The Anonimo Militare is one of the first dive watches I ever bought, and still one of my favourites. Back in 2006 when I had just started experimenting with making leather watch straps, a friend bought round his cream dialled Militare to ask if I could make him a strap for it. I’d never seen one before but as soon as I saw it I fell in love and wanted one for myself. I immediately started searching for one and a couple of months later I managed to find a pre-owned orange dialled watch (my preference) for sale in the USA. I contacted the seller and a week later it was on my wrist.
My watch is one of the very first Militare watches (Ref: 2004) made by Anonimo and incorporates the hand wound Unitas 6497-1 movement. Anonimo later produced different models with automatic movements, but I’ve always preferred the manual wind 2004. The 6497 is a trustworthy workhorse of a movement that was originally designed in the 1950’s for pocket watches, but has been used by many watch manufacturers over the years in wristwatches too. Panerai used the 6497 in many of it’s watches until fairly recently (although it should be said that whereas Anonimo used the 6497-1 which operates at 18,000 A/h, Panerai’s “OP” movements use the 6497-2 and so tick at 21,600 A/h), so it was an obvious choice for the Anonimo brand.
The Militare was one of the first watches Anonimo designed, and as with all Anonimo watches at that time it was designed as a divers watch. Using the 6497 movement they were limited by the fact that there was no date window, and the sub-seconds dial was opposite the winding stem / crown. They decided that situating the crown at the 6 o’clock position and surrounding it by a bridge that held the strap tail in place would protect the crown and prevent it being knocked when worn. They did this by simply rotating the movement by 90 degrees, which results in the seconds sub-seconds dial being at 12 o’clock (instead of the usual 9 o’clock as found in Panerai watches using the same movement). Anonimo advertised this as their “patented crown vanishing locking device” in the promotional literature released at the time of release, a phrase that still makes me smile to this day!
The bridge is hinged and so can be moved out of the way to set the time, as shown in the photo below.
The strap tail is held in place by a bar that passes through the bridge, and is secured by a tiny screw in the front of the bridge (which when tightened sits into the recess that can be seen in the bar in the photo below). Maybe this isn’t the most elegant solution, and it’s certainly a bid fiddly, but it works well and with practice a new strap can be fitted in a minute or so. Winding the watch (which has to be done daily as it’s not an automatic) is possible with the bridge locked in place (and this is how Anonimo suggests it should be done) but personally I find that really awkward and so always retract the bridge to wind the watch.
A tip for anyone who is thinking of buying an Anonimo Militare – please do not remove the tiny screw when changing straps, it’s not necessary to remove it completely. Loosen it off just a few turns and it will release the bar which can then be slid out. The screw really is tiny and is easily lost (believe me, I know!) – getting replacements from Anonimo now is nigh on impossible!
It was the crown arrangement that first brought this watch to my attention and although it’s certainly not the only aspect of the Anonimo Militare that I like so much, it certainly fuelled my fascination with this watch. Over the years I’ve been asked to make many straps for the Anonimo Militare and if I do say so myself I’ve become a bit of an expert at getting a good fit around the bridge. The trick is to notch enough leather out of the strap to allow the strap to be fitted without cutting away too much and leaving an unsightly (to me, at least) gap below the bridge. Of course it helps that I have one myself, because I can use my watch to model each and every strap and make sure the fit is perfect.
I would say that of all my watches it is this Militare that gets most wear. It’s become my “go to” watch, but I realised the other day that the strap it was on was one I made for it about 6 years ago, and I felt it deserved a new strap for the New Year. I’ve always found that a watch with an orange dial works best with a mid or dark brown leather, so this morning I cut some Mushroom leather and went to work. This was the result before it was fitted.
So if anyone is looking for a decent watch strap for their Anonimo Militare you have come to the right place. Take a look through the leathers I have available (you can see them all via the straps pages) – I’m sure there will be something there that is of interest regardless of the dial colour of your watch. I don’t charge any extra for notching the strap to fit the Militare, so the prices shown on my website are the prices you will pay, but remember to mention when you order that the strap is for a Militare so I know to cut it to fit.
For anyone who is interested in reading about the history of Anonimo and missed my post about the Professionale last summer when I wrote a potted history of the brand, you can read it here.