# Vintage Military Wristwatches



## lordkensal (Nov 16, 2010)

Hi there,

I'm new to the world of vintage military wristwatches, and am curious about from what era are the most popular vintage military watches to collect. World War 2 or Vietnam etc.

Should I be looking out for Elgin watches, and what brand of watches were worn by German forces during WW2.

Any pointers, much appreciated, as I want to do a blog post about it on my blog.


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## tixntox (Jul 17, 2009)

Firstly, welcome. As far as I know, all military watches are popular. Obviously rarity and condition play a part. Trench watches, pilot's watches and those marked with the broad arrow seem well sought after. Here's my pocket watch for instance:-






























Mike


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## Micky (Apr 2, 2009)

Hi & welcome! I guess the most popular are the wrist watches of a decent wearable size so really the WWW series(1944/45 ish for most of them) onwards. The earlier ATP watches are quite small like other wrist watches of the period so not as desireable/wearable now. Military pocket watches are not as usable/fashionable now so do not command as high of a price as they should and you can buy a GSTP piece from WWII for about Â£35.00. As said already all military pieces are collectable and I collect them all. The swiss supplied watches to British & German forces during WWII so you will often find makers making watches for both sides with the same movements but different dials & cases. An example would be the Vertex WWW who's German equivilent is the Vertex Revue Sport with has the same Cal.59 movement but a shockproofed balance, black dial and different case.


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## kevkojak (May 14, 2009)

I've just sold my Recta WW2 watch this week - pity this thread wasn't up earlier.

Some of the WW2 watches sell for a fortune, but most of them were produced in their tens of thousands as standard infantary kit, so not quite as sought after. Brands manufacturing military watches in the 40's and still about today (Hamilton, Zenith, Longines, a few others - particularly Omega) command high prices when they pop up for sale, particularly none-infantary pieces (officers watches, pilot watches etc) which were produced/supplied in smaller numbers and therefore a little thinner on the ground.

Brands which either sprung up just to supply the armies then disappeared after the war, or companies who went to the wall in the 70's 80's in the heavily Japanese oriented 'Quartz' revolution aren't as sought after for some reason. Personally, I love the history of owning a watch from a company who no longer exist. A lot of collectors prefer the big names of current Swiss watch houses though, and I can see the appeal of that too.

Some companies moved into the wristwatch market from pocket watch making (like Recta for example), re-tooling simply to fill the overwhelming need for cheap, simple military watches.

In terms of rarity; well its hard to say, as hundereds of different watches were being used by different troops from different outfits of different armies! BUT... generally speaking, the German watches are probably the most scarce, because we won! Let me explain- as each German POW was captured, or each surrendered troop de-commissioned, their military kit (from uniforms to weapons) were confiscated and (ahem, usually) destroyed. While there would have been SOME over-stock warehoused somewhere in Germany, most of the surviving pieces are those taken as 'souveniers' from German troops killed on the battlefield or stolen from POW's. Course, thats not entirely accurate, but 90% of the German WW2 watches about now will have a real story behind them.

You want really rare? OK, Hans Wildorf (the Rolex founder) issued an offer to any allied POW's who had had their Rolex watches taken by German guards - "replace it for new, and don't pay a penny until after the war is over". That was a serious boost to the troops, it showed that a civilian of German descent(?) had faith that the allied forces would overcome and win the war, and was supporting them. A few of the troops had Rolex 'precision' watches - standard analogue dial - bought themselves to replace basic issue, while many of the officers had upgraded their own standard issues for Rolex 'chronographs' (what would now be the Daytona). One morning Wilsdorf got a request from a PRIVATE in a POW camp to have smuggled in a Rolex Chronograph. Wilsdorf was hugely impressed that someone on the standard Â£50/month privates salary would choose this watch, and issued letters to the privates family and to soldier himself, letting him know he'd organised the watch to be smuggled into the camp, and under no circumstances should he even think about payment until the war was over and he was back home in gainful employment. Turns out that the split second chronograph timer was actually an essential tool to time guard movements - as this is the watch used to assist in planning the escape attempt brought to glory in the movie 'The Great Escape'!

This watch came up for auction some years back, along with the correspondence between Wilsdorf and the soldiers family as provenance or the watches history and importance. I forget what it reached, but if that piece was to come to auction now, I think we'd be looking 6 figures plus!

Hope some of my ramblings have helped! I'd ask the serious collectors specifically about Smiths and Hamilton as well, these seem to be the military watches that are around in volume.


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