Vertex MP45 M Review

Vertex is one of those brands that I've known about for quite a long time but never had the chance to experience in person. Before starting Hourstriker my professional life in the watch industry mostly revolved around just a handful of watches from the old guard of established Swiss watchmakers. Although I knew of many other newer and independent brands, I never really had a chance to get up and personal with them.

Although Vertex is just shy of their tenth anniversary the brand can actually trace their roots all the back to 1912 when Claude Lyons took out a one thousand pound loan from his father in law to start the Dreadnaught Watch Company. Dreadnaught specialized in taking Swiss made movements and then re-casing them in Britain.



Soon after the founding of Dreadnaught, Lyons started to produce watches for the British Military in 1915 to be used in WWI. One year later Vertex Watches Ltd was established in London as well as La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland. Over the next few decades Vertex went on to produce a wide range of watches from ladies dress pieces all the way up to tool watches that were resistant to the elements.

Early in the Second World War one of Vertex's factories and showrooms was destroyed during an air raid and in 1941 Claude's son Henry Lazarus who was a Captain in the British Army was approached to help the British Army acquire watches from the Swiss. Only three years before, Henry had joined the family business at Vertex and knew the Swiss watch industry well.



In 1943 Vertex started developing their first watch for the British Army which was finished one year later. The Cal 59 W.W.W. navigation watch was the resulting timepiece and part of the original twelve "dirty dozen" watch brands that produced watches for the British Army during WWII. Vertex produced thousands of Cal 59 watches for the British including 4,652 that were produced in preparation for D-Day. A mono-pusher chronograph was also requested by the British Army to help with disposing of explosives, but due to strict budgets following the war was never developed.

The following decades saw Vertex co-brand with Revue watches for nearly 20 years. This partnership even led to the creation of dive watch in 1960 that featured a rotating dive bezel and luminous dial elements. As was the case with many manufactures of mechanical watches the quartz crisis was too much for Vertex to deal with and in 1972 Vertex Watches Limited was liquidated.

Although great grandson of Claude Lyons, Don Cochrane, had not been involved in the watch industry, he had always grown up with stories about Vertex from his father and other family members. Don had also been exposed to watches even playing with them as a child and knew the importance of the industry and Vertex to his family.



When Don's grandmother and Claude's daughter Peggy Lazarus passed away just shy of her one hundredth birthday, Don had the radical idea of reviving Vertex as a tribute to his grandmother. This was 2015 and Don had no idea of how to make a watch and didn't even own the rights to the Vertex brand. Don's first hurdle was to gain control of the Vertex name that had been trademarked by the US clothing giant Columbia. Lucky for Don, Columbia was a family run busy and had no interest in making watches so he was able to purchase the rights to the Vertex name for an affordable amount.

Next for the actual creation of the watches Don started following the rabbit hole of watch production and finally found out that the majority of watches are made by white label watch manufactures in Switzerland, Germany or China. After seeing that there was a white label manufacture in Switzerland that produced watches for some of the top Swiss watch brands, he decided to have Vertex watches produced by the same manufacture. Although using this manufacture would greatly increase the price of the final watch, he thought if this manufacture was good enough for some of the top brands that they would be good enough for Vertex. Don never wanted Vertex to be a budget microbrand, but rather a watch brand that produced timepieces he could be proud of and respected the history of his family's brand.

After 18 months of development, Vertex announced their first watch the M100. The M100 is the true successor to the original field watch produced by Vertex for the British Army in WWII, the Cal 59. In 2017 Vertex officially re-launched and in a short period of time has become the go to brand for an authentic field watch.



Following the M100, Vertex has launched three more collections. The M60 AquaLion is the brands dive watch, while the M36 is a smaller 36 mm version of the M100. Finally there is the MP45 collection that is based off of the mono-pusher chronograph requested by the British Army in 1945 but was never realized. Today it is the MP45 that we will be taking a closer look at.

As with all Vertex watches, the MP45 stays true to the design language of the original Cal 59 and re-launched M100. Also true to military chronographs from the Second World War, the case of the MP45 is asymmetrical with the right hand side featuring the crown and pusher being pushed out. When Don asked which watch I would like to review I picked the manual wound version of the MP45 called the MP45 M. I felt the M100 has had a ton of coverage and really liked the story of a scrapped design being finally realized nearly 80 years later. I also thought the manual wound version would have been more true to the time when the original request for the mono-pusher watch was made.



When the MP45 M arrived the first thing I noticed about it was the numerals. One defining element to Vertex dials is the use of blocked Super-Luminova to make up the numerals. Every hour except for 3 and 9, which are covered by sub-dials, are three dimensional solid blocks of lume. During the day the hour markers add nice depth to the dial and in low light conditions they glow an amazing blue.

