It has been said that some people look at the world through rose colored glasses, but what if the saying used a different color of glass like amber? Watch designers from Victorinox (Swiss Army) might have asked that question back in the mid-1990’s when they designed a watch with a yellow crystal, plastic sports case, huge crown, velcro and leather watchband, a backlight and interesting questionable proportions.
The mineral glass crystal is yellow on this unique Swiss Army watch
This watch is a rarity and a bit of a mystery. I can find little information about it on the Internet. I even contacted Swiss Army a few times about this model and never got a response. Honestly, they rarely respond to inquiries about retired watches, which is quite annoying. Swiss Army are you listening? No, I did not think so.
The case is attached with 4 screws
I believe finding info for this watch may be difficult because of its age, relatively low sales numbers and because it was probably around before the Internet became an everyday tool.
The watches UPC label does not give it a model name per se
I do not even know if it has a catchy name besides “Outdoor, Yellow Crystal”. Likely, not many were made because I rarely ever see them for sale. Of those sold, maybe fewer survived 15-20 years later.
This glove seemed fitting to handle this bright yellow watch!
Besides the yellow crystal, this watch is unique because it might be the only Swiss Army watch that has an integrated screw-in band attachment system and a watchband that uses a velcro enclosure. ย If you did not know, Victorinox is Swiss Army. At first, they used just “Swiss Army” on their watches, then “Victorinox” and now “Victorinox Swiss Army”. ย I believe that had to do with a product name dispute with another company who sold watches in North America under the name Swiss Army, which is now defunct.
The common screws are an unusual way to keep a watchband attached.
The width of the watch from lug to lug is a whopping 60mm. By comparison, my 7 and 1/2″ wrist is about 55mm at the protruding wrist bones. This means that the watch has a different kind of wearability than the watches that I am used to. It is comfortable, but the lugs overhang my wrist a little. I’ve never seen another Victorinox watch built like this.
This watch was so wide that it fit a giant hand mold used to make rubber gloves
For dark conditions, the hands have low-level radioactive tritium lume and backlit dial that lights the numbers with a green glow. The light is activated by using the small chrome button on the lower left. The photo below shows what it looks like.
The dial has a backlight that makes the numerals glow green. The hands are lumed with tritium paint.
If anybody knows more about this watch, please let me know. Thanks.
