This Affordable Military Watch Is Based on a Legendary Vintage Seiko

Today, there is perhaps no name in the watch industry more associated with legendary vintage military tool watches than Tornek-Rayville.

The original Tornek-Rayville existed for a brief period in the 1960s and wasn’t even a real brand.

Instead, it was an endeavor by an American watch importer named Allen Tornek, who basically rebranded imported Blancpain Fifty Fathoms divers to sell to the U.S. Navy under the guise that his own brand — his last name combined with a phonetic anagram of Blancpain’s home base of Villeret, Switzerland — had produced the watches in the U.S. as a clever workaround to the era’s “Buy American Act.”

Tornek-Rayville

But a few years ago, Tornek-Rayville was resurrected by Bill Yao, the man behind MKII watches and one of the world’s foremost experts on vintage military watches. The modern Tornek-Rayville kicked off its life with an homage to the original TR-900 diver in 2021, and has since expanded as a modern recreator of various forgotten military watches that had nothing to do with Blancpain or Allen Tornek.

The brand’s latest project is the CISO M38, a field watch based on a legendary Seiko field watch that was issued to a key U.S. Special Ops unit during the Vietnam War.

Tornek-Rayville

It’s classified

The MACV-SOG was a special ops unit in the U.S. Military formed in early 1964 to aid the United States’ rapidly expanding involvement in the Vietnam War. The highly classified unit mainly consisted of Special Forces soldiers from multiple branches, including Green Berets and Navy SEALs, and conducted psy-ops, rescue missions, intelligence gathering and unconventional warfare across Southeast Asia.

Part of the elite group’s clandestine kit was a nondescript field watch: the SOG Seiko 6119, a simple and compact automatic three-hander with a black-gray dial, luminous Arabic numeral markers, a day-date complication at 3:00 and a 4:00 crown.

The watches were “procured using black budget funds and issued to SOG operators as sterile and untraceable equipment,” according to Watches of Espionage. The originals have gone on to become collectors’ items, largely due to their connection to a once-government-denied classified military operation. DC Vintage Watches currently has one for sale for $2,000.

DC Vintage Watches

For the modern Japan-made recreation, Tornek-Rayville worked with a group of MACV-SOG veterans, including author John “Tilt” Stryker Meyer, to get the right feel for the watch while adding contemporary upgrades when necessary to make it more functional as a tool for use in the field, describing the originals as having a “disposable nature.”

Such upgrades include a slightly larger case of 38mm made entirely of stainless steel instead of plated brass, a box sapphire crystal instead of the original acrylic, a screw-down crown and caseback ensuring a more robust 100m of water resistance, Grade X C3 Super-LumiNova lume on all hands and indices and a stainless steel bracelet with solid end links and quick-release spring bars.

Tornek-Rayville

Powering the watch is a Japan-made Seiko Cal. NH36 automatic movement, an upgrade over the very basic Seiko Cal. 6119 automatic that powered the original. The 1960s movement had 17 jewels, beat at 18,000 bph and didn’t hack, while the modern NH36 boasts 24 jewels, a higher 21,600 bph beat rate and, most importantly, a hacking function.

The movement has also received a custom day-date wheel, replacing the Japanese/English version of the original. The days are now exclusively in English, while the dates can be switched between Arabic and Roman numerals. The Roman numerals run in cycles of seven and are intended to track reconnaissance missions, which could last up to a week.

The CISO M38 features a closed caseback with the inscription “‘You haven’t lived until you’ve almost died…’ — MAC V SOG ’64-’72,” which references the beginning of the SOG motto and is done in the style of Vietnam-era Zippo lighter engravings.

Tornek-Rayville

Pricing and availability

Tornek-Rayville didn’t just work with MACV-SOG veterans in producing the CISO M38. The brand has also partnered with the Special Operations Association (SOA), a nonprofit organization founded in the 1970s to support SOG veterans after the war. Its work continues today, and a portion of each CISO M38 sold — at least $105 per watch — will be donated to SOA.

The watch is available in two versions, one with a mostly sterile dial that simply says “SOA” at 12:00 and “24 Jewels” at 6:00, and another that adds the MACV-SOG’s infamous skull patch insignia at 9:00.

Tornek-Rayville

Both versions are available as part of three separate tiers. The most basic “Standard Package” includes the watch and bracelet, an additional Maratac single-pass nylon strap, a Tornek-Rayville Pelican-like case and a printed zine that gives some colorful backstory on MACV-SOG and the watch. It’s priced at $695 for the sterile version and $745 for the watch with the MACV-SOG logo.

The “Donation Package” adds a Prometheus Design Werx Wrist Compass, a copy of Stryker Meyer’s book Across the Fence: The Secret War, a custom-printed presentation box and a higher SOA donation. It’s priced at $795 for either version.

Tornek-Rayville

The top-level “Collector’s Package” includes everything in the Donation Package, plus Challenge coins from SOG veterans Stryker Meyer and Doug “The Frenchman” LeTourneau, a vintage copy of The Green Berets by Robin Moore, a signed copy of Stryker Meyer’s book, an anti-mag bag and a massive $335 donation to SOA. It’s priced at $995.

The Collector’s Package is limited to just five examples, while the Donation Package is limited to 95. Both go on sale September 5 with shipping expected in October. The Standard Packages are limited to 500 pieces in this first run and will go on sale in October.

Tornek-Rayville

Tornek-Rayville CISO M38

Specs

Case Size	38mm
Movement	Seiko Cal. NH36 automatic
Water Resistance	100m

• Starts at $695

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