The next thing I noticed about the MP45 M was the build quality of the watch. As mentioned earlier, Vertex uses one of the top manufactures in Switzerland to build their watches. The fit and finish of the MP45 M is on par with anything I've been around from top Swiss brands like IWC and Jaeger LeCoultre that cost multiple times more. Naturally the MP45 M doesn't have some of the hand finishing you'd find on say a Blancpain, but that's a different story.



The final thing that really blew me away with the MP45 M was the packaging the watch comes with. The Vertex MP45 M comes in the same exact Pelican hard case that my $26,500 Blancpain Fifty Fathoms 500 Fathoms came in which cost over five times more than the MP45 M. The Pelican case is a very nice bonus, but the MP45 M also came with a host of straps including leather and rubber straps as well as various NATO straps. It's actually pretty rare for a watch to come with two straps, but you never see a watch come with four plus straps.

Now that I've gone over my initial thoughts about the Vertex MP45 M, let's now take a look at the technical specs of the watch. The MP45 M is crafted out of 316L stainless steel and has a case diameter of 40 mm. Measuring from the top of the case to the bottom we did get the 40 mm reading, but when reading from left to right we saw a measurement of 42 mm since the watch is asymmetrical. For lug to lug we recorded 49.1 mm with our calipers. The watch measured 14.6 mm at its thickest point which is over a millimeter thinner than the automatic version. On the rubber strap the MP45 M weighs 110 grams, switching over to one of the NATO straps would lower this number a bit as well. The MP45 M isn't a heavy watch, but it definitely feels solid.



The MP45 M has a double domed sapphire crystal which has been treated with an anti-reflective coating. When taking pictures and video of the watch, I have to say that the anti-reflective coating works better than any watch I can remember in recent memory. The dial is jet black with all dial markings being done in white to achieve maximum contrast. Around the outside of the dial there is a minutes track with two red dots splitting 60. As mentioned earlier the Arabic hour markers are made out of solid blocks of X1 grade Super-Luminova. These markers add nice depth to the dial and also glow a very bright blue under UV or in low light situations.

At 12 o'clock is the Vertex branding and at 6 you have the Broad Arrow. The Broad Arrow was used to mark British government property, which included the original Vertex Cal 59 from WWII. The "Swiss Made" text is also present at 6, showing that the MP45 M is indeed manufactured in Switzerland.

Finally at 3 and 9 o'clock you have the two sub-dials. At 3 o'clock is the 30 minute chronograph totalizer and at 9 is the small running seconds hand. Vertex uses traditional syringe hands for the hour and minute hands which also have a generous amounts of lume applied to them. The large center seconds hand is used for the chronograph and is done in brilliant white.



The entire case of the Vertex MP45 M has a brushed finish which goes perfectly for being a tool watch. Looking at the profile of the watch, you can see that the lugs turn down aggressively to follow your wrist. On the right hand side of the watch you find the large crown and chronograph pusher.

The crown is not screwed down and features nice scalloping with the Vertex logo on top of it. Even without having a screwed down crown, Vertex is able to offer 100 meters of water resistance on the MP45 M. In its resting position the crown winds the watch and being a manual wound movement will stop winding when the watch is fully wound. Since there is no date on the MP45 M the crown can only be pulled out one position. Position one allows you to set the time and stops the seconds hand for precise time setting. When the time is set, pushing the crown back in causes no jump in the minutes hand either.



I'm rather new to mono-pusher chronographs and can't really think of one I've spent any serious time with. Since this watch was original intended for military use the mono-pusher complication was requested. In a military environment the mono-pusher design was favored for a few reasons including ease of use, less parts to break, reduced risk of accidental activation as well as less pushers meant less risk of the watch getting snagged on something.

The mono-pusher chronograph works very similar to a tradition chronograph but just removes the lower resetting pusher. The sole pusher found at 2 o'clock starts the chronograph as well as stops it, just like any other chronograph. Distinguishing itself from a traditional chronograph, when you now click the single pusher when the chronograph is stopped the chronograph resets. The pusher operates with a satisfying click for all of the chronograph functions as well. It really is an interesting complication that I'm not sure why more brands don't utilize.



The lug width the Vertex MP45 M is a very standard 20 mm, meaning the watch is a true strap monster and can host literally thousands of aftermarket straps since 20 mm is the most common strap size. The rubber and leather straps taper down from 20 mm at the lugs to 18 mm at the brushed stainless steel pin buckle. The NATO straps do not taper and feature 20 mm pin buckles. I've never been a huge fan of NATO straps, mostly since I never really gave them a chance, so I spent most of my time with the MP45 M on the rubber strap. The rubber is tremendously comfortable and required zero break in to fit my wrist well. The back of the rubber strap is also nicely textured and stays put on your wrist.

