2021 Tornek-Rayville TR-660 AC

Produced during the early 1960s, the Tornek-Rayville ref. TR-900 is a dive watch that was created to fulfill the U.S. Navy’s needs for a timepiece that could be supplied to its Underwater Demolition Team. Although the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms was the Navy’s first choice, the “Buy American Act” of 1933 required them to use a domestically sourced option, leading Allen V. Tornek (a representative for Blancpain) to convince the famous Swiss manufacturer to let him rebrand some Fifty Fathoms watches as the “Tornek-Rayville” and sell them to the U.S. Navy. A total of just 1,000 Tornek-Rayville watches were produced, and since the vast majority were destroyed over the years, surviving examples now fetch six-figures whenever they surface at auction. 

Bill Yao is the man behind the watch company MK II, and the gent responsible for reviving the Tornek-Rayville name. Yao has a well-deserved reputation for creating timepieces that properly pay tribute to historic military designs and has handled the Tornek-Rayville name with great care. Rather than attempting to create an exact recreation of the original model, the modern Tornek-Rayville ref. TR-660 AC reimagines the classic Blancpain-inspired dive watch with modern materials and features such a larger screw-down crown, an anti-reflective sapphire crystal, and the reliable Seiko NE15 movement.

Although they were originally created to be military-issued timekeeping tools, the incredible value and collectibility of vintage Tornek-Rayville divers now prevents them from being able to be worn as care-free tool watches. Rather than being an ultra-premium tribute to a celebrated vintage design, the modern Tornek-Rayville TR-660 is intended to be exactly what the original model was back in the early 1960s: a rugged and unpretentious tool watch that can be purchased for a reasonable price and worn throughout a wide variety of different demanding activities.