Today we are reviewing the Marathon
JSAR or Jumbo SAR (Search And Rescue). It is also known as the LGP or
Le Grande Plongeur. The watch under review is the Gen 1 version of
the watch. Well sort off, we will get more into it during the review.
The current iteration of the watch is Gen 2 (if I am not mistaken).
But before we begin with the review,
lets look at the Marathon Watch Company. The Marathon Watch Company
started life as Weinsturm Watch, founded in 1904. It was later
renamed Wein Brothers. In 1939 Morris Wein founded the Marathon Watch
Company in Montreal, Canada. It's main function was to supply fine
precision timepieces to retailers throughout North America. In 1941,
it began manufacturing timing instruments for the Allied Forces. This
tradition continues today.
Case.
The watch case is made of 316L
stainless steel. Upfront, it important to note that this is a big
watch. It measurements: 46.6mm diameter, 50mm across with crown, 17mm
thick, 22mm lug width and 55mm lug to lug. It also weighs in at
almost 160 grams.
The watch is very made and the finish
is very good. The watch has a brushed finish (throughout). Although
the watch is 17mm thick, most of it is accounted by the bezel. It has
a very thick bezel, coming in at 7mm. The 120 click uni-directional
bezel is machined and comes with 24 notches to aid in turning the
bezel. Each notch is 3.5mm wide. The area between the notches is bead
blasted. The bezel turns smoothly and clicks into position
positively. Some might find that the bezel turns much to easily.
The bezel insert, I believe is
aluminium and is very narrow at 3mm wide. It is rendered in black
while all the markers are in white. It has all the necessary diving
markers and the only luminous plot is the pip at the 12 o'clock
position. I like the fact that the bezel is marked throughout unlike
many dive watches which are only marked (minutes wise) for the first
15 or 20 minutes.
The crown is protected by two crown
protectors or crown guards. The crown is unsigned and has a knurled
finish. The crown measures 6mm in diameter and is 4mm thick. The
crown does not wobble when pulled out and it is easy to use. The
crown has 4 different positions, locked or screwed down, unlock-ready
for winding, position 1 for quick-set date adjustment and position 2
for time adjustment.
Although the watch is marked Gen 1, the
crown fitted to the watch is actually from the Gen 2. The original
Gen 1 crown is thicker by 0.5mm. The newer crown is to address
complains that the older crown was to thick and would dig into the
wrist. The knurling on the Gen 1 is 'larger' than on the Gen 2 crown.
The difference between Gen 1 and Gen 2 crowns.
Photograph: UKwolfeman
The case back is of the screw down
design and has a circular brush finish. It has 6 notches along the
edge of the case back to facilitate removal and installation. The
watch has one of the most writing on a case back in any watch I have
seen. In the center of the case back you will find the watch water
resistant rating (30 ATM), and a host of other markings such as
contract number (yes, this is an issued watch), the model (being
LGP), ISO rating, in this case ISO 6425 for dive watches, date issued
and the serial number. The number 1/XXXXX denotes Gen 1. You can read
more about the ISO 6425 standards here:
Around the center legends and markings,
we have the following markings, 316L All Stainless Steel, again its
WR, Swiss Made and finally, High Torque Quartz. It is important to
note that this watch has been modified and the quartz movement has
been replaced with a mechanical heart.
If I have any complains about the case
design, it would be the lug width. I wish it was 24mm instead of
22mm. A watch this butch should have wider lugs. Best thing about the
design? Lug holes. And the fact that the lugs extend slightly beyond
the case back prevent the case back from being scratched when the
watch is placed on its back.
Dial.
The watch has an interesting if not
busy dial design. It is of the military type design with all the
necessary military markings, which makes the dial rather busy.
Luckily Marathon has decided to go with different font size for the
markings, making it not as busy. On the black matte dial you find the
12 hour markings on the inside of the hour markers and below it, in
smaller and thinner font, the 24 hour markings. The use of the
thinner and smaller font almost makes the 24 hour marking invisible
at a glance.
The dial is set deep in the watch,
giving the dial a stadium like effect. The rehaut is thick. The baton
hour markers are raised and filled with C3 SuperLuminova. The 12
o'clock marker is differentiated with an orange marker. The hour
markers are further enhanced with lume dots on the rehaut. Each hour
markers has a corresponding single lume dot on the rehaut save the 12
o'clock marker which have 2.
Other markings you find on the dial is
pretty standard with other watches. The brand and logo at the 12
o'clock position and the watch water resistant rating (30 ATM) at the
6 o'clock position (rendered in orange).
The date is displayed via a date window at the 4:30 o'clock position. The date window is pretty discrete. The date wheel is white on black. The font used in this watch is of the Gen 2 version and not the Gen 1 version.
Hands.
The hands are unique in design. Some
have called it a variation of the plongeur style but I call it the
sausage hands. The hands are well made and fat. The hour and minutes
hands are sufficiently differentiated to make time telling at a
glance easy. The minute hand extends to the minute markers while the
hour hand to the hour markers. The sweep second hand extends to the
minute markers as well. All the hands are coated white.
The hands are SuperLuminova filled, and there are lots of it. The sweep second hand tip is orange lume coated. Nice touch.
Crystal.
The watch is fitted with a 3mm thick
sapphire crystal, which I believe has AR coating on the inside. The crystal itself is 36.5mm in diameter. The crystal is
pretty flush to the bezel, so there is less chance of scratching or
chipping the crystal.
Movement.
This watch is originally fitted with
the high torque ISA 1198-103 quartz movement. This is a 11 ligne, 1
jewel movement. Since the watch is a Gen 1 version, it is possible to
replace the quartz movement with a mechanical movement, in this case
with an ETA 2824-2. This watch has undergone such a modification. You
can read about it here.
The ISA 1198.
The ETA 2824.
Bracelet/ strap.
The watch does come with a bracelet as
an option (reference WW005007). This watch came with a vulcanised
rubber strap with a stainless steel buckle. The rubber strap is well
made and measures 22mm at lug mount point and tapers down to 20mm at
the tip. The hole side measures 120mm while the buckle side is 75mm.
The strap is 4mm thick at lug mount point and tapers down to 3mm at
the tip.
The inside of the strap is textured while the top is smooth. It does come with two very thin floating strap keeper. The keepers are 5mm wide. There are 7 holes on the strap providing adjustment over 42mm.
The buckle is made of stainless steel
and is well made. It has a brushed finish and is signed 'Marathon'.
The package does come with a Maratac
black Zulu fabric strap (and extra spring bars). I did not mount the
Zulu strap.
Personally I find the rubber strap a
tad on the thin side and have swap out the strap and mounted a
thicker leather strap.
Conclusion.
This is huge chunk of metal and you can
feel it when worn It is a tool watch. There is no
mistaking it for anything else. Yet it is comfortable on my wrist (8
inches). I like my watches larger and this one ticks every box. And
best of all, it is ISO 6425 rated. I like this version of the watch
as it incorporates the improvements of Gen 2 but with the advantage
of Gen 1 (conversion to automatic).
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