These were Imperial Guard. You can see they are wearing wristwatches, which was unusual for the time period. Other unidentified Russian Army wearing wristwatches.
If my watch was an Imperial Award watch personally given by the Czar himself. It would have had a certificate originally like this. Or this The certificates are practically non-existent for the handful of Heinrich Kahn watches still remaining. Most likely my watch was issued by the Czar to Imperial Guard and not awarded.
More pictures of my Imperial Russian Army Heinrich Kahn. Matching serial number case to the movement made of nickel. Case is 34mm size.
Seiji; you've created a wonderful thread to follow. Very enriching and with wonderful supporting photographs and illustrations. We're grateful to you for your efforts here.
Thank you very much, I tend to be just as long winded in person, I am happy to hear that this thread is interesting/entertaining.
You pontificate all you like. I live the most obscure bits of history and I'll read with interesr. It's these kinds of threads that make the Forum worthwhile.
Really??? That's amazing if true. I saw him win the Indianapolis 500 in 1989. I was 9 years old. We drove to Indianapolis from St. Louis to see the race that day.
An interesting side note: Russian Women Death Battalion. Well trained and very deadly snipers that guarded Petersberg. But, did not really help the Imperial Russian Army due to poor funding and support. Shame all the men into fighting for the Czar. https://www.rbth.com/history/327706-women-death-battalions https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-womens-battalion-of-death#:~:text=In 1917 Kerensky authorised her,by the Bolsheviks in 1920. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Bochkareva "After the abdication of the Tsar in early 1917 due to the February Revolution, she proposed to Mikhail Rodzianko the creation of an all-female combat unit that she claimed would fix the Army's morale problem. She believed that it would shame the men into again supporting the war effort.[4] Once she agreed to lead the unit, her proposal was approved by Army Commander-in-Chief Brusilov, and she approached Minister of War Alexander Kerensky. Although female recruitment went against army regulations, the all-female battalion was granted special dispensation.[6] This was the first women's battalion to be organised in Russia. Bochkareva's 1st Russian Women's Battalion of Death initially attracted around 2,000 women volunteers, but the commander's strict discipline drove all but around 300 out of the unit.[7][3] The rushed training of the battalion was led by twenty-five male instructors from the Volunskii Regiment of the Petrograd Military District.[6] The battalion was blessed at Saint Isaac's Cathedral on June 25, 1917. After a month of training, Bochkareva and her unit became attached to the First Siberian Corps and was sent to the Russian western front to participate in the Kerensky Offensive, where Bochkareva was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.[6] The unit was involved in one major battle—near the town of Smarhon. The women of the unit performed well in combat, but the vast majority of male soldiers, already demoralised, had little inclination to fight.[citation needed] Bochkareva herself was wounded in the battle and sent back to Petrograd to recuperate." --Wikipedia.
This watch was owned by the CEO of Planned Parenthood in Oregon, now retired. It was a graduation present from his parents. I acquired it from the dealer after he traded it in. A 145.022-68, which had it's bezel replaced in a previous service. A fitting tribute to his dedication and work on this dark day in history.
I do not know the specific history of this watch. However, it is a bit of an important watch in terms of Horology. Now everyone that considers themselves a collector should recognize these faces. The first person is Jean-Antoine Lépine, he is the father of the modern mechanical watch movement. The second person is his most famous student, Abraham Breguet. The last person is of course Voltaire the French philosopher and writer. All of these people were involved in creating this pinnacle of a watch. You have to realize that this watch was made almost 100 years before Longines made their first watch. We will go into some details later, but one thing that needs to be understood is that Lépine was also very scientific. His instruments, calculators, and clocks are among the most prized items in many museums. This balance developed with Abraham Breguet was so advanced for it's time, it would be more than 100 years before someone else made anything else like it. It is the first bridge watch, it has the first thermal compensation, and it has maybe the first shock protection. Most incredibly, this is an ultra slim watch too. I am comparing it to Longines first chronograph made 120 years later which is less complicated than this Quarter Repeater. If you are interested, there are a few books written about Lépine. Getting back to the movement. What is absolutely revolutionary about this watch is that it is no longer a Verge-Fusee miniaturized wall clock that fits in your pocket like a tennis ball. Lépine has invented the bridge and eliminated top plates, basically creating the modern watch. This is an instance where there wasn't an evolution of the watch transitioning from Verge-Fusee to bridge watches. One person was responsible for this and within his lifetime, it was copied by all Paris watchmakers within 20 years. His invention is so important, it will be forever known as the "Lépine Calibre" Note: the below timeline and dates are a bit questionable so I would recommend not relying on the dates. The different types of calibers are good information. I will share more about this watch later.
