Head to Head: Laco 1925 Squad Atacama “Ninja” Reference 861632 versus Arctos Elite GPW Military Titanium Automatic

The German makes a number of interesting military watches. Although there are a lot of interest generated towards the pilot watch genre, other branches of the German military since the turn of start of the 20th century has their own set of specifications peculiar to the respective branch of service. Since there are lots of published information about German pilot watches, I want to focus this article on just German infantry watches that I own.

In my collection I own the Laco 1925 Squad Atacama “Ninja”, a watch dedicated to urban police Special Forces unit, and the Arctos Elite GPW Military Titanium Automatic, a watch for the German infantryman and the German KRK (Crisis Reaction Forces) soldier. Below are pictures of the watches on my wrist plus key specifications for each of them.

Stainless steel, PVD 46 mm across (excluding the crown) & 13 mm thick. Lug width is 22 mm Swiss ETA 2824-2 automatic movement with 25 Jewels, approximately 42 hours of power reserve Date window, unidirectional bezel (countdown timer style) Rubber 500 meters	Titanium, brushed 42.5 mm across (excluding the crown) &11.7 mm thick. Lug width is 22 mm NH35A Japanese automatic movement with 24 jewels, approximately 41 hours of power reserve Date window, unidirectional bezel (diver style) Leather bund 200 meters

The Laco 1925 Squad Atacama “Ninja” has an interesting “unicorn” case design i.e. the crown is located at the 12 o’clock position. With this configuration, a special lug extension is required for the top lug to allow the crown free movement. Although this means it would be relatively easy to find alternative straps, the special lug extension makes it look unbalanced and adds additional weight to the casing. As for the Arctos Elite GPW Military Titanium Automatic, its configuration is more traditional.

The different case material used in the construction makes a difference in the wearing experience. The stainless steel used for the Laco 1925 Squad Atacama “Ninja” does make it weightier compared to the titanium construction on the Arctos Elite GPW Military Titanium Automatic. This weight issue makes it trickier to wear the heavier watch especially when trying to hook on the buckle with just one hand.

Although the Laco 1925 Squad Atacama “Ninja” has the advantage of diver more than 200 meters, in the overall scheme of things, the likelihood of an infantryman required to dive below 30 meters is low. Any mission requiring such depth would generally be given to special trained personnel in the Special Forces.

Overall, in my opinion, the Arctos Elite GPW Military Titanium Automatic is a better watch compared to Laco 1925 Squad Atacama “Ninja” for the infantryman on one major front – Weight, a key factor. For an infantryman, any weight savings, however small, is a blessing.