Benrus Modernizes the MILSPEC Watch With the Type 3X

Benrus has spent the last two decades reissuing its own history. The Type I and Type II were the watches the brand actually made for the U.S. military in the 1970s, and they went on to see service with CIA paramilitary officers, SEALs and UDT divers. The revisiting of history is a good trend to ride, but it can get a bit stale. Benrus is obviously aware of that, since they just released the Type 3X. According to the brand, the new watch comes from discussions with a group of former special operations veterans asking what the originals would look like if the people who wore them got to design the replacement. And boy, the result is not something I would expect from Benrus, but I like it.

The case measures 42mm wide and 12.5mm thick, built from titanium with a composite carbon mid-case and topped by a unidirectional rotating titanium dive bezel with an aluminum inner ring. Water resistance is 200 meters and there's 250 gauss of antimagnetic shielding. Two finishes are offered, one classically brushed titanium, the other with a darker grey finish.

Dials come in black or turquoise green and both have a square pattern stamped into it. Both get Old Radium Super-LumiNova on the hands and markers which might be a bit of a controversial choice. I would have loved to see a stark white lume instead of all beige. There's an arrow-tipped orange GMT hand that indicates a secdon 24-hour time zone and a date aperture at 6 o'clock.

Inside is the ETA 2893, an automatic with a 24-hour quickset GMT hand and 42 hours of power reserve. The 2893 is the caller style GMT rather than the traveller version, meaning you adjust the 24-hour hand rather than jumping the local hour. Straps are rubber, taupe on the black dial and matching turquoise on the green, with a Velcro option available.

The Type 3X is available now, priced at $2,950. That's not an insignificant amount of money, but the watch looks to be worth the price in close up pictures. See more on the Benrus website.