After the success of the M100, Don Cochrane, great grandson of Claude Lyons — founder of Vertex Watches — and the present face of the brand, was left with a monumental task at hand.

Figuring out the next new watch that should bear the Vertex name on the dial presents a challenge that is two-fold. One, considering the brand’s historical relation with the UK’s MoD, the new creation must be a completely utilitarian. Two — and perhaps the harder of two challenges — it needed to be as cool as, if not cooler than the M100 that heralded the return of the brand’s name.

Turning to its own history books, the team discovered that at the end of World War II, Vertex was tasked to produce an ordnance timing watch for the British War Office. Basically, a watch to time explosions. The watch to create for this purpose was clearly, a chronograph.

Vertex partnered up with the legendary producer of chronographs, Lemania for this task — particularly to provide the movement that was intended for the timepiece. Alas, Vertex, being a British company, was faced with restrictions in the matter of the movements it was intending to import as a result of the rationing that was imposed by the government at that time. Vertex had to change their focus and the planned watch — a monopusher chronograph  — was never made.

Some 73 years later, in 2018, Vertex decided that they were going to produce that chronograph. Enter the MP45.

Turning the watch over, we have the Sellita SW510MP powering the watch. Here’s what’s probably really interesting: we know there are purists among us who will insist that a watch inspired by the 1940s should be a manual winding watch. And then there are those who are more practical minded and will say that in this day and age, an automatic watch is just more convenient.

In order to satisfy both ends of this crowd, Vertex will produce the MP45 in a manual winding and as well an automatic version, limited to 200 pieces each. So, go ahead and spend your dime on whichever suits your fancy. Oh and, seriously, no gimmicks here — both watches are priced the same regardless of their movement configurations.