MEET THE WATCH: Victorinox Swiss Army Prototype Camouflage Base Camp Watch from 2004 for Sale by Ex-Employee

eBay can be considered the world’s largest hunting ground for treasure seekers, no matter what we are looking for. Seasoned watch sleuths like me can still get surprised at the variety of timepieces available. Seeing how I consider myself a Victorinox Swiss Army specialist, I thought that I had seen almost every model that they had produced. That is what this article is about. Specifically, I’m going to tell you about an ultra-rare, un-numbered prototype watch that I will dub the Victorinox Swiss Army Prototype Camouflage Base Camp Watch.

I own many special-edition and limited-edition watches by Victorinox Swiss Army, and I feel fortunate to have some of those rare items. However, there is one type of watch that is even harder to get and almost never seen by the average consumer. It is a type of watch that usually would not exist outside of the confines of a company’s R&D Department. That would be a prototype watch like the one seen below made by Victorinox Swiss Army.

Victorinox Swiss Army Base Camp camouflage Prototype might be a one-of-a-kind. Photo: modified from eBay

This unusual watch comes from 2004 and is very similar to an existing model called the Base Camp. The Victorinox Swiss Army Base Camp had several varieties including both 3-hand and Base Camp Chronograph models (featured here in a very serious article about death). The Base Camp watch’s case usually consisted of stainless steel and the watch bands were bespoke to the watch in either custom-formed rubber straps or a stainless steel bracelet. The case had integrated crown guards that practically enclosed the crown, protecting it from bumps and from getting knocked off. The low bezel sloped away from the crystal. Under the glass, an angled chapter ring added dimensionality to the edge of the dial. The dial layout consisted of a clear 12-hour arrangement of numerals and tick marks, plus the secondary 24-hour scale as smaller numbers. Simple stick hands and a needle-like second’s hands completed the design. This was a simple and compact sports watch design.

This colorful prototype shows that Victorinox Swiss Army might have been experimenting with a more playful direction for some of the watches. The unusual camouflage pattern used in the case and molded watch bands is not the typical pattern found in military applications… at least when it comes to the colors. Instead of using only earth tones, this camouflage pattern included blue as well inferring it is a more “fashiony” approximation of camouflage.

Looking at the barren case back below, you will notice that there is no logo, model number, serial number or any of the typical descriptor text that normally appears on the back of a Swiss Army watch. This one is unnumbered and unidentified. Seeing a watch in this form is like stealing a rare glimpse into the inner workings of a large watch manufacturer. Consumers rarely see anything like this because prototypes can get lost or destroyed and usually don’t circulate outside of the walls of the manufacturer. The lack of markings and serial number means that this watch was not for sale to the public, but it was sold internally to a Victorinox Swiss Army employee named Kevin who was kind enough to let me use his photos from his eBay auction. If you are reading this in early November of 2017, you could own this rare watch by visiting the Victorionox Swiss Army Camouflage Prototype Watch eBay auction.

In fact, Kevin, the seller told me “I used to work at Swiss Army and purchased this watch when I was there. It was my personal watch. I never wore it so I decided to sell it. They never produced this pattern because they changed their mind and produced something else at the time. I bought the ‘one off’ when Swiss Army had their sale.” Kevin was definitely in the right place, at the right time.

It is unclear what Victorinox was up to when they made this prototype. Perhaps, this watch was a test to gauge the interest of such a design in the market. Maybe there are other experimental variations alongside this model. These could have different patterns or colors. Many companies make prototypes to review internally before manufacturing thousands of copies. I’ve never seen anything like it for the brand, so it is stylistically unique. To my knowledge, Victorinox has never produced a watch like this in multiple colors. If I am wrong here, please contact me with an example to set the record straight.

Another possibility is that this camouflage prototype watch could represent a test of the production process itself. Most Victorinox Swiss Army watches are limited to solid colors without patterns, however, the brand has used structural patterns such as textured dials. Close inspection shows that the base color of the watch is a minty pastel green and that the sand and light blue color seems to be somehow applied on top. The back of the watch is the solid green color, which leads me to infer that the pattern is either printed or applied to the surface of the watch as a layer. I am not sure how this process would work. Maybe it is a plastic decal that is heat-shrunk onto the base layer of color? Maybe it is applied paint of an injection molding process. I have no idea really how they made this. Regardless, I cannot think of another Victorinox Swiss Army watch that has multiple-color applications on the case or watch bands like this.

There are a few other interesting tidbits to point out on this watch. The dial has the pre-Victorinox version of the logo. This indicates an older watch model before they updated the logo to the current iteration. Also, the case back appears to require a special Rolex-style tool to open the back, but in fact, it is a snapback. Snapback cases are removed using a very thin bladed case back tool and do not screw-in like watches that have greater water resistance. I might be going out on a limb here, but I think this could be another clue to the intent of this watch, which would be to make a fun, fashion watch.

Imagine if Victorinox was going to try to make their own version of the Swatch watches that were all the rage in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Those plastic watches were cheap, fun and highly collectible with hundreds of designs available. If Swiss Army was going to make fashion-oriented watches to fit the same mold, they could very well have used the method employed on this Base Camp watch prototype. That is to say, they could easily have used a base-color plastic watch and printed custom graphics on top of the case and watch band. Even different colored dials could be incorporated into the design giving innumerable options for watch designers to play with… like the Swatch Watches. Producing a watch in plastic means that practically any color imaginable could be used, and the costs would be kept lower so collectors could buy many different ones.

The intent of this particular prototype watch is not clear, but the fact that it may be the only one that exists makes it an incredibly rare find for a Victorinox Swiss Army watch collector like me. Sure, it’s a watch made of plastic, but it is more than that. It is an idea that never fully gestated, a sentence left unfinished… a path not taken for the Swiss Army. It was a pleasure to learn about it. Thanks Kevin for your help with the article.