Anyone have a historical watch?

Lépine · Jun 26, 2022

Not much has changed to basic aesthetics. You wouldn't be that wrong saying it is a 1920's design or even a 2020 design.

Lépine · Jun 26, 2022

Thank you Walter for catching stupid math errors. I have corrected the durations for the Lepine.

Good to see some people looking up the Da Vinci of watch makers.

Lépine · Jun 26, 2022

To avoid getting too far into the grey area and keeping with the spirit of the promise to not reveal what legitimate variations of the Sidereals exists (and I didn't get the complete set anyways). You can see some of the types of differences and why I find P.V.H. Weems version particularly interesting. There are more variations, but this is only to show what to look at.

Lépine · Jun 26, 2022

There is also differences over the years in the diameter of the center dial.

Lépine · Jun 26, 2022

And if you have eagle eyes, you should note that even for the same generation, there were Steel and Silver cases.
The left is steel with the stars scratched out (Senator McCarthyism)

This is a little more obvious.

Donko1100 · Jul 8, 2022

Thanks to the OP and everyone else for sharing the clocks and historical data!😀

Lépine · Jul 15, 2022

I am still working on getting the Vice-Admiral James A. G. Troup medals.

I don't have any of the Boer and WW1 era medals:

These are the WW2 era medals I have so far:

Lépine · Jul 15, 2022

While we are on the subject, I have some additional supporting historical items to go with the new medals.

These are kind of nice to provide more historical context.

This is an early signed letter from Captain J.A.G. Troup when he commanded the HMS Cairo.

This is his first edition book when he was in charge of the navigational school.

It is signed and dedicated to Blair in 1943

This is an official 1939 report on the Munich Crisis
.

This is an actual wire photo taken during Prime Minister Chamberlain's visit to Germany.

Photo of Winston Churchill as the First Sea Lord of the British Admiralty when Rear Admiral J.A.G. Troup was meeting
with Churchill.

This is when PM Chamberlain announced to the world that he saved Europe from war with Germany.

I also found a coin minted during the meeting with Hitler, Mussolini, and Chamberlain.

Lépine · Jul 26, 2022

I finally have them. The complete military history of Lt. Col. Harold Burton Lee RAMC.
There are many more pages, I have only selected the most interesting ones.
This took more than a year to get these records due to COVID-19.

Special Thanks to "Reverb", who helped me overcome problems with the British MoD to finally get my application for information completed.

noelekal · Jul 26, 2022

Very good!

Lee was so much more than a name engraved on the back of a watch. You put a face to the name and have honored a life of service.

Lépine · Jul 26, 2022

I hope you all enjoy learning a little about the historical backgrounds of these people and their watches. It's been educational to me.

tapaptpat · Jul 26, 2022

Thanks @Seiji and honourable mention on the assist to @reverbtime /"reverb"
We know that when Seiji has been quiet for a while it will be worth the wait!!!!
📖📖📖📖📖 ::psy::

🍿👍

Omegafanman · Jul 27, 2022

Well done on completing the history for Lt. Col. Harold Burton Lee RAMC. I am sure he would be pleased to be honoured by that detailed research and it is a way of showing respect to everyone who served back then.
A couple of weeks back my wife and I took a young USAF couple out to dinner. One of them mentioned the Doolittle raid and I had good information on it thanks to this thread. It turned out he had met Doolittles actual co-pilot at an Air Force function. I assume that would have been the late Richard E. Cole. He said the chap still had his original pilots jacket which he wore on the mission with him. Great that Colonel Cole was still inspiring people and keeping the memory alive so many years after the event. He passed in 2019 so research like your is even more important now to keep things in the public eye. Richard E. Cole - Wikipedia

noelekal · Jul 27, 2022

Seiji
I am still working on getting the Vice-Admiral James A. G. Troup medals.

I don't have any of the Boer and WW1 era medals:

These are the WW2 era medals I have so far:

Can't contribute any watch material to this thread, but with regards to the Boer War I have a Webley Mark IV .455 revolver that I'd enjoy knowing more about. If it could only talk. Was not an issue revolver, but was a private purchase through Army & Navy C. S. L. ( Cooperative Society Ltd.). An officer purchase perhaps? It has a low serial number for a Webley Mark IV so likely dates to 1899. I was sent a snippet of a photograph of the Webley records showing the original purchaser of this revolver. It's indecipherable to me. Perhaps someone could make it out? Or, perhaps someone knows of additional Webley records or Army & Navy records that might indicate an original purchaser?

Lépine · Jul 27, 2022

There might be a time when this information might be useful.
These are tables for the abbreviations specifically used by the British Military for their personnel records.
There might also be other applications for them.

noelekal · Jul 27, 2022

Seiji
There might be a time when this information might be useful.
These are tables for the abbreviations specifically used by the British Military for their personnel records.
There might also be other applications for them.

That's a quite handy list! There's no way I can keep all that in my pea-brain and I'm forever doing internet searches to decypher abbreviations when reading British military history.

Thanks!

Lépine · Jul 27, 2022

These are the complete military records of Vice-Admiral James Andrew Gardier Troup Royal Navy. Other than biographers, we maybe the first ones to see these in many decades:

Lépine · Jul 28, 2022

I have an interesting story very slightly related to Zofia and Florian Sokolow.
They had one interesting friend, a Bond Girl. She was SOE and MI-5.

Nothing directly related to a watch I own.

Christine_Granville_s_identification_card_She_was_born_Krystyna.jpg

Christine Granville Krystiyana Skarbek.jpg

We have to ask ourselves, what was Florian and Zofia and their families doing during the war?
And this is the watch Zofia inherited from her father, which belonged originally to Nahum Sokolow.