Flipping the watch over shows off the sapphire crystal display back as well as the screw down brushed stainless steel case back which includes the individual case number. Through the display back you can see the Swiss Made Sellita SW510M b Elabore grade hand wound movement. The SW510M b boasts a power reserve of 63 hours and beats at 28,800 (4Hz). On our timegrapher the SW510M b had an average accuracy of +3 seconds in various positions. I've always found Sellita movements to be very accurate and this caliber was no different. Plus 3 seconds a day in extremely accurate and is even within chronometer specifications.



The movement is finished nicely with a host of blued screws as well as Vertex branding. There is also nice usage of single snailing as well as perlage used on the caliber. While the movement isn't as skeletonized as some hand wound chronographs there are some cutouts where you can see various chronograph components being activated.

During my time with the Vertex MP45 M I tried to wear the watch as often as possible. I initially thought the watch would be a little small for my tastes at 40 mm, but the 42 mm left to right measurement along with the 49.1 mm lug to lug length put the watch very close to my 42+ mm diameter and 50+ mm lug to lug preference. The watch also stayed centered on my wrist the entire time I wore it and never favored one side over the other. On my 7.25 inch wrist with a 55 mm flat area the watch looked nicely proportionate. I feel the MP45 M could be worn easily by those with both smaller and larger wrists than mine and still have it look correct.



The extreme contrast of the large block lume numerals and black dial made telling the time super easy even with just a quick look. It was also pretty fun when the lighting was lower and the numerals glowed away in a very nice bright blue. I typically don't use the chronograph function on watches, but I did time a few trips to the grocery store and a FedEx run. I think the asymmetrical look of the case also goes well with the unbalanced look of only having an upper chronograph pusher. I guess two typical design "wrongs" really make a right here.

The black and white dial of the MP45 M along with the black rubber strap and brushed stainless steel case fit my typical dress of a black t-shirt, shorts and sneakers perfectly. The watch is by no means a dress timepiece and that suits me perfectly. The Vertex MP45 M has no added flair and is a true field chronograph. The watch seemed perfectly at home running errands and going out to dinner and drinks in casual settings. I do feel the leather strap would dress up the watch a bit and with it not being a huge watch or terribly tall could fit under a cuff and do well in more formal situations. I'm not really the person to comment too much on that though.



Being the MP45 M is a tool watch through and through it isn't really meant to get noticed. I guessing a watch that stuck out on the battlefield probably wasn't the best idea. So naturally I didn’t have anyone approach me while wearing the watch, which didn't really surprise me at all. The friends I did show the watch to loved it though. It seemed that most people just really loved the simple all business dial design more than anything. It was fun to explain the history of the brand as well as its revival to them as well.

One thing I have to mention is just how popular these watches are with collectors. I attended a watch event in Austin where Vertex was displaying their watches and they happened to have an original Cal 59 from D-Day on display. The video I posted of that watch has received a crazy amount of attention on our Instagram account. It's not just the vintage pieces that get so much attention, the post I did about Vertex's new 36 mm bronze Armistice Day watch also received a ton of likes and comments. Vertex really tapped into something with their revived pieces and people are just extremely passionate about them.

The Vertex MP45 M retails for just over $4,500, $3,750 excluding VAT, which isn't cheap by any standard. We have to stress that the MP45 M along with all other Vertex watches are manufactured to the level of say an IWC. So when you look at the prices of similar watches from IWC, the retail price of the MP45 M seems like a rather good price. Unlike many revived brands, a true descendant of the brand re-launched it, basically continuing over 100 years of brand legacy. Also Vertex produces the most authentic field watches on the market and can point back to their watches being used in both World Wars. I do think now would be a great time to look at other similar watches to the MP45 M and see how the watch stacks up.



Since we just spoke about IWC let's start with a pilot's chronograph watch from them which is much in the field watch vein. The Pilot's Watch Chronograph Spitfire is the most stripped down and simple chronograph that IWC offers. IWC was also one of the dirty dozen watch manufacturers, along with Vertex, for the British Army during WWII. It's a bit funny since IWC also made watches for the German Luftwaffe, but I guess Switzerland was truly acting neutral. The Spitfire is crafted out of stainless steel and has a case diameter of 41 mm. The watch runs on an in-house Calibre 69380 that offers 46 hours of power reserve and automatic winding. The Spitfire also uses a traditional two pusher chronograph and features a day and date display. The IWC is a lot more expensive than the Vertex though at $7,400.

