Ok, I know I’ve been posting a lot about Praesidus lately, and I promise this will be the last one for a while, but after their 38mm A-11 Tom Rice and Vince Speranza Editions, and the uncommonly retro-sized A-11 Combat 32mm, I had to share just one more, the Praesidus A-11 Marston Mat Edition, launched on the anniversary of D-Day.
Like me, I’m sure many of you read that name and asked yourselves, “who is Marston Mat?” Well, this time, the name is not a who but a what. In this case, literally, a mat made of perforated steel in 10-foot lengths designed to interlock with other mats.
When laid out and connected, they formed temporary roads on soft surfaces like, say, Normandy’s Utah Beach. The folks at Praesidus acquired some from the Utah Beach Landing Museum in Sainte-Marie-Dumont and have turned them into dials for this run of A-11 watches.
I had a history professor in college who used to joke that if you were to visit a particularly historic site or were in the presence of a historically significant object, and you closed your eyes and held your arms out at the requisite 90-degree angle with your palms down, you could feel the historic vibes coming right through your body. Those of us who were true history nerds understood.
With that in mind, you can appreciate how important it is not to scrub the vibes from a historically significant artifact. The material was cleaned of rust but otherwise unmolested. Each dial is unique, bearing the scars of age, weather, and who knows how many military vehicles that rolled over its surface.
Aside from the gloriously grizzled dial, the Marston Mat Edition is otherwise quite similar to the other Praesidus A-11s. The layout is the same, printed right on the raw metal. The handset and 38mm case are just like those of the standard watch. Good thing too, as they are already quite appealing. The Marston also has the same tall, double-domed crystal, this time in durable sapphire. If you do want to storm some beaches yourself, you’ll be glad to know that the watch is good for 50m water resistance.
Inside is a Swiss Soprod P024 automatic. Based on the ubiquitous ETA 2824 architecture, this durable unit should provide a lifetime of accurate timekeeping with easy servicing along the way.
I’ve sampled Prasidus’s canvas and leather straps and liked them both. With the Marston Mat, you get one of each, green and brown.
Only about 100-120 of these watches will be produced. Because of its extremely limited quantity, the Praesidus A-11 Martson Mat Edition is only available to those who sign up for VIP access here. The price is $595, which makes it the most expensive of the Praesidus A-11 variants, but with a Swiss auto and a historic relic for a dial, it s also the most desirable. If you are looking for a unique watch and perhaps even a historic vibe or two from a wearable artifact of a turning point in history, head over to the Praesidus Marston Mat landing page now.
