MWC's original watches in this range were the 12/24 hour dial format US pattern watches which are still in productionand remainvirtually identical in appearance to the watches used by American troops in the Vietnam war during the 1960s and early 1970s, the final image is of one of these watches which ultimately led to the different variations of this watch which MWC still make today.
The European pattern variants came about because following frequent inquiries from dealers and also from customers requesting a similar model to the US watches but with a UK NATO pattern dial pattern hence, the introduction of the same type of watch based on a British dial design from the early 1970s, the watches retain the plexiglass acrylic crystal because back in the 1960s and 70s this was used on both American and UK watches and in fact, some UK military watches, still utilize acrylic crystals to this day.
Although these watches look very much the same as the 1960s watch shown in the final image the original was made of plastic because it was deemed disposable by the US military, of course, the problem with continuing to make them in plastic is that the watches would suffer all the same shortcomings as the originals, for this reason the MWC design team decided to completely rethink the watch around 15 years ago, and whilst keeping the original appearance, weight and feel they movedto all-metal construction, this meant that although the watch still looked virtually identical to the originals the upgrade to a metal case made the watches vastly superior in terms of both durability and overall quality.
