# WWW's aka The Dirty Dozen



## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

I can't find anything about this on the forum, & I know a lot of you will have heard of them. I can't describe them any better than this:

https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/dirty-dozen-twelve-military-watches

Show us yours. I'll start:

My favourite of the 12, the Longines


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Omega WWW


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## WRENCH (Jun 20, 2016)

In the early seventies Pride and Clarke were selling these for less than £10.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

I couldn't have afforded that in the early 70's


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## scottswatches (Sep 22, 2009)

WRENCH said:


> In the early seventies Pride and Clarke were selling these for less than £10.


 In 1974 the first watch only auction was held in Geneva. A buyer missed out on a Patek Philippe 2499 perpetual calendar chronograph at 12,000 CHF, which was the price of a small house then. He walked around to Patek Philippe's shop and asked if they had any, and they produced two NOS examples - the price was 6,000chf each. He bought both.

Now they are worth £1/2 m each!

Hindsight is a wonderful thing


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

JLC WWW. In my opinion the most disappointing of the WWW's. Although I like the Cathedral hands & the movement is very nice. I just don't like the finish on the case, the Stainless Steel WWW's appear superior. It's one of the smallest of the WWW's too, although the lugs are quite long which compensates to some extent.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

NATO dialed Record. The MOD redialed some of the WWW's. The NATO stores number for the watch appears on the dial instead of the manufacturer's name. In this case W10/445 9830. The number is specific for the Record.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Eterna WWW. This is one of my favourites. Stainless steel fluted case and, when you wind it up, there's a lovely buttery feel to it.


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## gimli (Mar 24, 2016)

Recently had the chance of acquiring a Glycine but the price was good and it sold in an hour from being listed... A little too late.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Lemania WWW with MOD dial. 36mm case in Stainless Steel. Caliber 27A. On the back of these Lemania WWW's the "L" is normally drilled out & a "Q" number is engraved near the top of the case back. The reason for this is a mystery.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

IWC WWW, aka Mark X. This was my first WWW and I believe it has it's original Radium dotted markers. Probably the best movement of any of the Dirty Dozen, the sublime cal. 83. The IWC is the odd one out of the 12, being the only one with a snap on back. All of the others are screw on.


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## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)




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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Timor WWW. The case on this one has a similar finish to the JLC. I don't think this one has seen much active service as the case is almost NOS. Prefix for the Timor is the letter K.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Vertex WWW with MoD dial. The hands are "Paul Wellers" (skinny MoD). These MoD replacements usually have an R 1964 scratched on the inner case back indicating, perhaps, refurbished 1964?


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## Chromejob (Jul 28, 2006)

Or the inspector's mark? I have a 1918 Colt .45 Auto that has the US Army's inspector stamp on it, which corresponds to Colt's records of when that firearm was produced and delivered to the government for issue.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

All of the WWW's are from 1945. It's common to have marks made by watchmakers when servicing watches, although I don't think that the Royal Electrical & Mechanical Engineers (REME) who were responsible for maintaining these watches during their active service usually did such a thing. I don't think any others of mine have marks scratched inside the case back. When I posted a picture of my Vertex on the Military Watch Forum, one of the members pointed out the MoD dial & hands & predicted that there would be "R 1964" marked inside the case back & he was correct.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Cyma WWW. This watch has the largest diameter case of the twelve at 38mm. That & the stainless steel case, along with it being one of the cheaper WWW's make it probably the one to go for.....first


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Buren WWW. This had no lume on the hands when I bought it so I had them relumed by John Senior. There is some brassing to the case, one of the issues of a chrome plated case & 73 years of use.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Going back to the Longines, one of my two has an interesting history. The watch was dug up in a field in Wales by somebody using a metal detector. It must have been lying there for many a year. Judging by the lack of tool marks on the back, I suspect that it has probably spent nearly all of it's life in the Welsh mud. The watch was expertly brought back to life by the legend that is John Senior, sadly now retired.

The story is detailed in this thread http://www.mwrforum.net/forums/showthread.php?74710-Longines-WWW-freshly-dug-!




































