The United States Navy SEALs are the most elite military outfit in the world. Their selection course, called BUD/S, is the toughest known to man and has an attrition rate of over 80 per cent.
The SEALs’ primary objective is to conduct clandestine operations in a wide range of environments. SEAL is an acronym that stands for Sea, Air and Land, which are the three areas of expertise of these adaptable amphibious warriors. These small, nimble assault teams operate mainly at night and are dubbed “the silent professionals” because they never so much as whisper, using hand signals to communicate with one another. Often, their enemies don’t even know what hit them by the time the Navy SEALs strike.
Adding to their mystique is the fact that individual Navy SEALs are low-key and rarely identify themselves as being one of the elite warriors – bragging is considered unbecoming of a Navy SEAL.
Nevertheless the SEALs have been heralded in the media as heroes for a long list of successful, high-tension missions. Their rescue of a kidnapped American captain from the hands of three pirates in 2009 made world headlines. Then, in 2011, an elite Navy SEAL team stormed a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing terrorist leader Osama bin Laden during a carefully rehearsed night raid.
Accurate timekeeping is an extremely important aspect of their lives and as such a reliable watch is considered an essential piece of equipment.
Many SEALs rely on Kobold watches for their timing needs. That’s with good reason because the US-based manufacturer counts among its collection of so-called tool watches the Phantom Chronograph and the Phantom Black Ops, two watches actually designed by Navy SEALs.
The Phantom Black Ops features a surgical-grade stainless steel case that has been DLC-coated, turning its outer layer black, while the Phantom Chronograph lacks this DLC coating and instead features a matte-finished steel case.
Each case is US-made, and the watches are assembled in Kobold’s Pittsburgh facilities using Swiss mechanical movements. To ensure a high degree of reliability and accuracy, the movements are carefully timed, adjusted, and then tested for 1,000 hours.
The matte-finish black dial of the Phantom features green luminous hour markers and green print for the minute and seconds track. This colour is easier to read when wearing night vision goggles during night raids. A uni-directional rotating bezel with an engraved minute scale gives the wearer the option of timing multiple events in conjunction with the chronograph’s stopwatch feature.
Yet the Phantom and Phantom Black Ops are ideal for non-military use, too. Shock-proof, water-resistant and antimagnetic to the stringent benchmarks of the German industrial standards office, these watches are ideal for sportsmen who prefer to chase golf balls around the course rather than hunting terrorists around the globe.
Kobold promises never to produce more than 2,500 of its wristwatches annually, making them not only more exclusive but also allowing the small, family-owned outfit to ensure a higher degree of quality than its mass-product competitors.
