The MkII Fulcrum 39, an Accessible Mil-Spec Diver from Pennsylvania

Being a watch enthusiast/collector often requires looking at things with more than a little bit of romance. To make us want to keep acquiring the same tiny combination of metal, gears and springs over and over and over again, a watch must be more than the sum of its parts. Sometimes, that means looking back into the past at a certain watch and a specific time it was worn to add a little bit of that magic to our own lives. Maybe this specific model was worn underwater by James Bond whilst scuffling with SPECTRE over an atomic bomb, and maybe this other one is currently worn by RAF fighter pilots, and maybe this one was actually worn on the Moon! Whatever the flavour, these watches add a powerful bit of romance to what is otherwise a fairly mundane object. The irony being that probably none of the aforementioned adventurers gave so much as a second thought to their watches at the time, but I digress. 

A second type of romance that can be had with watches comes through vintage pieces and actually acquiring a specific watch that has some kind of story tied to it. It could be as simple as a watch handed down from a parent or family member, imbued with all the experiences and memories they accrued while wearing it, or as complicated as spending a fortune at an auction to acquire an actual piece of horological history. Either way, these are the same old standard watches but with an extra added essence, if you will. This will all make sense when we get to the watch we’re discussing today, the newest release from MkII, the Fulcrum 39, but first, a little history…

The MkII Watches project is nothing new. It was founded in 2002 in Pennsylvania by Bill Yao, selling watch parts and customisation services for Seikos and various other brands’ watches. MkII would grow from there into a brand that specialises in vintage-inspired timepieces with a plethora of customisable options. There’s a fine line between “vintage-inspired” and “homage”, but whatever you call the MkII watches, they are extremely popular in the watch enthusiast space. There are homages to many sought-after vintage watches, such as the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, the Rolex Submariner and the Omega Seamaster 300. MkII’s current catalogue consists of just three watches, each inspired by vintage military watches of yore. Mr. Yao also acquired the name “Tornek Rayville” some years ago and has since brought that brand back to life as a sort of offshoot of MkII. 

The new MkII Fulcrum 39

The new addition to the MkII Watches lineup is called the Fulcrum 39. This new piece is a return to, and a refinement of, a watch from the brand’s history: the original Fulcrum, released way back in 2013. As watch sizing trends have skewed slightly smaller in the last decade, this watch follows suit, shrinking to the eponymous 39mm from the original’s 42mm. Before we get into the specs, let’s get back to the above discussion about romance and lore.

The new Fulcrum 39 is undeniably a tribute to a true unicorn of the watch world, the Rolex MilSub. With its sword hands and fully graduated bezel, it certainly looks the part. As if the MilSub didn’t already have enough character built in, MkII has taken things a step further. The idea behind the new Fulcrum was to develop their vision of the perfect tool watch from the 1970s. As the brand explains, it is a watch that “US Special Forces soldiers would have been exposed to in either Vietnam or in training with their UK counterparts at the time. As the public-facing parent company of Tornek-Rayville, the MkII Fulcrum 39 is a civilian alternative to those that could have been issued if the United States continued to design, develop, and issue watches from Tornek-Rayville. Therefore, the Fulcrum 39 is a tool watch that wasn’t designed explicitly for the military but could have found a place there”.

To that end, the watch is delivered with a “zine” that is approximately 32 pages of images and a fictionalised story of the men who continued to serve in the military in the fragile post-Vietnam years and an exploration of how the Fulcrum 39 might have been adopted for use in that world. You can follow along as members of the 39th Special Forces Detachment, or Det-A, put the watch into use on training missions from Berlin to New York and back again. The whole thing is extremely cool and very well done and paints a vivid, albeit fictional, picture of the lore and “history” behind this watch. Now, on to the specs.

The Specs

The MkII Fulcrum 39 is a classic mil-spec dive watch. 39.5mm in diameter and 14mm thick, it’s made of bead-blasted 316L stainless steel, giving it a stealthy, under-the-radar look. The lug width is 20mm to fit a wide variety of straps, and the case features drilled lugs for easy strap changes. The dial is a soft matte black and there are large lumed indices at the cardinal 3-6-9-12 positions and slightly smaller lume plots every five minutes for ample nighttime or underwater visibility. The sword hands are also well-lumed, as is the tip of the second hand. The watch is available with or without a date complication. If you choose a date, the window is at the 4:30 position. As a long-time no-date advocate, I thought I would dislike the date window of the press model I was kindly loaned, but it has actually grown on me. Turns out 4:30 is a pretty good spot for it, staying well out of the way until it’s needed. And in any case, you can go for a no-date… Everybody happy!

The crystal that keeps everything protected is of the double-domed sapphire variety and is AR coated on the underside only, preventing the scratching that can occur when coated on the outside. The bezel is made of stainless steel with an inlay composed of anodized aluminium, resulting in more vintage charm than modern materials like ceramic. The bezel is available in a choice of either 12-hour or 60-minute diving configurations. There is a screw-down crown and a screw-on solid, stainless steel case back, keeping things watertight down to 200 metres.

The movement powering things is a Miyota 9015 or 90S5, depending on whether you opt for the date or no-date configurations, respectively. The no-date version has been relieved of a phantom date position on the crown, which is an excellent touch. These automatic Miyota movements (basically the same calibres with or without date) beat at 28,800vph and offer hacking and a power reserve of 42 hours. The movements are regulated in three positions by MkII before shipping.

The MkII Fulcrum 39 can be purchased on a bracelet, rubber strap, or a nylon NATO-style strap. The bracelet is a matching, bead-blasted 3-link stainless steel that tapers, in true vintage fashion, from 20mm down to 16mm and features solid end links with quick-release spring bars and the Nodex quick-adjustment clasp, made by fellow US brand Nodus. The rubber strap is a very comfortable and supple natural rubber, made in Switzerland, and tapers from 20mm to 18mm. Finally, the nylon strap is the “NytexTM Type I-M2 general purpose strap” created in reference to MIL-S-46383, STRAP, WRIST: INSTRUMENT of 20 July 1963. It’s a ribbed woven nylon single-pass strap and is available in black or khaki.

The MkII Fulcrum 39 On the Wrist

On the wrist, this watch looks and wears like the perfect sports watch on any of the straps you might choose. It has been shown over and over that 39-40mm is pretty much the perfect Goldilocks zone for a purpose-built tool watch, not big enough that it ever gets in the way but not so small that it’s hard to read or you forget it’s there. The wearability is aided by the relatively short 47mm lug-to-lug dimensions and lugs that gently curve downward to hug even my smallish 6.25-inch wrist.

The understated looks of the bead-blasted steel easily transition from dive boat to dinner table and everywhere in between. And let’s be real, there’s something appealing about a low-key, under-the-radar-looking matte mil-spec dive watch. It’s quite inexplicable, but it just works!

Final Thoughts

At the end of the day, this is an excellent watch that could easily win one over on its own merits, but the effort and thoughtfulness that went into creating an entire alternate history and fictional backstory and lore really put it in a league all its own. As if we didn’t already spend enough time staring at our watches and daydreaming of adventure, this one comes prepackaged with a whole world just waiting for your imagination to dive into. 

The MkII Fulcrum 39 will be available from the brand’s website on January 31st, 2025 at 10 am EST or 4 pm CET. You can now check the different configurations on the brand’s website here. The full package (bracelet + strap kit) is priced at USD 995.