Every project comes via word of mouth recommendation from those in the know, and staying true to the ethos of the clients who commissioned them, most have never been seen outside of our office except by their owners.
Our design language is understated and restrained with nuanced details that distil a group’s esprit de corps in a way that’s meaningful and personal to the owner yet remains opaque to the wider world. We never print a bold insignia on the dial and pretend that makes a watch special: there’s much more to it than that.
As with every Elliot Brown watch, a Special Project watch is designed to withstand the demanding requirements of military and kinetic personnel; we don’t build safe-queens or ‘investments’ - we build watches to wear and enjoy.
If your organisation or unit are interested in discussing the possibility of creating a bespoke Elliot Brown watch, please get in touch with the Special Projects team at: specialprojects@elliotbrownwatches.com or visit us in person at our offices in Poole.
If you're not yet ready to commission a Special Project, we are always happy to offer serving and former military personnel 20% discount on any of our standard watches on receipt of a MOD90 or similar.
“As a former Commandant General of the Royal Marines, to mark the signing of the Armed Forces Covenant, may I thank you for the generous support you continue to give the Royal Marines. It is very much appreciated, and I hope our relationship will continue.”
We approached Alex and Ian a few years ago whilst looking at a watch project for our small department in U.K. CT policing. Traditionally we look for a watch every 3-4 years and we were looking for something that ticked certain boxes. Historically we went for a ‘dress watch’. We had never done a tool watch that we could wear on ops. The Elliot Brown Holton fulfilled every one of our criteria. The team at EB worked closely with us and looked at our design brief. Alex’s ideas were amazing. Giving us far more than we could have initially imagined. I offered a limited edition of 100 to my department and they sold out within 2 hours! I can’t recommend these guys highly enough. Their skill, generosity and subsequent friendship has been immense.
From the get go of our project, it has been my signal honour to work with Alex and the team; from our first introductions to what I consider five years down track to be our friendship, it has been a blast. Watching the emails flood in when we went ‘live’ will be a lasting happy memory, not only that our tight-knit community had bought into my idea, but also that each email meant a donation, alongside each delighted customer. Alex, see you for a beer as and when, and I trust we will make more watches in the future together; thanks for taking my seedcorn idea and making it reality.
It’s a very small close knit world in the intelligence game, everyone knows everyone, so word of mouth is everything, especially in finding that right product or piece of equipment. Having seen first hand other Elliot Brown special project watches, we were sold from minute one, and commissioned our watch. The whole process from initial concept to delivery was very thorough, discreet and professional.
Alex and his team couldn’t have been more helpful and fundamental in the design of the watch, or indeed their brilliant all round customer service, nothing was too difficult for them. The finished item is a classy, robust, professional looking, British built piece of art in my view, and it’s been an honour to work closely with Alex and all at Elliot Brown, I can’t praise the company highly enough.
I’ve known about EB for a long time, their history designing dive watches for our Unit has given me an affiliation to a brand I’ve not had before. I actually own another EB and knew the quality was great so when it came time for me to leave the Unit and the military, I decided to mark the occasion in an unusual way. So together with a small group of colleagues we thought why not commission a watch, one which would relate to all of our careers and of those before us. I was surprised to find how easy it was to navigate a way to realise the dream. Everyone at EB was great, they expertly helped drive the design process, allowing us to add elements where we could.
This included an emblem which I had roughly drawn which was then transformed into the professional and cool back plate it is now. We obviously needed to confirm numbers before committing to production but flexibility from EB allowed us to do this on an individual registry of intent which let them know they would safely reach the required numbers to make the project viable.
I have to thank all those who committed; both past and present service men for their support, and I hope they love the final product as much as I do. Lastly and classily EB side lined some of their own profit to give a donation to a charity of our choice.