Before Patek Phillipe, before Abraham-Louis Breguet, Jean-Antoine Lépine was the worlds greatest watchmaker. He completely redesigned how watches were built. He was appointed the Horologer to the King Louis XV and XVI, Maria Antoinette, Napoleon Bonaparte and Empress Josephine. Lépine partnered with philosopher Voltaire and Abraham Louis Breguet to build watches at the Ferney Manufacture Royale. This watch is a Lépine caliber IIA modified with a quarter repeater. It was almost exclusively made for Breguet. Several of these are in Breguet Archives. Lépine was Breguet's teacher. Note: HGER Du Roi, A Paris = The Watchmaker to the King, at Paris. This Lépine Repetition was created at Manufacture Royale in Ferney-Voltaire, a city built by philosopher/writer Voltaire in Switzerland. Here watches were built in the early years by Jean-Antoine Lépine, Claude Pierre Raguet-Lépine, Alexandre Raguet-Lépine, and other staff. These are the famous French Breguet style watches. This watch has several inventions of Breguet. Pare-chute anti-shock (worlds first) and bi-metallic thermal compensation. It is also an ultra thin caliber, "calibre à pont". Both Jean-Antoine Lepine and Raguet-Lepine are in many of the worlds most famous Art Museums including the Paris Louvre. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson also owned Lepine. This watch was made between 1778-1828 more than 200 years ago with technology that would forever change how watches would be created. Most likely this watch was built during Raguet-Lépine era. This bullhead mark is a hallmark used by Paris and Montbéliard Switzerland pour l'horlogerie. If this mark was for Paris it will have a P between the horns. Why would one care about these details? It establishes a correct timeline for the watch, which is very difficult to date. This timeline corresponds roughly to before No.50 Breguet. Abraham-Louis Breguet also was using the same Lépine IIA caliber ebauches for his ultra thin repeaters. It is also documented in Breguet archives that Lépine supplied this caliber to Breguet for several of there watches.
George Washington was impressed with Lépine, he asked Thomas Jefferson to commission one to be made for him. This is his watch.
He is listed as one of the most important watchmakers by FHH https://www.hautehorlogerie.org/en/watches-and-culture/encyclopaedia/famous-watchmakers/?tx_fhhbrands_watchmaker[action]=list&cHash=411a811504c936ee5a5e378b0a9cc06d
@Seiji Great idea for a thread and to be honest it has turned into a must read for me and I'm sure other think so too. Celebrating historical watchmaking and associated watches with historical events. Having small collection of Navigators I'm really looking forward to next posts on Marc Mitscher watch. Regarding Marc Mitscher: The Weems pictured here https://omegaforums.net/threads/anyone-have-a-historical-watch.145564/page-6#post-1999150 The watch was sold 2-5-1931 and has a caseback engraving of "SERIAL NO.9-32" I realise this is before the introduction of NSN stock numbering. But someone took the time to engrave the caseback. Do any of the other Weems have similar engravings? What do the records for quartermaster's stock show? Do these records still exist? Hope my humble questions might lead to some clues. Keep up the incredible research journey you are sharing with us. Simply put, Thank you! From all us lurkers p
I am very happy to read that there are a few of you that think highly of the shared information about my pursuit of details into these unique watches. As I uncover more information that seems able to stand up to questions that I am sure you will think about, I will post updates. The Marc A Mitscher watch is also one of my highest interests since this is so highly probable and not likely a mere coincidence, but I must keep an open mind to accept where the facts eventually take us. The markings on the BuAero Weems indicate with absolute certainty that there were at minimum 8 more of these watches ordered since the one owned by Andrew Tolley is number 9. I have not found documentation on the the BuAero watches. Zaf Basha has givent me information on how he was able to look up military orders for some of the Eastern military bases. We have not found the store for the North Island records. It will be a goldmine once we can locate them. There is also one other lead that I have not followed up and haven't made any headway, that is the P.V.H. Weems Sidereal Weems that he personally owned and used. This one below was his personal watch that I would like to know if it was part of a military order. I believe it to be a 300 plus military order that maybe a North Island order. The Smithsonian curator just hasn't responded to me. I will need to attempt that again. This is my Two Star, which is the same dial as P.V.H. Weems. I can not share, but I was shown many different versions of the Two Star by Longines. Note: This has a repainted inner dial, but the watch is the same order proving that the batch was at least 300 watches. This batch is too big for a retail order. I believe this is a military order for the United States. Just an idea of the variety of Sidereals that were produced. There were actually many more variations. The fact that the BuAero 9-31 exists already proves that the US Navy ordered these watches for themselves, which suggest that there is a possibility they may have used other Longines Weems models or orders. The real key is to figure out why there is no large order of reference 3931. Was it quickly superceeded by the A-11 Longines Weems in 1940 so the reference 3930-4036 were not of any interest and only the British took interest with a few upgrades resulting in the RAF 6B/159 Mark VIIA ? Best Regards Seiji
Fascinating stuff! I've heard the name Lepine, but wasn't aware of his importance. This watch looks like a 20s-40s high grade art deco pocket watch. Hard to believe it predates that impression that I have by nearly 200 years!