The celebrated Tornek-Rayville reference TR-900 is modelled after the Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, the only design that conformed to U.S. military specification MIL-W-22176A, a feat that not a single U.S. manufacturer could achieve in the early 1960s. Since the U.S. Navy could not directly commission Swiss-made Blancpain watches under the 1933 "Buy American Act", Allen V. Tornek, a New York-based diamond dealer, created a small local testing laboratory so that Blancpain watches could be tested and certified on American soil.

According to scholarship, 780 pieces of the refence TR-900 were initially delivered to the U.S. armed forces in 1964, while a second batch of 300 examples subsequently made in 1966. They were strictly government property reserved for military use, and to prevent these watches from falling into improper hands, once they had served their purpose, a large portion of the TR-900 were discarded in the early 1970s and sent to the bottom of the sea in concrete-filled boxes, along with other low-level atomic waste such as uniforms and badges, contributing to the TR-900’s exceeding rarity. It is estimated that only approximately 30 examples are still around in the hands of collectors today.

The inside case back of the present watch is engraved “RAY ANDRADE 1-5-67 VIETNAM”, indicating that the timepiece likely originally belongs to a US Army veteran who saw duty in the Vietnam War in 1967.

The dial of the present specimen is beautifully well-preserved, with the humidity indicator having turned to two attractive shades of light pink. The PM147 luminous material on the indexes has aged evenly to manifest an alluring hue of caramel, matching the luminous hands. The present timepiece is further delivered with a Japan Blancpain Service Warranty, confirming the timepiece has been fully serviced in November 2022.