I don’t always want to wear a smartwatch. As much as I love the Apple Watch Series 9, my smartwatch of choice, it’s nice to have a change and wear something more special. The definition of what makes a watch special will vary from person to person, but for me, it needs to be technically interesting and have a compelling story behind it. That’s what I like about the watch I’ve been wearing for the past few weeks: the Marathon 41mm Jeep Rubicon GSAR. It does something different than a smartwatch; I’d never heard of Marathon Watch until I was contacted about the brand’s collaboration with Jeep, and it turns out that it wasn’t much of a surprise.
“Marathon is fundamentally a government and military supply company, dedicated to producing mechanical and quartz watches designed to withstand the planet’s toughest conditions,” Mitchell Wein, president of Marathon Watch, told Digital Trends by email. Collaborations between a smartwatch maker and any other brand are practically unheard of, and I love the fact that Jeep paired up with a brand that closely matches its own military beginnings. Marathon may not have the instant name recognition of a Tag Heuer or Montblanc, but it has a compelling heritage, having made watches for Canadian soldiers during World War II, the U.S. government since the 1970s, and various other military organizations around the world all to this day. Jeep, of course, can also track its history back to the 1940s and World War II. “We became aware that the Jeep brand was seeking a watch partner capable of delivering a high-quality product worthy of the Jeep name,” Wein continued after being asked about how the collaboration began. “Once Jeep greenlit the collaboration, we initiated a design process that led to the introduction of two watch lines. One line pays homage to our shared military history, while the other caters to the modern Jeep customer, utilizing one of our most popular watch models. Throughout this process, Jeep was intricately involved in every step of the journey, from concept to creation.”
The collaboration consists of four watches. I’ve been wearing the 41mm Jeep Rubicon GSAR, equipped with an automatic Sellita movement, while there’s also an identical-looking TSAR model with an ETA quartz movement inside. Two other models based on Marathon’s original field watch design with an updated Jeep-inspired touch are also available. The Jeep Rubicon GSAR is a seriously tough watch, and it proves Jeep struck up the right partnership to build a timepiece that epitomizes its own “go anywhere, do anything,” motto. Wearing the Jeep Rubicon GSAR, I am left with no doubt it would easily outperform my own ability to cope with tough environments, and Wein explained its credentials. “For this project, we engineered a new watch case from the ground up. Every Marathon watch is purpose-built to withstand extreme conditions, and the Marathon X Jeep Series watches are crafted from 316L stainless steel and feature a durable sapphire crystal for scratch protection. Each watch is fully water-resistant and features screw-in case backs with gaskets and screw-in crowns with an O-ring system to ensure the case is watertight to 300 meters.”
The Marathon X Jeep watch’s toughness goes beyond water resistance. “Marathon has been incorporating Incabloc shock absorbers in our mechanical watches for decades, including those in the Marathon X Jeep watches. The system uses a spring-loaded mounting for the jewel bearings that support the balance wheel, protecting the wheel’s delicate pivots from damage in the event of physical shock, such as if the watch is dropped. Incabloc shock absorbers maintain supreme accuracy even after extreme shock.”
What is the watch like to wear? What makes the Marathon X Jeep special enough to wear instead of a smartwatch or any other watch I own? The chunky, hewn-from-a-solid-block-of-metal styling is fantastic, and such toughness in a mechanical watch fits in with my preference for watches that have exciting engineering behind them. It has a real presence on your wrist. It’s quite heavy, so you always know it’s there, but the size and the design of the case are just right, so it does not dig into your wrist even when it’s flexed. The case’s 14mm thickness does mean it works best when it’s outside your cuff, though. Have you spotted the radiation symbol on the dial? It’s there because the watch uses tritium gas tubes, and not just a coating, to illuminate the hands and hour markers in the dark—and they don’t need light to charge them up. It’s another aspect of Marathon’s cool engineering, and I like the way the markers have structure to them to give the dial an interesting 3D look. The Jeep Rubicon GSAR is a very serious piece of kit that uses truly interesting engineering in a different way than a smartwatch.
It comes attached to a substantial rubber strap in green, which definitely matches the watch’s toughness and Jeep connection. However, I found it quite unforgiving on the wrist, and green doesn’t really go with everything. After a week or so, I swapped the 20mm strap out for a classic Nato strap, and I think it suits the watch just as well while also making it more wearable for me. However, minimizing the weight of the strap has the downside of emphasizing the weight of the watch itself.
I also love that although it’s a brand collaboration, it’s still subtle. The iconic Jeep headlights and grille on the side of the case are stamped into it rather than just painted. There’s a Willys star on the crown. The brand’s motto is on the case back, and it says “Jeep” in fairly small type on the watch face. Aside from these hints, that’s it. I don’t feel silly wearing the watch and not driving a Jeep, in the way I might if I wore a Porsche jacket and didn’t drive a Porsche. But there’s actual brand synergy here, and that’s what I really look for in a collaboration.
Why not a smartwatch? Jeeps in World War II were not high-tech marvels, but Jeeps today most definitely are, and I wondered why Jeep had decided to celebrate this time frame of its heritage rather than look at a smartwatch, which would be more in line with its modern vehicles. Wein couldn’t speak for Jeep, but talked about why smartwatches won’t always work for the military and governments, which in turn shed some light on why Jeep may have gone down this route. “While smartwatches offer tremendous usability for various functions that traditional watches cannot, there will always be a need for reliable, non-connected watches. In many situations, such as in secure facilities and classified planning meetings, U.S. military personnel are not allowed to wear smartwatches. Additionally, operators often need anti-magnetic mechanical watches that won’t interfere with surrounding technology or be affected by external electromagnetic impulses.”
I love all types of watches, smart or mechanical, and want others to also experience the joy of horology, so I also asked Wein to sell the joy of owning and wearing a traditional watch to someone who had never worn one before, and this was his response: “The intricate craftsmanship of mechanical watches is unmatched by any smartwatch, which are often replaced when a new model is released. Mechanical watches, however, can last for decades and, with proper maintenance, can be passed down through multiple generations.”
While Wein is absolutely right about a mechanical watch potentially lasting for decades, this isn’t what makes a watch like the Marathon Jeep Rubicon GSAR special for me—or the reason I’ll pick it up instead of my Apple Watch on the weekend. It’s about how it makes you feel when you put it on and when you glance down to look at the time. I know this is a nebulous concept, but I feel different when I wear a watch like the Marathon compared to when the Apple Watch is on my wrist. I love that durable smartwatches like the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the new Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra exist, but there’s something more to wearing a watch like the Marathon or a crossover like the G-Shock GPR-H1000 Rangeman. It’s the engineering to cope with extreme environments, the credibility that comes with supplying a custom-built device to those who depend on it, and the confidence in its performance that’s intoxicating. The wonderful thing is all that can also apply to a Jeep, which is why its partnership with Marathon feels like a collaboration that makes sense. Such cohesiveness has resulted in a striking, technically interesting watch with a great story behind it that I’ve really enjoyed wearing. My Apple Watch makes sense during the week, but my weekends are reserved for watches exactly like the Marathon Jeep Rubicon GSAR. You can buy the Jeep Rubicon GSAR from Marathon directly for $1,500 and the Jeep Rubicon TSAR for $1,200.
