Itâs easy to become jaded about commemorative watches. So many of them are just cynical marketing moves â attempts to leech the interest and storytelling surrounding a person or event or institution and convert it into sales figures. Often these timepieces âcelebrateâ something that is hardly in need of additional celebration and, less forgivably, donât support its cause or culture in any meaningful way.
When you encounter a commemorative watch that isnât guilty of those things, however â one that actually reads as authentic â it can be seriously compelling. So it is with the Oris Carl Brashear Cal 401 Limited Edition. Born to Kentucky sharecroppers in 1931, Brashear faced down racism to graduate from the US Navy Diving & Salvage School in 1954 as its first ever African-American diver. But prejudice wasnât the only challenge he had to contend with. In 1966, Brashear was involved in an effort to recover a lost American nuclear warhead that