Marathon Watch was founded by the Wein family in Toronto in 1939, initially as Weinsturm (later anglicised to Marathon) supplying military-issue watches to the Canadian Armed Forces during the Second World War. The brand spent the post-war decades quietly building a portfolio of military supply contracts, eventually serving the US Armed Forces, Canadian Armed Forces, NATO, and various allied military and government agencies. Marathon's identity is built around producing watches to specific military procurement specifications (mil-specs) rather than around brand marketing or design statements.
The brand's modern reputation centres on the SAR (Search and Rescue) family of dive watches issued to military divers and SAR personnel: the GSAR (General Service Auto Recovery, 41mm), TSAR (Tactical Search and Rescue, 41mm with longer markers), JSAR (Jumbo SAR, 46mm), and the MSAR (Medium 36mm). All use H3 tritium gas tube illumination (continuously self-luminous for ~25 years without external light charging), Sellita SW200 automatic movements, and 300m water resistance. The watches are issued under government procurement contracts to dive teams and specialist personnel and are also sold to civilians at retail.
Beyond the SAR family Marathon supplies the Navigator (a 41mm quartz pilot's watch issued to US and Canadian air forces), the Pilot's Mechanical with modified Navigator dial layout, and various medical-issue watches with specific second-hand layouts for pulse counting. Production today is in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland with assembly to military procurement standards. The brand maintains its independent Wein family ownership and continues to operate primarily as a military-supply specialist with civilian retail sales as a secondary channel.
