The Only Official Licensed & Registered US Armed Forces Military Watches
Honor, Courage, Commitment. Watches You Wear With Pride U.S. Patent No. 78610614
About Us / How it all Started
US Armed Forces Military Watches has been offering elegant watches since 2001. As a former diplomat in the embassy in Japan for six years, I met a lot of military people involved in the wristwatch business. These people inspired me to start this business and helped me along the way. I now work with my two sons in producing waterproof military watches of the best quality. Our watches are suited for military men & women as well as collectors and advocates from all over.
My journey to discovering my love for watches started from my appointment as a diplomat at the American Embassy in Tokyo. The first two years during my stay was incredible. I met a lot of people and I easily made friends with them. Some of the people I met believed my coming to Tokyo was a divine orchestration. I remember an incident at Roppongi Dori, Minato City Tokyo in a Saki bar, where a guy named Mike from IBM told me " God sent me to Tokyo for a reason". A year after that, an old lady at Yokota Air Base casually walked up to me and said the same thing. Her words shocked me and familiarity of it made me stop in my track. I turned to ask her questions, she was gone. This was pretty scary; I was so creeped out that I left the base almost immediately. Indeed, everything around me fell in place. I was always in the right place, at the right time. My inability to speak Japanese fluently was not a hindrance to my relationship with the people. I was nice and polite to everyone, which in my opinion is a recognized international language, and I believe that made up for my lack of fluency in Japanese.
Over time, I met a millionaire name Lance Lee that was the Vice President of the American Tokyo Club. He inspired me to step out the box and create independent finance for myself. My friend Yasoda, an enthusiast of wristwatches, asked me if I was interested in military watches. At that time, I didn't know so mush about it but I was always optimistic about great opportunities. We delved into the idea of US. Military Watches with the logos on the dial. We made a prototype, and it came out excellent !. To confirm the quality of what we made, I showed my friend, Patty, a store manger at the Navy Annex Building and she was impressed. She showed the wristwatches to her boss, the buyers and they wanted to know how much it would cost and how many they could get.
I was ecstatic !!! It was my time to start a business. My excitement was however short-lived when my friend Bow, who at the that time was a procurement officer informed me that I needed permission from the military to use their logo. In the search of a solution, I shared my story with a friend from the Readiness Center at Yokohoma Base. Fortunately, she told me to call her uncle at the Pentagon and ask him about using the US. Marine's logo on the watches. She however failed to tell me that he was a General at the Pentagon. If I had known, maybe I would have been better prepared. I called his office to ask for officer Hall ( I have forgotten his name, so we will name him Mr. Hall). The front desk on the other end was a bit confused, as their was no officer with that name but a General. I was dumbfounded because the generals in the Pentagon Building were popular for their strict and no-nonsense behavior.
Immediately the General came to the phone, he wanted to know who was calling him, why I'm calling him and how I got his number. I was nervous to the extent I felt that calling the General was a mistake. He went ahead to tell me a load of information and ordered me to repeat it back to him. I mixed some of it and didn't get it right. He goes on to tell me that in the military, a soldier is only told once to carry out a mission but since I was a civilian I had another chance. With full attention this time, I wrote down everything he said on the kitchen countertop and repeated them to him. He laughed and said I did ok for a civilian, but he was not making any promises on the Permission letter. I pledged not to call a high-ranking officer again.
After waiting for two months, I got the permission letter from the US. Marine's to use the logo on my watches. I was ecstatic and shared it with my friend Patty and she told me that she has been working for the Navy Annex about 17 years and this is her first time seeing a letter from the Dept. of Defense granting someone to use the Military logo on a product. She told me to put it in a picture frame because maybe only a hand full of people have a letter like this.
However, I only had one letter at that moment and needed more from the other military branches. Fortunately, my friend Daniel Smith who worked with Stars & Stripes military magazine used his writing skills to send letters to the other military branches for permission. I later got permission from the other branches to use the logos. It was indeed a great win. Now my friend Bow reminded me that I still need to patent it or the Military is going to take it . Because the rule is " If you don't patent it, you don't own it".
The journey to starting my own business was not yet finalized as I needed a Patent Trademark. I contacted an international lawyer who wanted to bill me the sum of $10,000 to do the filing work. I couldn't afford that amount right away, so I decided to save up for it. After six years in Tokyo, it was time to go back to America. I got an offer to be an inspector at an environmental technology company. As fortune will have it, my first project was at the US. Patent & Trademark Office in Arlington, Virginia ! It was there I was informed that to patent a trademark would only coast $375.00. The people at Trademark office told me that lawyer was trying to get you to pay for his new car.
I decided to start the process myself, it took me about 3 years to complete registration but I was successful. At this stage I had everything I needed to start my own company without any form of restriction. Me and my team designed various elegant wristwatches. The first set of watches made for sale was the Fortis Coast Guard Commemorative watches. Our wristwatches are made to promote morale for our service members. We are proud of our new release called " The Pentagon Watches " This watch was designed to represent the Pentagon Building and its significance.
We are committed and dedicated to meeting our customers’ standards of product quality. If you are interested in what we offer, feel free to contact us today.
- P.O. Box 772 Spotsylvania, Virginia 22553
- evans@usafmw1.com
- (540) 223-5257