The photo below was taken when I took the watch back to Wales. i like to wear this one more than all the others. I think it deserves to see the light of day after all it's years spent in darkness.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Probably the easiest of the WWW's to find. 25,000 were made which was the highest number of the 12 brands, equalled only by the numbers of the Omega. I found it hard to get a good example of the Omega though, due partly to the fact that there are few good original-dialed examples for sale. Also the Omega seems to be faked or have poorly refinished dials more than any of the others so you have to be careful what you buy.





















trident-7 said:


> Record WWW. Probably the easiest of the WWW's to find. 25,000 were made which was the highest number of the 12 brands, equalled only by the numbers of the Omega. I found it hard to get a good example of the Omega though, due partly to the fact that there are few good original-dialed examples for sale. Also the Omega seems to be faked or have poorly refinished dials more than any of the others so you have to be careful what you buy.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Last & by no means least the Grana WWW. This is the rarest of the WWW's, the most difficult to find...& the most expensive. My example is rather nice.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Photo of full set to come when I can get a decent shot of them all together.

In the meantime; It can be a dilemma knowing which one to wear, so my 8 year old son demonstrates a neat solution:


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Full set plus NATO dialed Record and Freshly Dug Longines


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## rubbatiti (May 5, 2018)

My sole remaining 'WWW' the Omega. I had a few others but gradually sold them to fund other stuff. The Omega was the first I bought and remained my favourite so really I didn't want to part with it, same goes for my RAF Omegas and RAF Jaeger Le-Coultre.


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

rubbatiti said:


> My sole remaining 'WWW' the Omega. I had a few others but gradually sold them to fund other stuff. The Omega was the first I bought and remained my favourite so really I didn't want to part with it, same goes for my RAF Omegas and RAF Jaeger Le-Coultre.


 I'm not sure that dial is correct for an Omega WWW. It's not an "original" dial & I also don't think it's a MoD redial. As far as I know the A in Omega should always be flat-topped. The numerals & pheon are also wrong. Do you think it's been redialed or refinished?


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## rubbatiti (May 5, 2018)

trident-7 said:


> I'm not sure that dial is correct for an Omega WWW. It's not an "original" dial & I also don't think it's a MoD redial. As far as I know the A in Omega should always be flat-topped. The numerals & pheon are also wrong. Do you think it's been redialed or refinished?


 I'm not sure TBH, you're probably better qualified than I on such matters! The Omega came from a now retired local watchmaker who had vast amounts of ex MoD watches (I'm sure he had worked at Herstmonceux Castle) so it could well be a marriage as he had masses of boxes of parts and watches.


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## gimli (Mar 24, 2016)

The dial doesn't look genuine. Might just be a redial or something. Everything has been relumed which further enforces this idea. Don't know if hands are the original ones either.

ALso, missing lume plots on hour markers.


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## Hugo Read (Feb 16, 2020)

I've got an IWC one from my Dad. Wearing it now. I love it, it's my go to every day watch. Any thoughts on what year it's from?....


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## trident-7 (Mar 9, 2016)

Hugo Read said:


> I've got an IWC one from my Dad. Wearing it now. I love it, it's my go to every day watch. Any thoughts on what year it's from?....


 That's easy. All of the WWW's are from a single year…1945.

Your IWC has had it's original Radium dial changed at a later date, to a Tritium-lumed one(hence the circled 'T'). It has the watch's NATO stock number on the dial, hence it's called the 'NATO dial'


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## Sander0412 (2 mo ago)

IWC Mark X Nato dial w10 445-5890


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## grubbytech (1 mo ago)

This was my Grandpa's watch. It's totally original and hasn't been relumed. I've had it cleaned and serviced and it runs sweet as a nut.
I'm going to sell it as I need the funds for a new kitchen. I've been told it's worth about £3,5k. Is that right?


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## spinynorman (Apr 2, 2014)

grubbytech said:


> This was my Grandpa's watch. It's totally original and hasn't been relumed. I've had it cleaned and serviced and it runs sweet as a nut.
> I'm going to sell it as I need the funds for a new kitchen. I've been told it's worth about £3,5k. Is that right?


It's forum policy not to give valuation advice on any watch. You should take it to an auctioneer for an opinion, or look at completed listings on auction sites.


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## grubbytech (1 mo ago)

spinynorman said:


> It's forum policy not to give valuation advice on any watch. You should take it to an auctioneer for an opinion, or look at completed listings on auction sites.


Ok thanks.


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