Next up we have the Bell & Ross WWI Graphe Monopoussoir Heritage which comes in at 45 mm and is crafted out of stainless steel. The Graphe Monopoussoir has a mixed design between a field watch and a pilot's watch with a clean and simple dial layout. The watch runs on a mono-pusher movement created by La Joux-Perret that features automatic winding and a 40 hour power reserve. The Bell & Ross is also a lot more expensive than the Vertex at $7,600.

Moving on we have the Hamilton Khaki Field Auto Chrono which has a 44 mm case diameter and is crafted out of stainless steel. The Khaki Field is powered by the H-21 automatic chronograph movement made by group mate ETA that offers 60 hours of power reserve. The dial is classic field watch with a black dial and white numerals highlighted by vintage lume hour markers. The Khaki Field uses a traditional two pusher chronograph and retails for a bit less than the MP45 M at $1,945.



Finally we have the Longines Tuxedo which measures 40 mm and is crafted out of stainless steel. The Tuxedo is modeled after Longines chronographs from the mid 1940s around the same time Longines was also producing watches for the British Army. The Tuxedo uses an automatic caliber L895 which is made by group mate ETA and has a 54 hour power reserve. The Tuxedo is also a traditional chronograph with two pushers and comes in just under the MP45 M's price at $3,425.

The Vertex MP45 M is a hard watch to find other watches to directly compare it with being in the design of a traditional field watch and also being a mono-pusher chronograph. As you can see given the build quality, heritage and unique complication of the mono-pusher chronograph the MP45 M fits in nicely with the above four watches. The IWC and Bell & Ross are much more expensive than the Vertex while the Hamilton and Longines come in under the price of the MP45 M. The IWC does offer and in house movement for the price but is also a traditional chronograph. The Bell & Ross does use a more boutique movement maker for their mono-pusher caliber, while the Longines and Hamilton use large bulk movement maker ETA for their movements, naturally cutting costs. Vertex is really able to offer a very complete package for a reasonable price with the MP45 M.



So is the Vertex MP45 M for me? I'd say it really is. I thought ahead of time that the watch would be a bit small for my tastes, but in reality the nearly 50 mm lug to lug and wider 42 mm case measurement made the watch feel just at home on my wrist. The more I see watches with block lume, the more I really like the idea. Having the numerals pop off the dial and also glow with a lot more intensity are great features. My collection consists of just dive, sports and pilot's watches, so I am missing a field watch. I'm also missing a hand wound movement and the Sellita is no slouch with amazing accuracy. The mono-pusher chronograph is a unique complication and the asymmetrical case actually benefits from not having the additional lower chronograph pusher in my opinion. Additionally doing some research about the brand made me remember that my grandfather on my mom's side was in the RAF as well, not really something I think about regularly.

Would I recommend the MP45 M to somebody looking for an everyday watch? I feel the MP45 M is really the perfect daily watch for pretty much every occasion. The watch is kind of in that goldilocks zone of 40 to 42 mm with an under 50 mm lug to lug length. It has an extremely high contrast dial that can be read in all conditions from bright sunlight to near complete darkness with the block lume numerals. The simplicity of the mono-pusher chronograph makes timing tasks up to 30 minutes as easy as can be as well. The 100 meters of water resistance is more than enough for anyone except professional divers and not having to remember to screw in the crown before entering the water is an added bonus. Even with VAT included the MP45 M is a great value and the only thing lacking is an in-house movement which can be a blessing and a curse. I feel that if you are looking at a go anywhere do anything style watch that the MP45 M should really be on your radar and deserves a good hard look. Having the watch come with included leather, rubber and NATO straps also enforces the GADA nature of the watch. If you want to have an automatic movement, Vertex offers the self-winding MP45 A as well. Finally the build quality of the MP45 M is as nice as most of the finer brands out of Switzerland and Vertex has a very strong and ongoing legacy.



I'd really like to thank Don and Vertex for sending us this MP45 M to review. It has been a great watch and an amazing introduction to a brand so steeped in history. We're really excited to see what the future has in store for Vertex and also can't wait to review another one of their watches.

For more information about the MP45 M please visit : Vertex

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: MP45 M

Retail Price: $4,500 ($3,750 EX. VAT)

Case Size: 40 mm (42 mm wide)

Lug to Lug: 49.1 mm

Thickness: 14.6 mm

Weight: 110 Grams (On Rubber Strap)

Case Material: 316L Stainless Steel

Bezel: 316L Stainless Steel

Strap: Rubber, Leather and Nato Straps. Stainless Steel Pin Buckles

Movement: Swiss Made Sellita SW510M b Hand Wound Movement

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Mono-Pusher Chronograph

Power Reserve: 63 Hours

Water Resistance: 100 Meters