Tudor Submariner Argentinian C.I. Code Cracked

americano's research into the 'C.I.' marking on Tudor Submariners issued to the Argentinian Armed Forces uncovers a fascinating historical narrative. His investigation, drawing on a blog by Daniel from Argentina, sheds light on the evolution of military diving units and their equipment administration. This post is crucial for collectors seeking to understand the provenance and unique markings of these rare military-issued timepieces.

So I finally found out the origin of Tudor Submariners C.I.

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I spoke to a guy Daniel from Argentina after reading his blog on divers collectables. He took a divers course with the commandos anfibios early 80 s and they where all wearing Citizen divers watches C.I. 

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The history of the Argentina military divers start in 1945 as battalon  Ponteneros de los grandes Ríos, in 1954 they changed into  Batallón de Ingeniero de Grandes Ríos Mecanizados. In  1958 they create Compaía  de Buzos Autónomos( independent divers company ) and where part of the engineers construction and training  center and incorporated into Batalion ingenieeros anfibios  . Their role was to train divers for the joint Argentine forces and responsable for the maintenance and safeguarding of the infrastructure and communications for the river areas ( the rivers Iguazú , Paraná , Bermejo )in the north of Argentina.

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In 1969 they converterted into  Agrupación de Ingenieros Anfibios 601 ( amfibious engineers)  , note I think is important to remember 601. Which probably will explain the numbers later. 

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In 1986 they became the Batallón de Ingenieros Anfibios 121. 

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I also discovered they have 5 companies  1 , 2 , 3, 4 , and 5 .

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1  Company of commandos and services

2. Company of Army divers 

3. Company of assault and amfibious engineers

4 company of school and training 

5 Company of navigation. 

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I spoke with the former chief medical officer of the Argentina Armed forces , he told me that most probable C.I. Stands for ...... Cuerpo Intendenica , who are responsible for buying equipment  maintance and administration. 

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So I can only especulate that C.I. Was inscribed in 1969 when they became members of the 601 battalion by the Cuerpo intendencia (C.i) to administrate their equipment. Sometimes you will have an A.R.A. ( Armada Argentina ) Milsub with one type font and later added C.i type font for administrative purposes.

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So 601 battalion 1 st company would be 611. 2nd company of the 601 battalion would be 612 etc. The first three numbers of C.I. ranging from 611 to 615.

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Which could be logical because the Citizen c.I. Divers watches where the last watches with c.i. Until the mid 80 s as 601 battalion became 121 battalion in 1986.

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Meanwhile my Armed Forces medical officer friend ( ret) friend was so kind to to write to the Argentina Armed forces to ask for more information. 

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Also another Argentinian Collector has a bulletin where Tudor CI watches where auctioned by Armed forces . I will post a copy soon.

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Another awesome fact is that in the 1950 s C.I . bought all the used equipment of Jacques Cousteau. Which they used for training and operations .