Editor's Review: The MTM Special Ops Titanium Predator II

Most guys in the high-risk jobs of the military or law enforcement have heard of or at least seen MTM Special Ops watches. They are built tough and take quite a bit of abuse without failing. My first exposure was an MTM SpecialOps Falcon I purchased several years back. It was a rechargeable watch that had three LED lights built into the face to be used for walking navigation, reading maps or signaling a location. It has seen serious use and abuse through the years and never let me down. So when the time came to pick up another watch (as if watch guys need an excuse to buy another watch), I was browsing the MTM Special Ops website. I ended up ordering two – the Predator II reviewed here and the Patriot I’ll review separately.

The accompanying image shows the Predator II that I customized to suit my own tastes. One of the cooler things about the MTM Special Ops watches is that, for many if not most of them, you can select the case material, color, hand type and color, face type and color, band material and color. They even have an option for oversize bands for those guys with super thick wrists.

From the MTM Special Ops website, here is the description of the Predator II:

The MTM Predator II is a modern military watch packed with three chronograph sub-dials for precise timekeeping. This diverse timepiece boasts illuminated tritium hands, 650 feet / 200 meters of water-depth resistance, and scratch-resistant, anti-reflective sapphire glass. This chronograph watch is available in a stainless steel or titanium case, with multiple dial and band options to further complement your look.

The specifications not already covered there include:

·        Movement:    Chronograph Swiss Ronda 5040.D

·         Bezel:             Unidirectional, Ratcheting Bezel

·         Crown:           Locking, screw down

·         Hands:           Illuminated by gas-filled Tritium tubes

·         Case Size:     44.5mm (without crown) x 15mm (thickness)

·         Weight:          9.5 oz. (stainless steel), 6.6 oz (Titanium)

·         Battery:           4 year rated lithium

·         Warranty:       3 years

Now, I can write a lot of words about how good the watch looks on your wrist, how accurately it keeps time (that’s a given) and how much abuse it takes (I will write a few words about that in a bit), but I wanted to go through how you can customize the watch to your own tastes. There are five design features you can select from. Each is listed below with all of the options available (at this writing) for each feature. The options I selected for my own personal Predator II will be in italics.

Case Material:

·         Stainless Steel

·         Titanium

Case Color:

·         Black

·         Gray

·         Silver

Hand Options (color):

·         Gray

·         Orange

Dial (face) options:

·         Black (black face & numbers)

·         Black/Blue (black face, blue numbers)

·         Black carbon (black face & numbers, carbon fiber small dials)

·         Black/Gray (black face, gray numbers)

·         Black/Gray P (black face & numbers, gray small dials)

·         Black/Green (black face, green numbers)

·         Black/Lumi (black face, luminescent numbers first four)

·         Black/Orange (black face, orange numbers – look yellow online)

·         Black/Red (black face, red numbers)

·         Gray (gray face, black numbers)

·         Lumi (black face, luminescent numbers all around)

·         Tan/Gray (light gray face, black numbers)

Band options:

·         Black metal small links

·         Black titanium small links

·         Metal black

·         Metal gray

·         Metal silver

·         Rubber in

        o   Black (two variants)

        o   Gray

        o   Blue

        o   Green

        o   Orange

        o   Red

·         NATO (nylon) in

        o   Green (very close to OD)

        o   Tan

        o   Black

        o   Black XL

        o   Green XL

        o   Tan XL

There are three other band options, including leather, and a total of 16 more color variations.  If you take a look back you’ll see that means you have 25 custom options to select from and some of the options (like band material and color) increase that option count to closer to 45. If you can’t create a watch that is truly unique and reflects YOU 100%, well… get a standard simple everyone-else-has-one watch to wear.

Getting back to the abuse part: Just like it’s Falcon brother before it, I’ve worn my Predator II in all environments: dry, wet, hot, cold.  The temperature limits I’ve worn it in range from roughly 5°F to 105°F. It has been covered in snow, banged on ice, banged on rock face, walls and more. I’ve worn it diving but not much past 45 feet (so far). While I haven’t worn it in any high risk operational environments, I’ve worn it in several dozen training scenarios wherein it has been hit with batons, other people, simunitions rounds, etc. The watch hasn’t failed yet.

With its Swiss Ronda movement you’d expect it to be accurate and I’m sure it is to within standards I can’t measure. For all my watches, if they keep time within a minute over the span of months I’m quite happy with them. This one I’ve had for over a year and it’s kept time to within a minute without any issue at all. In fact, as I compare it to the National Atomic Clock (which I used to set it) online, it appears to still be within two seconds of the original set, and even that difference may be the result of me switching it back and forth for daylight savings time changes.

For more information and to see the entire selection of MTM Special Ops watches, check out their website. If you purchase one of their watches I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.