Fit for service
Marathon’s SSNAV Type II is not a typical pilot’s watch. It does not look like the German flieger style that dominates the category, and could easily be mistaken for a dive watch.
The watch was designed in 1986 in collaboration with Canada’s Kelly Air Force Base. It contains pilot-friendly features like a lug-to-lug crown guard and a bidirectional rotating bezel with a 12-hour scale, rather than the 60-minute variety found on dive watches.
Much like a dive watch, the SSNAV Type II is designed to withstand hard impacts and extreme changes in pressure, except that the atmospheric pressure gets lighter as pilots ascend.
One of the watch’s most useful innovations is found throughout Marathon’s catalog. The hour markers, hands and bezel pip are fitted with tritium gas tubes that emit a constant, steady glow. They are all green except for the 12 o’clock marker, which is orange to guide orientation.