, Chinese made, 17 jewels,  and the font of the date window matches.  A nice featre is that is a hacking movement, so it the movement stops when you pull the crown.  This originated with military watches and is used to co-ordinate time among members of a platoon, etc.  The crown is unsigned and chrome plated.

The watch comes on a comfortable, wide weave nylon band.  The buckle is unsigned and is also chrome plated.  It is double thickness and should last for years.

Overall, this a great watch for the money.  It is easy to read and keeps extremely accurate time, less than +/-5 seconds a day when wound every morning.  Power reserve seems very good as well, I have not had it wind all the way down yet, but I know it is over 38 hours.  The luminous material is nothing to write home about, but the Omega and Seiko watches have spoiled me.  I have always loved the look of the Vietnam era wrist watch, but never wanted to pay the money commanded by the real deal.  This watch is a throwback to when watches were all mechanical and simpler.  No battery to change, no clutter on the dial, and you have to wind it every day.  It has spent a lot of time on my wrist over the past few weeks and it is a good addition to my collection.

Features:
Case: 35mm diameter, painted metal, 3ATM water resistance.
Back: Stainless Steel back, screw down.
Crystal: Acrylic, Lightly Domed.
Movement: Hand-Wound, DG2833, 21,600 BPH.
Complications: Date
Other: Luminous hands and markers.

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