Smiths militare PRS-29

Figure 1 above shows us the visual and numerical specification for the General Service timepiece of the late 1960s. What we see of course is the now classic outer railway track (which interestingly wasn't specified for some navigators' watches of the period) along with Arabic numerals which were a long way short of the boldness and size of later General Service timepieces such as the quartz CWC.

Smiths interpretation of the dial for the 1966-1970 watch was, as I have stated earlier, particularly attractive in terms of the font they adopted and our 2010 PRS-29s have used the same. Firstly though, the outer track has been applied very well in gloss white, printing is even with no breaks; the luminous dots, batons and triangle are all dimensioned and spaced accurately. The luminous material used is Super Luminova C3, applied thickly and evenly. Crucially important aspects of the dial are of course the numeral font and the branding; both have been executed superbly with the numerals being purely and simply classic Smiths W10. The font is very much aircraft instrument variation in its original form and I would venture to suggest that Smiths simply used one of its aircraft instrument fonts when designing its W10 dial.

Whichever font it is, the PRS-29's application looks just as it should, no doubt a contributory factor to the effect the watch had on me when I first saw it. Likewise the 'Smiths' branding, just as it should be – well printed in gloss white, discrete and looking just as the original. It is a truly great experience to see the Smiths name once again adorning a brand new watch. One aspect of the dial that defers to the 21st Century is of course the 'Circle L' as opposed to the 'Circle T' under the triangle at 12. In the case of the new watch this refers to the use of (Super) Luminova for luminous purposes as opposed to Tritium for the original. Most originals are now suffering from creep of the Tritium compound – dots aren't round anymore, batons not rectangular and so on. Of course for collectors of the originals then this is to be expected and fine; it is however quite wonderful to see 'Smiths' below a perfectly formed luminous triangle.

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