SBS Issued CWC 1994

SBS Issued CWC 1994 military dive watch for sale.

Here we have one of the last few of our extremely rare British Special Forces early military issued CWC SBS (Special Boat Services) watches from 1994 with lovely used patina and a 6 month guarantee and warranty from SweepingHand.co.uk

These early issue SBS watches from 92 / 93 / 94 are extremely sought after by collectors now being only issued to the SBS during this period (not any other branch of the military) and never being available to the general public.

They were issued in extremely small batches and even fewer have survived to this date.

They are very hard to find now with few ever coming up for sale and as such command a significant premium over the later SBS style watches from the year 2000 onwards, as these were general issue to the whole Royal Navy and could also be bought directly by the public from CWC at the time.

We have sold 3 (now 4) of the 94 issues over the last couple of months and only have a couple left now from our collection built up over the last 15 years. The watches all came to us directly from a military surplus contact who had the contract for watch disposal for the MOD (Ministry of Defence) but the last SBS watch they received was over 4 years ago now so we can presume it is unlikely any more will become available.

This watch is in proper used condition and obviously has seen plenty of action! It is correct for an early issue 1994 watch with correct bezel and fantastic patina to the dial and hands, the case has wear from use with fixed metal bars (so that the watch can only be worn on a nato strap – originally the SBS would strap over their diving wetsuits) and clear correct military engravings on the screwdown caseback.

From CWC Addict:-

“The SBS diver is possibly the quintessential CWC watch; whilst most other CWC watches and clocks have antecedents in other models, or have been made or supplied by other brands, only CWC has ever produced the black day-date dive watch for the British military. For this reason, as well as for the link to the British Special Forces, issued versions of this watch are highly sought-after by collectors.

The watch was originally designed to the specifications of the Special Boat Service (SBS) in 1987; it has been suggested that special forces operatives wanted a non-reflective black metal finish for night time operations – possibly inspired by Royal Marines based in Hong Kong who had their issued RN dive watches black-coated locally – and that the day-date function was because they spent considerable amounts of time on mission and found it helpful to keep track of the days. The NSN 7995443 is specific to this watch.”