2022 Tornek Rayville Paradive Class B Automatic TR-50717
Ref: TR-50717

Points of Mention

This watch is sold with an original Tornek-Rayville pelican-style box & paperwork. The watch comes paired with its 20mm single pass nylon strap with a signed buckle. The watch is from October 2022 and is in worn condition, however as you can see from the photos it is in great overall condition with few signs of wear. The watch comes with its Manufacturer's Warranty.

The Watch

Here we have a 2022 Tornek Rayville Paradive Class B Automatic TR-50717, a modern interpretation of the military watch specification MIL-W-50717. The 44mm bead-blasted 316L stainless steel asymmetric three-piece case sits on your wrist with subtle curves towards the drilled lugs, a lug-to-lug length of 49.5mm and a case thickness of 15mm give the watch an impressive wrist presence. On the right side is a double gasket screw-down crown protected by the shape of the case. A 120-click unidirectional bezel has deep knurling for extra grip and a black aluminium 12-hour dive insert, clearly marked for excellent legibility. A double-domed sapphire crystal AR coated on the inside sits above a matte black dial. An outer minute track is precisely executed with the applied disc, baton and triangle indexes marking the hours coated in Arclite Super LumiNova for a green glow once charged, ladder hands complemented by an arrow point second hand are infilled with the same Arclite Super LumiNova. At 6 o’clock we have the Tornek Rayville motif. On the reverse a screw-down case back, inside an automatic Japanese Cal. NE15C, 24 jewels, beating at 21,600 beats per hour, this movement is made by the Seiko Watch Corp and has hand winding and hacking for your convenience. The watch comes fitted on a 20mm single pass nylon strap with a signed buckle and the watch comes with its pelican-style case and paperwork.

Personal Note

The Brand

MKII Watches acquired the Tornek-Rayville Trademark several years ago. Tornek-Rayville supplied the U.S. Navy’s Experimental Diving Unit in the early 1960s. They sent a request to Bulova to produce a rugged and reliable dive watch. In the meantime, they selected The Rolex Submariner, Enicar SeaPearl 600, and Blancpain Fifty-Fathoms to be put through rigorous testing. Out of the three the Blancpain survived and was ordered whilst the Bulova was brought up to speed in production. Due to the red tape of the “Buy America Act” of 1933 buying the Blancpains was a real headache. That was until a far-sighted importer from New York Allen V. Tornek came up with the idea that  Blancpain relabels the watch “Tornek-Rayville '' and allows him to sell them to the U.S. Navy. The ingenious idea worked and an order for 1,000 TR-900s between 1964 and 1965 was put in place just in time for the Vietnam conflict. Today Bill Yao of MKll has created the Tornek-Rayville TR-660 which is inspired by the original TR-900.